Attn All OEM Hardtop Owners

[SilverShadow]

Guys im having trouble in bringing back the colour on my original bmw hardtop. The vynl is turning greyish in colours looks nasty.

Can you recommend a product that can solve this problem??

Cheers

[SilverShadow]

I think i done something really stupid over the weekend... I used black to black on my hardtop to bring back the colour and i thought it worked, however it has been raining for the past few days and all my windows are all smeared. The rain has cuased all the black to black to come off! Im having a hell of a time cleaning the windows now!

Can any one advise me on what to use next time round??

[orangecurry]

IMHO Autoglym have a very good soft-top clean and protect 2 spraygun kit. I asked BMW what they use on a hardtop and the mech said 'same as what you use on the soft-top'.

It's 20 GBP, but does a good job. If you NEED to clean, do it gently/sparingly otherwise you'll get an uneven result and the soap suds will be forming for days.

When fully dry spray the sealant on; you can do it when wet but you get much more even coverage if dry to start with; do it on a day that is going to stay dry, or ideally in someones garage. Follow the instructions. Use the funny plastic sponge (I thought this was just packageing at first!)

It's very satisfying to see the water bead nearly as well on the vinyl as it does on the paintwork.... m m m m m B e a d i n g

[gazm3]

Strip it, fill it , sand it and paint it
the same colour as your car.

Cheers Gareth.

[orangecurry]

but if you do that, it's value will halve

[SilverShadow]

Yeah Iv actually thought about stripping it! But iv also heard that it depreciates the value. Plus, i like it diferent to the colour of my car. as my car is lach silver and a black hardtop, look different.

I will give the autoglym stuff ago, Do the dealers do a product for bringing back the colour??

[orangecurry]

don't know about the dealers/colour I'm afraid; mine is dark grey rather than black, so I'm wondering if the previous owner of yours has already applied a 'blackener', and you want to clean it all off?

Might be worth popping into the dealers and getting the oldest mechanic to have a look... (I say oldest as he might have been working on BMWs in the 1980s!)

good luck

ps I also agree that with a light-coloured car, the darker top is a good contrast.

[SilverShadow]

So what colours did the hardtops come in?? I know you can get dark blue.

[orangecurry]

I am led to believe just dark grey and dark blue

[SilverShadow]

Is there a serial no. of some sort on the top were you can distinguish what colour the hardtop is???

[orangecurry]

don't know

I've just nipped out and the only number I can see is 7632 which is on a sticky BMW tag underneath the drivers-side flip-up thingy to access the holding-down-pins

good technical wordsmith, me

[HartgeH27]

I am led to believe just dark grey and dark blue

Plus Tan and Black !!!!!!!!!!!

[pacerpete]

A weissmann hardtop in body colour is the only way to go, any of you who seen the diamond black M3 cab at the ace i'm sure would agree !

[orangecurry]

tan!

urrrrrrrrrgh

as I said then Mr Shadow, you'd best pop down to BMW and ask them to be sure.

[SilverShadow]

Yuk tan?? That must look nasty! Any one on the zone got one???