Always a newly mounted hood and rear window (both in plastic and in glass) must be closed for at least 24 hours, but in any case 200 km. This ensures that the hood 'adapts' to the frame and the car, and evenly distributes the stresses across the hood.
Always close your hood when you are not driving, and at night. As a result, the hood retains its shape, it prevents the hood from shrinking, it prevents sharp permanent folding lines and it extends the life of both the hood and the rear window.
Always follow the instructions in the manual supplied with your car. Ensure that the room in which the hood is folded is completely free of objects such as towels, umbrellas, caps, and other utensils. Even apparently innocent objects can damage the convertible top or the rear window by the place they occupy.
Always first remove the front cover before unzipping the rear window! Then, if the convertible top is without tension, the zipper can be used. The only exception: if the manual supplied with your car specifies a different order.
Always ensure that your hood stays clean. See maintenance soft top
Always use the hood cover. If your hood is down, dirt can easily collect in all folds. A hood cover protects your open hood against dirt from the road, and prevents that if you close the hood, you get all the dirt over you. Furthermore, a hood cover holds the soft top with the frame tightly together, so that as little play as possible can occur at the pivot points, and the fabric wears as little as possible due to friction on each other.
Never open your hood when the temperature is below 5 ° Celsius.
Never open your hood when it is wet. First ensure that the hood is dry, for example by first driving the car for a while in the morning, and only after the hood has been dried by the wind, open the hood.
Never store your hood cover and / or tonneaucover wet. Always dry first, to prevent discolouration, mold etc.
Always wash the hood, hood cover and tonneaucover in the shade, never in the direct sun.
Always cleaning the entire hood: partial cleaning could result in local discolouration.
Always wet the car before cleaning the hood. Use a sponge or a soft brush to clean the hood: a cloth could leave fibers.
After cleaning a hood cover or a tonneaucover, mount the cover on the car so that it dries in good shape.
Never use bleach, aggressive, abrasive, etc. to clean the hood.
Never Use hot water to clean your convertible top.
Never open the hood when it is still wet.
We got this handy list via a link to Cabrio Care. And with respect for its completeness and clarity, we are happy to pass it on to our convertible and convertible-loving readers.
www.cabriocare.nl
Very interesting article, with these good advice our customers will be very happy. We will certainly place a link to this. I know from experience that it is very important to properly maintain your carburetor. A new carbo hood can be quite expensive, with these simple and good tips you will certainly keep the hood a lot longer. At http://www.autoglas-concurrent.nl/ we regularly receive questions about this, it is super useful to be able to refer our customers to this so that they can replace the rear window of the carburetor themselves.