Well it took two days all things considered, but the result is awesome. My roof badly needed a good bit of TLC since I bought the car, especially the area at the back that is hidden away when the roof is up. The canvas was completely black, except for that area, and to be honest I thought Renovo Reviver had been used by the garage with the roof up and the 'hidden' bits neglected. I had also noticed a small amount of algae growing where the canvas meets the rubber seal at the back. So without further ado, some piccies!
Car prepped for Renovo Proofer. I've heard stories about it being very difficult to remove from paintwork, so I took no chances! Masked all of the rubber seals, then used newspaper to cover any overrun. It was very windy, so had to tape down the newpaper. One of the pages still ripped off the car, leaving behind small pieces of paper taped to the bodywork!
Proofer applied, looks great! The stuff was somewhat of a pain to apply. Difficult to know exactly how much to use, and very, very easy to splash everywhere. I ended up with 3 streaks down the driver-side door. Fortunately Meguiars Quik Detailer got rid of it no problem - this stuff isn't as bad as it's made out to be. The cleaner was brilliant, made the roof as black as you see here. Only problem is even with multiple buckets of water, some cleaner remained in the roof. Oh well, doesn't seem to have had any serious impact and the proofer beads water as it should.
I wanted to make sure that I cleaned and proofed everywhere so I did the hard to reach areas in a second pass. This is it drying, the sun even came out to help!
This is where the algae was, just on the line where the canvas has worn a bit. Now completely clear! The canvas was also distinctly brown/grey below that line, now it's as black as the rest of the roof. Result!
It took a while to dry and got a little dark. Not wanting to disappoint I took a piccy of the final result but I'm afraid it's not a great angle for showing of the roof (I got a bit carried away with wanting stars).
Ultimately I'm rather pleased with the result, the roof beads nicely and the colour is great. I'm not so keen on the application process, it took far longer than I would have liked (taking plenty of time to dry), and it takes a fair amount of time just to prep. I used about 250-300ml of cleaner, and probably 350-400mm of proofer making it a rather expensive procedure as well as lengthy. I can certainly see the attraction of a folding metal/plastic roof, that you can just wash & wax as usual. You also have the issue of needing many hours of consecutive overcast day, since you can't apply in direct sunlight. If you have a garage this isn't a problem, but for everyone else it does constrain you somewhat.
Finally just to stir up the debate again (joy!). The proofer does bead water, however it's not 100% perfect. You can still rub water into the roof, and excessive amounts of water will still penetrate. This, along with the fact that a lot of people won't even both re-applying rain repellents (they don't last forever, even from the factory) is why there's the waterproof layer in the canvas roof. It's a matter of necessity rather than a master plan. The roof still seems to be able to breathe too - I was a little worried about trapping water between the waterproof layer and the newly-waterproof outer layer, but fortunately my worries were unwarranted.
Car prepped for Renovo Proofer. I've heard stories about it being very difficult to remove from paintwork, so I took no chances! Masked all of the rubber seals, then used newspaper to cover any overrun. It was very windy, so had to tape down the newpaper. One of the pages still ripped off the car, leaving behind small pieces of paper taped to the bodywork!
Proofer applied, looks great! The stuff was somewhat of a pain to apply. Difficult to know exactly how much to use, and very, very easy to splash everywhere. I ended up with 3 streaks down the driver-side door. Fortunately Meguiars Quik Detailer got rid of it no problem - this stuff isn't as bad as it's made out to be. The cleaner was brilliant, made the roof as black as you see here. Only problem is even with multiple buckets of water, some cleaner remained in the roof. Oh well, doesn't seem to have had any serious impact and the proofer beads water as it should.
I wanted to make sure that I cleaned and proofed everywhere so I did the hard to reach areas in a second pass. This is it drying, the sun even came out to help!
This is where the algae was, just on the line where the canvas has worn a bit. Now completely clear! The canvas was also distinctly brown/grey below that line, now it's as black as the rest of the roof. Result!
It took a while to dry and got a little dark. Not wanting to disappoint I took a piccy of the final result but I'm afraid it's not a great angle for showing of the roof (I got a bit carried away with wanting stars).
Ultimately I'm rather pleased with the result, the roof beads nicely and the colour is great. I'm not so keen on the application process, it took far longer than I would have liked (taking plenty of time to dry), and it takes a fair amount of time just to prep. I used about 250-300ml of cleaner, and probably 350-400mm of proofer making it a rather expensive procedure as well as lengthy. I can certainly see the attraction of a folding metal/plastic roof, that you can just wash & wax as usual. You also have the issue of needing many hours of consecutive overcast day, since you can't apply in direct sunlight. If you have a garage this isn't a problem, but for everyone else it does constrain you somewhat.
Finally just to stir up the debate again (joy!). The proofer does bead water, however it's not 100% perfect. You can still rub water into the roof, and excessive amounts of water will still penetrate. This, along with the fact that a lot of people won't even both re-applying rain repellents (they don't last forever, even from the factory) is why there's the waterproof layer in the canvas roof. It's a matter of necessity rather than a master plan. The roof still seems to be able to breathe too - I was a little worried about trapping water between the waterproof layer and the newly-waterproof outer layer, but fortunately my worries were unwarranted.
