Dear all, Ive just tried using renovo cleaner and proofer and it didnt really make any difference. I have a 01 2.5 and the top has patches of white which I hoped would come off but havent. Its clean enough now but I had really hoped these patches would be removed. I only did a 20 minutes drying tome before i washed it off. Should I leave it on for longer or do it twice. Or even do 2 proofer coats???
Or does this white patchy areas mean I need a new top!!!
Chris
The white marks are wear marks caused by the hood material rubbing against itself.
This is only stopped by using the hood cover to stop the hood moving up and down when driving with the hood down.
If the white patches are as the result of lichen or moss type growth then you will struggle to get rid of them. My old roof was a multitude of colours and I’ve recently given it the Renovo treatment (among others) to try to clean ti up. And not just tried it once but probably 3-4 or more times now, leaving it on for ages as it says on the pack, and then giving it a really good hard scrub with a stiff bristle brush. And whilst the patches have faded they have not gone away. I’m now planning to use the next stage of Renovo treatment which contains a black dye so hoping the faded patches will at least turn a bit blacker. Moral of the story really is to regularly clean and reproof cloth hoods.
Thanks for that, that sounds exsactly what it is. A kind of white mould in big patches like hand sizes.
What is this `next stage of renovo which you mention??
Chris
I’m not sure there is one in blue. There is a version which has black dye in it to recolour the hood, but I’ve only ever seen it in black. Maybe a fleabay search might turn something up…maybe from another manufacturer?
Its this one.
http://www.vertar.com/renovo/renovo-hood-reviver/
Cheaper on ebay, about £17.50.
Renovo Fabric Hood Reviver in Black, Blue, Brown, Green or Burgundy apparently…
I have a bottle of black at home all ready to go, would have done it by now but got sent green by mistake! Will report on its effect…
Ok I’m going to get ridiculed but I have an experience to tell and it worked for me. The vinyl roof on the 2.5 needed cleaning badly and should be replaced, so on a nice weekend went off to halfrauds and bought the turtle wax roof kit. Cleaning spray worked ok, maybe could have had the same results using a mild detergent, but generally good. Roof cleaned now for the conditioner, utter pants! exactly the same as Chris found.
I’m now in seethe mode, I read on here sometime ago about shoe shine (by someone who doesn’t live too far away). Right that’s it, went into the cupboard and got both the kiwi black shoe polish and shoe shine.
Mock me if you dare mortals, but it looks and works fantastic.
but I think we were all talking about cloth roofs, which bring a whole new load of problems which a nice sensible vinyl roof doesn’t as for the most part things don’t grow in it so easilly… 
Point taken, but my confession has cleansed, and I don’t just mean the roof, albeit vinyl.
From experience of past fabric car rooves, the worst thing you can do is leave them folded for any length of time - especially if they’re damp. They need to "breathe and air through to dry out completely if not all sorts of things will grow in the folds and start the rotting process, so whenever I return from a run in my car - the roof goes up no matter whether it’s wet or dry. Vinyl rooves will stand a bit more abuse - and yes I’ve used black boot polish on them myself in the past and it works a treat - but they still need to be put up now and then as even they will rot given time.
Thats incredible, did you you just use the old fashiobed round tin of black waxy stuff or the newer squeezy tubes that just instantly make your shoes shine?
Actually my roof is black Vinyl too. I bought some renovo restoreer off amazon but had to send it back as it said not for vinyl roofs on the front!
Renovo do make products for both vinyl and mohair roofs, widely available from many online car detailing companies as well as MX5 Parts.
I’ve got some marks on my roof, very similar to what you described. I think mine are some sort of mould too, as they weren’t there when the hardtop went on, but were there when it came off! And that was despite making fully sure that the roof was dry (a good couple of dry sunny days) last autumn, and covering it in protector, before the hard top went on.
I can make the marks almost disappear if I use AutoGlym Vinyl and Rubber stuff, but clearly this is only masking them so I think it might be worth trying some other kind of “mould” cleaner first. I’m still on the original hood and would like to get at least this year out of it before I consider a replacement next spring, but if I can’t keep it looking decent for now; that decision may be sooner rather than later!
OK folks, I have today used black Renovo Hood reviver on my old cloth roof, which was very stained and looked awful and still had a lot of very visible marks after using the renovo cleaner. Well, its looks way better now, you can still see where it had marks if you are looking for them but to the casual observer its now back to black, and a huge improvement. Another coat I suppose could make it even better. Buts is messy stuff ( or was for me!) as it goes on like thin paint as it contains a black dye, and any splashes then stain the paint work, or at least they do to my very unshiney white paint! they come off with a bit of polish though no problem. So it gets the thumbs up from me… My only worry is its going to rain tonight, and whilst it should now be dry as did it first thing if it runs at all I am going to end up with a roadster looking like a zebra…
Martin, I used renovo on my last car which had a mohair hood, as long as it is dry then you will have no problems with it running, I used the renovo cleaner first and then the reviver with superb results and no runs, although I do agree it can be a little messy…but it is all in the preparation. 
yeah, it was fine, got rained on about 6 hours after I put it on and no problems. In fact for what was a very crappy looking hood it now looks really good, I am impressed by the finish. There is a third stage treatment you can do, the Ultaproofer, to further protect, doubt I will bother with that though as I have acheived my aim of not having a hood that’s got more growing on it than in my garden.!
Only draw back was I have had to Tcut out a few splashes which means my very carfully prepared dull white paint work thats taken months of no cleaning to acheive now has shiney patches, so need to give it all a bit of a polish… (maybe!)
I Renovoed the hood on our 5 firstly using the ‘mohair’ cleaner as we too had what looked like mildew spots on it, not overly noticeable, but took away the blackness of what I thought it should look like. I ended up giving it two coats of the cleaner and even though it is a lot better it is not perfect. I finished up using the Revovo proofer and found that to be a really great product, water pools and runs off immediately, its really effective. As with all similar products wait for the right none rainy day (if you have time!!) and follow the instructions to the letter.
Hi Steve.
Ditto roof whte spot, I tried two applications of Autoglym cleaner-restorer, on second go I covered the roof with a thin plastic sheet as per instructions and left it overnight (Its supposed to draw out the stains) but it didn’t!! I have ordered some Autoglym black stain from local factor on the basis if you cant remove stains, hide them. Fingers crossed. My 02 mx5 had the same spots also. Maybe the member who says leaving roof down when wet has hit the nail on the head, after all you wouldn’t put a tent away wet. what is also a pain with cloth roofs is ther like magnets, anything in the air sticks to it, also my neighbours cat likes to sit on it overnight! I’am constantly vacuuming it. I think the vinyl roofs are much easier to maintain.
Regards Steve.
I have a long hair cat that insists on sleeping on my 5s mohair roof, wet or dry, along with all the twigs and leaves stuck to him! Little darling.