Can I ask folk with newer vans than ours what colour their poptop sunbrella material is looking from the inside. Is it near white or mid grey?

The reason I ask is that for years now our poptop has needed a good scrub or better still, change for a new one. So far, there is no damage to the fabric but it is, and has been, a dingy grey colour inside and out.

Also it is covered in black mould spots especially around the bottom of the fabric where, when closed, it folds over the aluminium framework around the hole in the roof.

After much research into the best methods to clean the fabric and get rid of the mould spots I have almost exhausted everything Sunbrella recommend.

We've tried white vinegar which is supposed to kill the mould. Perhaps it has.

We have then tried diluted lemon juice, diluted white spirit, diluted bleach to no avail. The diluted white spirit does a great job of cleaning it, hence my question "is the inside supposed to be near white?" because, with a lot of hard work I could get it back to that colour. However, it doesn't remove the black spots.

Therefore I resorted to trying undiluted strong bleach on a small area of the fabric and after leaving it for about 20 minutes or so it does appear to fade the spots. I then rinse off the bleach as thoroughly as possible.

I don't particularly want to go down the road of replacing the poptop as I no longer feel competent or patient enough to do the work and if I take the Sunbrella off the van to clean it then I might as well change it.

So can you let me know the colour of your Sunbrella and if you have any recommendations for removing the mould spots?

Many thanks

Randa

Quote:- Mold vs Mould. ... Mold is the American spelling for all senses of the word meaning, among other things, (1) a frame for shaping something, (2) to shape in a mold, and (3) any of various fungi that commonly grow on organic matter and are often associated with decay. Mould is the British spelling.

However, if you live in Mold then perhaps it would be correct to say Mold?

Randa

You omitted the obligatory "y'all" from the end of your sentence. Shame on you.

So, we've had a ponder and have decided to try and remove the poptop canvas

I've read the lovely Mrs Pop540's blog on the subject blog-e7298-The-year-restoration-and-other-Jobs-throughout-Ownership.html (as well as many other handy tips) and have located our BULGE.

bulge.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) Pop540's bulge. Our's is right next to the side vent flap so wish us luck.

ps. where are you Amanda B (Pop540)? We've not heard from you for ages.

I'd still love to hear what colour your poptop is however to see if ours should be near white or drab grey after we have tried washing it.

Randa

(Matt's Poptops have a nice shade of Lavender as one of their colours for new poptops but Mrs R wants to try and get ours clean)

Thanks for the info. We'll look into that. We've managed to get the canvas off so it should be easier to deal with.

I'm now convinced that the main culprit is the aluminium rail around the hole. Today it was soaking wet with condensation. We live in a forested river valley and the van doesn't see much sun at this time of year. The worst of the mould is where the lowest fold of the canvas sites over this rail.

Perhaps a loose cover over the rail for the future?

Randa

or "The Battle of the Bulge" before "A Room With A View".

Leading on from the posts above, we decided to try and remove the poptop with as little fuss as possible. Using Amanda B (Pop540) blog as a starting point blog-e7298-The-year-restoration-and-other-Jobs-throughout-Ownership.html and reading several other threads on other folks' experiences, (Agger found the bulge method easy, The Grafos found it difficult).

This is the degree of mould we are up against so we had to do something drastic as trying to clean it off in situ was proving almost impossible. Worse case scenario, a new canvas at around £200 delivered.

sIMG_6566.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

First job was to remove the plastic holding down brackets (4 qty) and plastic trim to hide the joins in the aluminium extrusion around the roof hole (2 qty). Easy. Then it was pulling out the herzim strip to expose the aluminium trim screws. A very small Phillips screw driver for these. I would guess that these fixings are radomly drilled in situ as there was still swarf evident around the screw holes and they were drilled at easy to get at places around the trim. (glad I bought that magnetic tray from Lidl last week ). So far still smiling.

sIMG_6569.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) sIMG_6570.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

The Battle of the Bulge
On our Troll the bulge was easy to see and was almost exactly lined up with the door side roof vent (we don't have a vent on the other side). The bulge is about 75mm (3" long) and by opening the vent and grabbing the fabric, the fabric pulls down from the bulge quite easily.

sIMG_6582.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) The Bulge

However, unlike Agger or the Grafos, trying to pull the rest of the material out of the aluminium rail was proving impossible and I gave up after freeing about 50 mm worth. Trying to get it back into the slot took a great deal of effort.

Thinking about this logically, whether in a factory or a field, it would be impossible to thread a ring of material into a slot without there being a join somewhere. It needs to have an exposed end and I noticed that the stitching of the top of the vent I was working on was slightly different to the stiching on the other two vents. Also, the material housing the piping/bead was stitched and the piping/bead under the stitching had cut ends.

I therefore cut the stitching around the bead/piping to expose the cut ends.

sIMG_6579.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) Photo taken once poptop removed (obviously ) Still smiling, just.

Right, now we were in business. By leaving one of the cut ends out of the bulge, we proceeded to shuffle the material towards the back of the van. Definitely a two person job, one pushing, one pulling. It only moved about 25mm (1"). So, inch by inch, we started moving the material around the roof wih one cut end hanging out of the slot. It was then that I noticed that about 250mm (10") towards the rear of the roof, there was another cut end to the piping/bead although the material at this point was not broken.

Now there must be a good reason for this. sIMG_6580.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Had we noticed this before we had started moving the material, I could have pulled this length of rubber out although it didn't make much difference leaving it in the slot.
We believe that when refitting the roof canvas, we should leave this length of rubber out so as to give us a loose flap of material to grip as we thread the roof canvas back through, sliding this rubber back in upon completion before stitching up the cut we made.

After much tugging/pushing, inch by inch we moved the material around the slot and gradually it became easier as more of the roof came out and 19 years of grot loosened itself from in the slot. Now we were dragging the material out in 150mm (6") runs until the zipped vents hit the roof corners. Then it was a lot of jiggling about to get them around the corner. Obviously the aluminium profile, when bent, caused the slot to tighten fractionally on the corners plus the extra thickness of material surrounding the zips.

sIMG_6572.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

After about 90 minutes, start to finish, we did it.

A Room With A View

sIMG_6575.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) sIMG_6578.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

This is one half of the aluminium trim around the roof hole and the profile showing how the lower canvas fits into it.

sIMG_6583.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) sIMG_6584.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Now all we have to do is figure out how best to clean it. First stop, the washing machine with a spoonful of "Vanish" powder.

To be continued................................................

Randa

ps. the roof is now held down by tying a strap from the roof handle to the spare wheel in the front of the van and another tying the rear to a heavy tool box at the back





.

We reproofed on the outside only about 4 years ago. Since then we have used the Eriba in colder climates like Scotland, Norway and Ireland and although the mould was present before then it has got worse.

Randa