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Hi to all.I am new to the forum and have had my Z4 for a couple of years. One question bothers me. What do I use to clean the folding rag hood? I can use many detergents but I'm worried about making the material less waterproof. Any ideas?

Easy... Auto Glym do a roof kit with a cleaner, sponge and protector

Cabriolet Fabric Hood - Maintenance Kit
"Autoglym have developed an easy to use two part maintenance kit to clean and preserve fabric car hoods.

Fabric Hood Cleaner – Cleans, freshens and revives appearance by removing soiling, stains and atmospheric contamination from natural and synthetic fabrics.

Fabric Hood Protector – Reproofs, protects and preserves the surface from the effects of water absorption and surface soiling. "

A lot of others on here use this as well.

Meguiars sell a cleaner and protector - despite using them for everything else I have tried this, mostly because AG works!

Also, when you do it worth cleaning the black rubber strip on the bodywork. I just use a cloth dampened with the usual cleaner.

I used the Autoglym kit earlier this year with good results.

When washing the car I use a microfibre towel with warm water - no shampoo or anything - on the fabric roof. Certainly works for me, but then my Z4's holed up in the garage whenever it's not being driven so the roof stays pretty clean anyway.

PawnSacrifice wrote:Easy... Auto Glym do a roof kit with a cleaner, sponge and protector

Cabriolet Fabric Hood - Maintenance Kit
"Autoglym have developed an easy to use two part maintenance kit to clean and preserve fabric car hoods.

Fabric Hood Cleaner – Cleans, freshens and revives appearance by removing soiling, stains and atmospheric contamination from natural and synthetic fabrics.

Fabric Hood Protector – Reproofs, protects and preserves the surface from the effects of water absorption and surface soiling. "

A lot of others on here use this as well.

Meguiars sell a cleaner and protector - despite using them for everything else I have tried this, mostly because AG works!

Also, when you do it worth cleaning the black rubber strip on the bodywork. I just use a cloth dampened with the usual cleaner.

x2
The AG does a great job. And make sure you have access to a hosepipe as it takes ages to rinse the cleaner off with a watering can

i4n wrote:[x2
The AG does a great job. And make sure you have access to a hosepipe as it takes ages to rinse the cleaner off with a watering can

x3
I used it a few weeks ago for the first time.

You dont have to spray on too much of the shampoo stuff! I put too much on and spent 10 mins (no joke) washing the soap out with a hose.

It still looks great now

AG kit as said above is fine used it twice.

Make sure you mask of some of the bodywork around the bottom of the hood and the glass as it will leave small marks but do not worry if you get any they are easily removed with AG SRP including the glass.

Make sure as said to rinse well after using the shampoo then apply the protection.

The one prob i had both times with mine and i am not alone with this prob the spray nozzles seem to clog up halfway through so the second time i applied the protection i used a small piece of sponge.

The only thing i will say against the AG i find it stops beading well after two months.

Trying Renovo next http://www.renovointernational.com/ just waiting for a break in the weather .

When it comes to regular washing of the car i just give the top a good rinse with the hose never use any sort of shampoo.

Renovo easy to apply and left a nice even finish and leaves no stains or marks on bodywork or glass like the AG Kit

I've used the BMW kit with excellent results. As I have mentioned in another 'thread' I use reasonably hand hot water to apply and rinse which has the effect of removing the creases caused by lowering and raising - bit like steaming the creases out of a suit. Have also heard of good results with RAGGTOP http://www.autogeek.net/rafacl.html which I will try once the BMW supplies are exhausted.

AND Puggsley what's the meaning of having a Zed for 2 years and only just joining this forum.....

x4 with Autoglym. Make sure you cover the bodywork/glass though. It took a lot of elbow work to get the overspray off the rear window......

Puggsley wrote:Hi to all.I am new to the forum and have had my Z4 for a couple of years. One question bothers me. What do I use to clean the folding rag hood? I can use many detergents but I'm worried about making the material less waterproof. Any ideas?

You'll get alsorts of product recommendations from those mentioned to Raggtop (which I use) and BMW's own product.

One thing to note is the 'canvas' is not waterproof and not designed to be.

(I refer only to the automatic roof as the manual roof is an uninsulated construction):

The roof is actually 3 layers. The outer layer is itself 3 layers of poly-acryoniltrite fibres, polyethylene fibres and butyl rubber. Underneath that is a 15mm layer of insulating polyester (sound proof and warmth) and the final inner layer of polyurethane foam and polyethersulfone, for inside finish and insulation. Pretty complex for a folding bit of canvas

My interpretation of this is that water should actually permeate the outer layer and rely on the butyl to be the waterproof layer, so your not really waterproofing it but removing dirt from the outer fibres and protecting them. For this reason I'd be very careful of any detergent and what I used, no scrubbing and use a proper product.

Thanks for the info

GAZA62 wrote:AG kit as said above is fine used it twice.

Make sure you mask of some of the bodywork around the bottom of the hood and the glass as it will leave small marks but do not worry if you get any they are easily removed with AG SRP including the glass.

Make sure as said to rinse well after using the shampoo then apply the protection.

The one prob i had both times with mine and i am not alone with this prob the spray nozzles seem to clog up halfway through so the second time i applied the protection i used a small piece of sponge.

The only thing i will say against the AG i find it stops beading well after two months.

Trying Renovo next http://www.renovointernational.com/tires just waiting for a break in the weather .

When it comes to regular washing of the car i just give the top a good rinse with the hose never use any sort of shampoo.

RAGGTOP! Wash with fairly warm water this helps remove the creases (a bit like steaming a jacket) then RAGTOP.

Roman Clogs wrote:Has anyone used both the Autoglym product and the proper BMW one and can say which is best? I read a comment somewhere that the BMW one keeps the rain beading off for a year.

I hav'nt used any yet but I did get a BMW cleaning kit with the car and that has the cleaning and restorer stuff in it.Its obviously been used but I dont know when it was last treated, but I bought the car last November and every time it rains it just beads on the roof still.
Looks as though it will last a good while.

I used the AutoGlym (AG) Hood Maintenance kit - Cleaner and Protector, recently, and I just wanted to report that I got really good results. Note, I am a fussy owner, and researched this for a while, using The Forum and online. I wanted to clean and protect the roof as a course of maintaining the roof. I agree that the Cleaner foams up alot (when you agitate with the hard sponge provided), and so you do have to let the hose run on it for a while, to wash the suds out. When using the second step, the Protector, it was ever so slightly windy outside, so I noticed I had to hold the spray bottle a little lower and closer to the hood, and pointing it into the wind, so that the breeze 'carried' the spray onto the hood.
All in all, first time was straightforward to use. For the next time I use this, will bear in mind GAZA62's comment about the nozzles clogging up.