Roof material preservative

[Randy in ca]

An acquaintance recently took possession of an all original '33 Fordor, just out of long term storage and in excellent condition. The roof material is still in very good condition, fairly pliable, etc.. Any recommendations on using any kind of treatment/preservative?

[Cool Hand Lurker]

I know they used to sell 'top dressing' but I haven't seen it for a long time. Most tops will last a long time now just because they don't sit outside much anymore. Also, back in the old days people could afford top dressing easier than recovering the top.
Sorry to not be much help in finding what you are looking for, but personally I wouldn't worry about it if it is in good shape.

[petehoovie]

[TJ]

Be careful of putting anything on that top. It may have an adverse reaction to the old top material.

[rotorwrench]

The old OEM roof coverings for closed cars were basically either a rubberized cloth material or a pyroxylin (nitrocellulose) coated cloth but with so many years passed since 1933, it may have already been recoverd one or more times. The more modern materials are generally a vinyl coated material more similar to a modern vinyl top except with reduced thickness. Due to this, it would be hard to tell you what to use to rejuvenate it a bit. There are vinyl dressings available that you can try. Griots & others have vinyl top dressings. If it's original, I don't know what would be the best thing. Rubber & nitrocellulose starts deteriorating from day one and then eventually crumbles to dust.

The old black top dressings are no longer available but they were a mess to deal with anyway. There are modern vinyl paints to re-coat or change color of vinyl based trim but those could only be used on cleaned & prepped vinyl. Black Shinola shoe wax might work for all I know. If you try a vinyl top dressing, just do a small less conspicuous spot first and see how it works. Model 40 closed cars should have a cobra grain material that is only available in black but only the model 40 EFV8 book or persons who have more experience with them than I do could tell you for sure.

Some folks say that the 303 Aerospace Protectant works good on vinyl but I've never tried the stuff. Folks that use it say to protect your painted and glass surfaces well. I don't know what it does to glass or paint but I'll take their word for it.

[Randy in ca]

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OK, thanks for all the info. Next time I see the car I'll try to get some good close up photos of the material to maybe help determine if it is indeed the original stuff. Thanks again.

[1942deluxe]

Bought 3 cans of Ford "WATER REPELLENT SOLUTION" (Clear) M 1205 B from the parts the Early Ford V8 foundation had for sale at Hershey. I'd be afraid to try the contents on anything but I think that was what was used back in the day. There was a 8A part number written on two of the cans which would be a 1949ish number.