Re: No benefit. Waste of your time.

Nice, giant blobs of beaded water that when a door is opened, thus disturbing them, they roll, gathering more water along the way, finally cascading into the passenger compartment and onto the door armrest, and your head if you're getting out. And don't have a window open when the door is being shut!

extra work with no real benefit unless you really enjoy watching water bead up on your top.

Jeff Benson:

2016 Boxster, See it here: www.greatvalleyhouse.com/Boxster

---

First car: 1952 Hudson Hornet

First roadster: 1962 Austin Healy 3000 III

Still have: Computer free 1974 MGB

Previous Porsches since 1982: 924, 944, 944S, and four Boxsters; 97, 03, 08 & 2012

.. that once it really starts raining, the top is saturated (yes it beads nicely in kight rain or even a short downpour). This makes me question how much it really helps with durability long term. The rubber membrane makes it waterproof to the passenger compartment no matter what... so long as it is intact

Grant

Grant

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

egs: Zaino, Lexol, etc, etc. All these other surfaces/materials are anything from highly repellent to somewhat resistant to destructive elements. Seems to me something as potentially absorbant as a textile exposed to the sun, oxygen, acid rain, bird poop, soot, petrochemicals, grime, etc ought to have some sort of protection. Considering the last item, dirt (silica) that can more easily find its way into the fabric can lead to accelerated wear for a given number of top operations. RaggTopp seems to add lubricity to the material. (Wiping one's hand across the top reveals this effect.) Scotch Guard instead?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2013 12:18PM by Laz. (view changes)

Jeff, if you are on your 4th Boxster, then maybe you haven't owned one long enough for the fabric top to start looking old. I had my first Boxster for 10 years and treated the top with the Porsche recommended stuff (I still haven't gone with the crowd to ragtop) every other summer. When I traded it in the salesman commented on the condition of the top. It looked close to new. Admittedly, that tells me nothing about how it would have looked had I done nothing other than washing it when I washed the car, but I'd like to see how the fabric looks on a 10 year old Boxster that has never been treated other than washing.

[www.amazon.com]
The Amazon text claims it gives UV protection, but other web pages I looked at don't mention that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2013 05:36PM by Laz. (view changes)

I will let Grant chime in here as he now owns my 2000 Boxster S.... Grant, what do you think of the condition of the blue car?

I used 303 fabric guard for most of my ownership and the top looked great; say mostly twice a year. To be fair, I had a hard top on it for 4-5 months per year, but the car was not garaged, but in a semi-covered car port for most of its life. I chose 303 since it is popular with boaters, protects from UV, if you know anything about marine environments... well if it is good for boaters, then it is good for me. By the way, I believe the real damage to tops comes from UV and not water and therefore, if I am right on this one, a UV protectant will help prolong the life and look of a top.

For the interior leather, I used a combination of Lexol and Zaino's leather stuff. I had "viturally" little cracking although it was tough to get the dirt out of the creases. Dirt lines will appear to some as cracks. The side bolster showed wear from entry/exit, but even then I've seen seats that are a mess at 50K miles and not as bad as mine. I was going to get some dye and try to patch it up a bit. To get that dirt out, I would use car exterior soap and water and rub with a hard sponge. Rub while pulling the leather open along the crease.

For the interior vinyl/plastic, I used a combination of products that were silicone based and had UV protector in it. I tried to get matte finish stuff. Remember the "silicone eats plastic" scare a while back????

For the exterior I used Zaino in the summer, a heavy coat of Mother's carnauba wax in the fall, and would buff it out with a chemical abrasive once or twice a year using an orbital (burned out two Pep Boys models until I purchased a real tool: Porter Cable Orbiter).

My point here is not to push any product, but to show that I used car care products pretty religiously, and some of them were considered evil for a while such as silicone products, buffers, and chemical abrasives. The only thing I will say is evil are clay bars. I scratched my hood with one. Yes, you can rationalize and say I was stupid, but I have no idea how a chunk of something got under there and it takes only one swipe.... Later that year I had the hood replaced from a storm window falling off the building in a storm so problem was solved.

Here is the exterior at ... I think around 175K miles. The paint doors to back is all original. Tell me that years of machine buffing and chemical abrasives will wear away and burn my finish? Go ahead.....

[plus.google.com]

Found some interior and not so clear top pics at 197K miles:

[plus.google.com]

Peace
Bruce in Philly.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2013 03:54PM by Bruce In Philly (2000 S Boxster, now '09 C2S). (view changes)

I always belived that 303 does protect from UV, but I just went to their website and it does not say UV..... I have been using this product for 10 years believing it did.

Autogeek implies that it does:
[www.autogeek.net]
West Marine says that it does...
[www.westmarine.com]

I purchased my 303 mostly from WestMarine where I learned about from my friend who owned a SeaRay on the Chesapeake.

Odd. I may have been making a 10 year mistake while popping off that it did. Hmmm....

I just sent them an email.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

I did juts ragg topp it since i must sit outside now. But after i did so, in a a long drenching couple of days, it was soaked through, so i wonder how much good it did.

What i can comment on is that the color - dark blue - has not faded nearly as much as i would expect, and the condition of the threads seems very good.

rant

Right now i'm chasing spliced (hifi) wires on said car and not feeling nearly as charitable to it as i did an hour ago :-)
Fortunately i found an owners manual on the internet, with a back panel wiring diagram. Progress. Now if they only made an owners manual for the rats nest of wires that disappear into the dash.......

/rant

Grant

Grant

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