has anyone ever cleaned the fabric headliner and fabric shelf behind the seats on a 328? mine has some brownish stains, similar to coffee stains in various places. i didn't want to do the stupid thing without conferring with the experts first....thanks.
I would approach this carefully. My top had some stains and I could not get them out, in fact I made them worse. It took a great deal of effort and expense to get enough material to recover the top, of course I have the black/white stripe material and it's unobtanium. If you have the brown stripe material it is readily available.
I would call Algar and see if they have any material and also if they recommend a cleaning procedure. I used some carpet cleaner and like I said it made the stains larger, just kind of spread them out really.
That fabric they put round the rear window/parcel shelf etc on the 308/328 GTSs was the stupidest idea ever! When I bought my car I had those areas (and the inside of the roof panel) re-trimmed in crema leather to match the rest of the car. Because its light coloured leather you can now see just how much dirt & crap gets in there just from normal use - which is why cars with original fabric can look so decidely grubby inside Being leather its also now dead easy to keep clean. It also looks a million times better (even when its not 100% clean!) & it didn't cost a fortune to do. It also makes the inside of the car might lighter & brighter when the roof is on (won't apply with Black leather of course!). Suggest you shop around & see if you can find someone to do your car for you. As it happens I took a picture of the retrimmed bits a while ago - its a bit dark but you'll get the idea - see attached Image Unavailable, Please Login
You'd be amazed at the amount of grime that the cloth rear deck / window surround will collect. Here's the OEM cloth bits, removed. Note the white stripes at the very edges of the big "L" pieces, at the center of the picture. That's the original color, which was hidden behind that center clip! And the second picture is of the end result, completely redone in a creme colored leather. Cheers - DM Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I just removed the cloth and painted the pieces wrinkle black. Nobody notices. If you are not going to go original, why bother with covering it with something else (though, I must say, the creme leather looks nice).
well... thanks folks nice pix of leather. but has anyone actually tried to clean these surfaces? algar and continental both were unsure of procedures. surely someone in the flock has cleaned these areas successfully.
Bill I think that's the point - nobody really has, its been asked about a number of times. I would think your best chance of really cleaning the stuff might even be to remove it from the car but whatever you do I think its always going to look not quite clean. Leather is the way to go IMO. I.
My 308's fabric is worn through in many places so cleaning is a waste for me. How hard would it be to get these pieces out of the car to paint or recover? Is there a sequence/procedure I can read about? thanks. P.S. - I'm missing the two bracket plates that go on the ceiling to receive the roof's rear latches. Does anybody have a picture of theirs out of the car I can see? I may need to make up something close if I can't find originals. Again, thanks.
I cleaned mine years ago using OxiClean, with excellent results. Used OxiClean "powder" and mixed according to the instructions with very warm water in a spray bottle. Let it set for roughly 30 minutes, followed by a wipe down using a damp white terry cloth rag continually soaking in a small bucket of warm water, ring excess, wipe, repeat until all surfaces were wiped down. Followed by a complete wipe down using several dry white terry cloth towels. You will be amazed at the amount of dirt that the towels will pick up. Repeat steps above until clean to your satisfaction. It is always best to "test" clean a small area in an inconspicuous place first to make sure there wont be any problems with the fabric in your 308 due to age differences / exposures / etc. I'd also recommend not rubbing too hard with the rags / towels -- in other words, several light applications are better than one heavy soaking. The OxiClean came with rather comprehensive instructions for recommended use in the container. You might want to give it a try.
There is a carpet clean called Folex available at, of all places, Home Depot. It's amazing what this stuff will remove -- auto detailing sites praise this product and it doesn't have any chemical smell like most carpet cleaners. Definitely test in a small spot to make sure it's safe for your fabric, but it would be surprising if this stuff didn't work.
It looks and smells nice and can be easily cleaned. If you are not going to go original, why bother with covering it with something else (though, I must say, the creme leather looks nice).[/QUOTE]
Hi everyone, New 328 owner here and I'm loving both the car and this community of experts. The site has already had a dramatic impact on my enjoyment - I found that great thread on fixing the VW whistle from the exhaust and employed the advice to great results. As for this thread, i notice that it hasn't been updated in a few years. Is there any new advice on how to clean those nasty spots on the fabric shelf? i have a few and wondering if Oxyclean remains the state of the art solution. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Since it's a wool fabric, you can use a hand-wash wool detergent and plenty of cold water from the shower head with a brush - on the removed panels. Worked on my Mondial headiner; amazing what came out... Image Unavailable, Please Login
