An Audi A5 cabriolet with a red hood -- patchy in the creases and soiled along the back seam -- in for a full hood clean and two-year protective coating.
This Audi A5 cabriolet came in with a red hood -- a bit patchy and dirty in the creases, with some soiling along the back where the fabric catches road grime. Not the worst we have seen by a long way, but due a proper clean and protection before it got worse.
The job covered a full machine clean, a two-year nano protection coat, the drains flushed, and the rubbers treated with Krytox. The rubber seals that run all around a convertible roof dry out over time -- the plasticisers that keep them soft and flexible gradually leach out, and the rubbers shrink and flatten. When that happens they stop creating a proper seal, which is how roofs start to leak. Krytox replenishes those plasticisers and plumps the rubbers back up, restoring the seal all the way around. It is a straightforward treatment but well worth doing while the roof is already off for cleaning.
Cleaning a convertible roof generates a lot of mess across the rest of the car, so we include an exterior detail on every roof job as standard. By the time the roof is done the car needs it, and it means everything leaves looking right.
Red roofs have one characteristic worth knowing about: red pigments absorb more UV light than darker colours, which makes them more susceptible to fading over time. Modern roof fabrics use UV-stable pigments and hold up well, but a good protective coating slows that process considerably. The coating also deepens the colour and brings the fabric back to life in a way that cleaning alone does not quite achieve. For a coloured roof we recommend our two-year nano coating -- it is the same product we use on black and grey hoods, but on a coloured roof the UV protection earns its keep even more.
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