Elbow Grease
'Elbow Grease' is an idiom for hard work. Huge amounts of elbow grease are required for the cleaning of fabric soft top roofs, in addition to repeated repetition and long periods of waiting time.
The process for cleaning is to lather, scrub, rinse and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, until the roof looks clean and when you rinse, the suds run white. The scrubbing part is what really gets the roof clean, and this is really hard work.
Next you have to wait for the roof to dry, and then you can apply 1-2 coats of weatherproofing, letting it dry between coats.
If you are doing this by hand, at home, using a kit such as the one by AutoGlym, this could take you two days work on a filthy roof and require a number of kits.
So how do we do it within a day?
The simple answer is that we have several tools that help us speed up the process. Mechanical brushes are a hundred times faster than brushing by hand. Even so, it's still hard work, and so very messy!
We have industrial pressure washers. This doesn't mean they work at a higher pressure, quite the opposite, they work at low pressures but are connected to pipes that can push out huge volumes of water, making rinsing the car far quicker.
We also use air tools to help us dry the hood, so there is less waiting time.
People often ask us what products we use, assuming we have found some secret formula for soap or detergent that removes the greening like magic, and believe us, we have certainly looked for one. But thus far, elbow grease seems to be the key to success.
Written by Danny Argent. Last updated 30/07/2022 16:16