Scottish Elises

I decided it was time to give the roof some protection having being caught out in the rain a few weeks ago.

Most people seem to recommend the autoglym fabric roof kit which is £20.

Personally, i cant see that the cleaner bottle does anything that a good sponge wash wash/wax wouldnt do.

The protector is a different story. Therefore I tried to think about options and decided to buy some Nikwax heavy duty tent water repellent spray. It costs around £7 for a half litre bottle. I put some on the roof, left it for a day and then turned the hose pipe on it - it works great, provides a good level of water repelling protection.

Not sure how long it will last, but the 500ml bottle will provide at least 10 coatings, so it will cover me for quite a while and a damn site cheaper than the autoglym stuff!

Anyway, thats my twopenneth worth...

I'm also too tight to buy the proper stuff so I've been using Fabsil tent waterproofer. Works great as demonstrated below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RMxddIbiq4

Renovo seems to get a good reputation if you need a renovator then reproof.
But I didn't, so as above bought a tin of Fabsil (paint on is much more economical than sprays) used it a couple of times and still loads left.

Renovo is excellent. Eliseparts used to sell it, but I got my last kit from eBay. IMO it's worth getting the 3 stage kit with cleaner, dye and the re-proofer, but the re-proofer works well on it's own.

The shed went into MMC with a roof that looked awful. Faded and sunbleached.

It came out looking like new - I'd find out what they used if I were you.

Mines not faded and is pretty clean! I just wanted a cheap way to reproof it and the nikwax stuff sempt a pretty cheap way of doing it!

Andy

Nikwax waterproofer worked for me too.

Just used the stuff for jackets diluted slightly with water and put it in a spray bottle. Made a huge difference in winter and stopped all the condensation on the inside of the roof.

+1 for Fabsil. I used most of a litre in three coats and it lasted 3 years. A year of which was everyday use. Need to do it again now, but can't recommend highly enough.

Fabsil here too, still on my first 5 litre tub after 5 years, the Autoglym stuff is good for getting rid of the fade though, so I use that every couple of years.

I used Nikwax spray on my Elise roof a few years back also... (tent & gear waterproofer). Did the job nicely. Just removed the hood, gave it a clean so it was damp, then sprayed liberally. After 5mins it's just a case of mopping up any 'puddles' and then I left it to dry completely before refitting.

Used it on the hood of my Saab recently too, although that was a bit messy as I ended up with a fair amount of overspray I had to try & remove from the paintwork. Next time I'd use a brush if doing it with the hood fixed to a car.