Audi TT Mk1 Roadster - How to clean and restore the soft top roof

[@stevefoley-v5v]

I head jet washing them is bad, makes sense with the power of the jet

[@abeldv6143]

Thanks for your TT channel, I've just buyed a 2001 unit and needs a lot of maintenance to restore it. Your content is priceless!

[@andycharger]

Thanks so much for your very kind comment. I am glad it helps and do let me know how your restoration goes!

[@Phil-1969]

Just a thought why not paint the soft top , I did mine it gets rid of the shiny spots on the material, I used renovo off of eBay , half a bottle will do the roof twice

[@Phil-1969]

Evening Andy , I’ve tried that Autoglym and thought not much of it , like I said washing powder mixed with warm water in a spray bottle and use a soft bristle brush, then rinse off , then sell it with any tent ⛺️ protection spray , the beading won’t last a couple of downpours

[@CarChris82]

Great job mate look much better, well worth doing 👍

[@notaddicted]

Great video, I’ve just done the same to my roof and the AutoGlym stuff worked wonders. Had previously tried Renovo which still left all the green in. Had to do it with AutoGlym twice, the second time I left it overnight under a plastic sheet and then scrubbed it the next day. Looks almost new now.

[@andycharger]

That’s a great result! Well done! 👍

[@Chris-td9be]

Nice one, Andy. I cleaned and protected the soft top on mine last year - definitely looks less faded now and seems to repel the water better. Also, thanks for showing where the CCM lives.

[@andycharger]

My pleasure. Restoration of the hood is a very satisfying job. Knowing the location of the CCM is useful, particularly to give it a quick visual inspection for any potential water intrusion.

[@90Duck]

Thanks for posting Andy. It looks like the glass is holding well on your replacement top. I notice on your roadster and others I've seen photos of that there is what appears to be a black plastic trim piece around the rim of the top stowage compartment, which shows clearly on yours in the video. It also appears that this black plastic trim piece continues forward at the top of the doors. My 2001 roadster, US spec, does not have this trim piece, just the rounded-over edge of the painted body panel that the roof comes up to meet when closed. I've never seen (or at least noticed) this trim piece on any roadsters I've seen in person, but I don't see many where I live. Since you see a lot of them, do you know if this is a standard part for some markets, and why some roadsters have this trim piece and others don't? I'm just kind of curious!

[@andycharger]

@90Duck. Yes the glass is holding because I swapped the entire hood out! It was a bit of a mission but I did it and you can see the results on one of my videos on the channel on replacing the hood. My wife smashed the glass in the repaired hood!. The black edge around the bodywork on the roadster is a protective strip for roadsters that have or intend to have the "hard top" applied to them. I think it was an option at the factory although I have heard it only appears on roadsters that had a hard top included from the factory. I might dispute this as there is no way that many hard top roadsters are around that would have had a hard top from factory. I Think it was more likely a protective (maybe cheap or free) factory option?

[@90Duck]

@@andycharger I've watched your roof travails with great interest since my glass was leaking at the bottom as well. I installed a new replacement top, fabric and glass only, over the winter and I am happy with the results, that being that the glass is fully affixed and my roof no longer leaks! That makes sense as an attachment for the hardtop, but yeah, so few of those tops out there it wouldn't seem to account for as many as there seems to be. I spent a LOT of time messing about with my roof area over the winter and got to know it all really well, so it just kind of surprised me to see that trim on other cars. Thanks for the reply and for the channel!

[@TT3.2]

Nice 😉👍🏻

[@russelldownesdownes5618]

Great job Andy them spray bottles are awful not just Auto Glym other makes do the same, I found pour what you need in a container and apply using a new paint brush saves any over spray to body work too.

[@andycharger]

Thanks for that insight Russell. The bottles are quite poor and yes, I would just pour out what I want to use next time!