Re-Tinting and sealing my Ox-Blood soft top

[Triang]

I must admit one of the main things that drew me to my Z3 was the Ox-Blood seats, trim and roof against the silver paintwork. Now the soft top looks a bit faded so time to tint.

I loved the slightly unusual "retro" look it gave the car,

If you visit the excellent "Mercedes-Benz World" at Brooklands (am I allowed to mention the M-B name on here?) you will see a number of M-B classics including a '50s 300SL roadster, 300SL Gullwing and 180SL roadster - all of them in Silver with Ox-Blood seats and hood...no hood on the Gullwing obviously.

It's a combination that looks so good IMHO.

Anyway anybody tinted on here and can give some tips?

If not I'll plough on and do a mini "how to" guide in the process.

 

[andyglym]

I must admit one of the main things that drew me to my Z3 was the Ox-Blood seats, trim and roof against the silver paintwork.

I loved the slightly unusual "retro" look it gave the car,

If you visit the excellent "Mercedes-Benz World" at Brooklands (am I allowed to mention the M-B name on here?) you will see a number of M-B classics including a '50s 300SL roadster, 300SL Gullwing and 180SL roadster - all of them with Ox-Blood seats and hood...no hood on the Gullwing obviously.

It's a combination that looks so good IMHO.

Anyway anybody tinted on here and can give some tips?

If not I'll plough on and do a mini "how to" guide in the process.

Not done it but be interesting to see how it goes.

 

[Shelly]

You will have to show us the before and after photos
Will be interesting to see
Good luck

 

[Triang]

Will do Shelly
The process is a bit more complicated by the fact that previous owner said he'd tinted it (but not sealed) and gave me a half empty bottle of the (good quality) tint he'd used (Renovo)

The rsult is patchy and still faded in areas and since he only used 250ml of the tint I guess he neglelected to give it the required multiple coats (or didn't clean it thoroughly with the required non-detergent cleaner first...Fairy Liquid will not do apparently!

 

[Shelly]

Hopefully you can get a good hood cleaner first
That might help
We're got a bit of mildew coming on our roof
We cleaned it yesterday......
It's come off a bit
I've googled what's the best thing to use on soft tops is and it said to use tent cleaner ........
Don't know how true that is .........
But we might try it

 

[GazHyde]

Anyway anybody tinted on here and can give some tips?

This is quite an old post, but should cover the basics of what you need to do...

https://zroadster.org/threads/a-guide-to-dyeing-your-soft-top.555/

 

[Triang]

Thank you Gaz!

Duh - i never thought of searching for "dyeing" your soft top rather than "tinting" or "renovating" before I started this thread!