Re: Well it depens on what you call soap too..., and dirt

I used Rag Top for the first time. I used the Porsche top protectant on both of my Boxsters since 1999 and it worked great. It looks like Rag Top works very well too, but with a major issue. I guess because it is water soluble, it washes off with soap. The Porsche protectant does not wash off with soap. The down side with the Porsche product is the difficulty of application. Well, not really difficult, just incredibly time consuming to tape off ever last little speck of potentially exposed material (plastic, paint, window).

I applied Rag Top a week or so ago. Yesterday I washed my car. My washing process first involves a thorough rinse of the entire car using only water and my hand. During this stage water beaded up very nicely on the top. Then I washed the passenger side of the car, including the top with soap. It was immediately clear that the Rag Top protectant was washed away, so I did not use soap on the driver's side. The difference looks like a freak'n commercial! It appears that Rag Top provides a good water repellent protection as long as it is not washed off by soap.

For those of you who use Rag Top, do you not wash your top with soap? Maybe you only rinse the top. Or, do you wash it with soap and re-apply Rag Top after each wash?

It seems a lot of folks here use Rag Top, but I wonder, has anyone used it and decided to back to the time consuming application of the Porsche top protectant?

My Boxsters' tops have rarely been washed with soap, and at that it's been mostly just before applying Ragg Top. The only other occasions have been when the car has been driven in some possibly sooty environment, like extended periods in heavy traffic with Diesel-engined trucks around. I avoid, for the sake of the paint, glass, and top, parking under trees known to shpritz sap droplets. I figure that most dirt, dust, etc. doesn't require a soap/detergent to be removed from a top's fabric, but rather only water coming from a moderate blast of a hose.

First, i usually just use water and a soft brush to remove dirt from the top

Second, when i use "soap" - its a good car wash soap whcih does not dissolve wax. Generally i use meguiar's

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

I use Meguiar's too (used to only use Sonax), but it still removed the Rag Top. I'll simply re-apply some Rag Top as it's pretty easy to do.

RaggTopp does make a cleaner which they recommend you use before applying the protectant.

Other than that, I've never used soap on the top. Since my car is garaged and if it hasn't been driving in heavy rain or dirty roads, I just vacuum the top using the soft brush tool. Aside from dust, what other dirt is going to get on the top if it's down (or even up, I suppose) while driving in dry weather? Then I wash the rest of the car. For that, I usually just use warm water and sponges. No soap. I find bugs and general road dirt/dust comes off easily if you wax the car every few months with a good quality car wax.

If it has been driving in heavy rain (it's the road spray from other cars that really gets everything dirty.), then I wash the top with warm water, gently scrub it with a soft brush and rinse with warm water, then dry with a sponge. After 60+K miles, my 2006 Boxster top still looked like new with a yearly application of RaggTopp.

As Grant said, it depends on the type of soap you use. Some people use dish detergent to wash their cars. Would they use car wash detergent to wash their dishes? Different soaps for different materials and applications to do the job right.

I did the whole rag top routine with their cleaner and protectant. I have never used dish detergent on any car I have owned. Mequiars removed the rag top finish (which I re-applied this morning). My car is protected by day, and it is rarely caught in rain (which is what my daily drive is for, + the grandkids . Besides protecting the top from dirt, which can accumulate while driving no matter what you do, my thinking has been that a top protectant is also for sun damage. I applied the Porsche protect every-other year from 1999 - 2009 when I traded it in for my current 2008. The top was like new. Even the dealer was surprised at how good it looked. My guess, but it is only that, is that 10 years of sun w/o a top protectant will dull the material. It will still work, it just won't look great. Like un-kept paint, it can dull over time w/o proper care. I plan to keep using rag top, and just go through a different cleaning process for the top - vacuum, then rinse with a brush. Only time will tell how the top weathers over time, but folks give it 2 thumbs up, so my guess is that my top should be fine.

I did use some kind of top treatment stuff once. Too much trouble -- can't get it on paint, or the plastic window, and even afterwards there was no real gain.

While the water beading on the canvas looks impressive it is just for show. The canvas is there to protect the underlying rubber sheet which is the real protection against water or anything else getting through the top into the cabin or the car.

The canvas top actually wants to breathe so mold/mildew do not develop between the canvas and rubber sheet.

So I have elected to let the canvas remain top protectant free now for years.

My top care steps are: I never scrub the top.

Whenever I wash the car I generally just rinse the top and then follow with the non-spot rinse. (This when I wash the car at a DIY car wash.) I avoid getting the nozzle tip too close to the top too.

In spite of my attempts to avoid parking under trees and other places where birds can roost occasionally bird mess ends up on the car and the top anyhow and in these cases I will use the soap setting of the DIY car wash wand control and spray the canvas to remove the mess. Then later I follow with the rinse and the no-spot rinse.

I haven't treated the top with anything in years -- since before I came back to CA in 2004 -- and the top still looks pretty good -- despite the fact the car sits outside rain or shine, summer or winter, and is still intact and water tight.

I've applied Ragg Topp only every couple years or so. I used their cleaner once, but thought it kind of pointless after having washed the top with Woolite and a thorough rinse and dry. I contend the merit of Ragg Topp is it could help to stave off canvas deterioration due to harmful substances in the air or rain water, and bird droppings that might be unnoticed or uncleaned for extended periods of time-- say even a day. Tree sap is probably actually good for it, especially pine, which might help prevent the mold/mildew you speak of. (Not that I want the sap to be there, as it can possibly be transferred to the back window.) You're correct concerning scrubbing it, but see my response to KDMAC as to how I apply it. Oh, I don't think it degrades the top's breath ability as it coats the canvas fibers but isn't actually plugging the voids-- as long as the material isn't flooded with multiple coats of it. If it's coating the rubber membrane, that may be a good thing as perhaps Ragg Topp is less susceptible to bio-growth than the rubber itself.

Quote
Laz
I've applied Ragg Topp only every couple years or so. I used their cleaner once, but thought it kind of pointless after having washed the top with Woolite and a thorough rinse and dry. I contend the merit of Ragg Topp is it could help to stave off canvas deterioration due to harmful substances in the air or rain water, and bird droppings that might be unnoticed or uncleaned for extended periods of time-- say even a day. Tree sap is probably actually good for it, especially pine, which might help prevent the mold/mildew you speak of. (Not that I want the sap to be there, as it can possibly be transferred to the back window.) You're correct concerning scrubbing it, but see my response to KDMAC as to how I apply it. Oh, I don't think it degrades the top's breath ability as it coats the canvas fibers but isn't actually plugging the voids-- as long as the material isn't flooded with multiple coats of it. If it's coating the rubber membrane, that may be a good thing as perhaps Ragg Topp is less susceptible to bio-growth than the rubber itself.

I avoid parking under trees and plants that shed sap. This also avoids bird mess.

However, the occasional spot of bird mess appears.

I have to admit I'm not as quick to clean the top as I once was. With the drought on the place I live has banned the use of water to wash cars. It is inconvenient to carry a bucket of water out to the car to use to flush the mess away. Also, this just makes a mess of the rest of the car. I'm so busy I can't seem to find the time to run the car the mile or so to the DIY car wash. (I managed to wash the Boxster Saturday AM but didn't have the time to wash the 996 which is filthy with dust (it sits under a carport).)

But the canvas top seems to not be bothered. Oh, I have to mention that if the bird mess is particularly large or (yuck) wet (I'm thinking seagull) I'll pull into a carwash and give the car at least a through rinsing to remove the stuff. The concern is not for the canvas per se but the rubber underneath. The word I get is if any bird mess manages to get through the canvas it can attack the rubber underneath.

I do not have any top treatment cans handy to check the labels for any cautions about what this stuff should not come in contact with but I would be very leery of getting any of these on the rubber. The rubber needs no help in keeping water out of the cabin. As long as the rubber is not torn, cracked, punctured or rotted it will keep the water out just fine. If the top suffers from any of these issues, all the Ragg Topp in the world isn't going to help. And it could bring about deterioration of the rubber by chemically attacking it.

I think Carlos has it right. Having water beading up on the canvas just somehow gives the impression the top is water tight when of course the water proofing is courtesy of rubber sheet hidden from view under the canvas cover.

But of course it is your car. If you want to use Ragg Topp or any other top "treatment" that's your call.

Used only once in 5 years , I think it only makes you sleep better at night

but was wondering if either product changes the look of the material?
My top is blue, 7 years old and looks new...a GQ. Thanks.

Regarding Ragg Topp, both my Boxsters have/had blue tops and there's been absolutely no change to hue, value, or chroma near as I can tell. I regularly see my '01 and both the top and plastic window still look terrific. To avoid having to clean up the rather sticky overspray, I spray it into a small pan or glass jar and gently daub it in using a soft natural bristle brush, particularly the type available from Griot's or Williams-Sonoma.* As I go along I smooth it in using the flat of my bare hand.**

* The nice thing about these brushes is the ferrules are silicone and don't have the potential to scrape, say, wheels/wheel bolt holes.
** It's a lot easier cleaning your hand than wiping off overspray on the body, windows, etc.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2014 03:04PM by Laz. (view changes)

but my car was generally parked in a garage, under a Noah cover, etc overnight or in hibernation. Most of the trip stops the top was down (isn't that why we buy these things).

RaggTop held up perfectly for me as I washed at least once every two weeks with whatever brand of car wash was at a discount or handy.

And get the bird stuff off as soon as you see it. Acid can eat the car's finish. My wife used to park in an area where geese frequented. She was strafed so frequently I'd inspect the car when she got home. I just kept a bucket of pre-mixed car wash and a rag so I could get at it before it got through the finish...though some did.