Interesting finding on your part. Kudos. I imagine some felt/fabric tape attached to the pad area, and along the metal portion touching the top, may decrease or possibly eliminate the cause. Understanding that the root cause is rubbing of the rubber pad and metal piece, a piece of felt/fabric may work as a tighter fitting seal and stop the rubbing.

 

I was doing some googleing today, and I'm starting to think Gunter is correct... normal wear. I don't know why the hell I didn't try the most basic search in the world first. Shiny marks on cabriolet top

Horrific shiny on an R8:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...tible-top.html

Another R8 thread:
http://www.r8talk.com/forums/13-deta...ble-top-2.html

Awful 997 shiny marks:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-question.html

Another 997 thread:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ustration.html

S2000 thread:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...rub-marks.html

Vette forum:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/car-...top-marks.html

Bimmer forum:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ts-on-soft-top

A lot of them mention the same thing we've been talking about here: pressure points from the foam pads rubbing against the fabric while the top is down.

Interestingly, Moe (a board sponsor) said he'd try using this product to clean it up in one of those 997 threads:
http://www.renovointernational.com/products/reviver.php
Maybe I'll PM Moe to see if it worked.

 

From the posts it looks like '13 model cab owners are having this issue. Is this because they have more time/miles on them or is it an issue that is specific to the '13 model year. Is the headliner foam on '13s?

BMW does make a cloth convertible top cleaner and protectant that I have used and will use on the 911.

 

I don't know, it seems that the appearance and severity varies quite a bit, there's got to be some luck-of-the-draw involved. Maybe some clam-shells apply fractionally more pressure/rubbing than others. It certainly seems that the more time you drive top-down, the more opportunity there is for this to develop.

I'm going to try the felt tape to see if it mitigates further abrasions.

I'm also going to try autoglym and renovo. Some folks on the bimmer and mini forums reported good results with the autoglym. I'm not holding out much hope, but it seems less invasive than re-dying with renovo. I'll report back when I get the products. =)

 

Wow, I was travelling for a few days and missed a lot. I just did my top with Raggtop tonight and will see what it looks like in the light tomorrow. The dealer thinks the felt will for sure help the wear marks. I would think any dealer could talk to PCNA or POV here in Cincinnati to get details.

I did drive mine to work this morning. A newer Mustang convertible decided to give me a run but I caught the perfect power range in 3rd gear right up to 7300 RPM and then the timely shift to 4th... Mustang was about 4-5 car lengths behind me. The wear marks in the roof didn't even come to mind.

God I love these cars!

Rob

 

+1, incredible cars, shiny spots or no.

 

I owned my 997 for four+ years (black top) and it never had any marks like this even though I would leave the car parked with the top down for days at a time.[/QUOTE]

I had a 997 that had marks and just saw another 997 at the dealer here and noticed how bad the top looked. I thought " I hope mine will never took this bad"

My 991 has slight marks but not as bad as the shots you took.

 

Rob, could you take some pics of the felt the dealer installed? Did they replace the foam pad, or just lay tape on the pressure points? My felt tape arrive yesterday, but would like to see how the professionals did it first. ;-)

 

I used the AutoGlym cleaner and protectant last night. It definitely improved things, but didn't completely remove the marks. Not really a big surprise, though I am happy that they seem a tad more muted, and less visible from certain angles (in fact, they're only visible from one angle now). Overall, I thought the AutoGlym did a great job cleaning the top, I might switch from Raggtopp for normal maintenance.





Driver's Side:








Passenger's Side:








At some point down the road I'll try the Renovo kit, still waiting for it to arrive.

 

Old..very old post, but did you ever try to use Renovo? How did it turn out?

 

I honestly don't remember. For sure I bought it, but I have no memory of using it... though I definitely remember that nothing I tried worked. I ended up selling the car a few months later for unrelated reliability reasons.