Mister Moo

I fold my top for short periods of time. I don't mean "folded, and left in the trunk for a short month or two"; more like "clean, folded, bagged and in the backseat (or trunk) for the day." When practical I'll keep my top expanded and hanging in the garage rather than folding it unnecessarily.

The car I bought in February came with a 2011 Cars Inc refurbed lid and it looks great. In fact, it looks like this today:


1-year x 30-fold/days, approx.

I'm a longtime textile guy and, now, a regular top-folder. I plan to use both car and top as intended without worrying about folds, cracks, stretchie-thingies and ridges. If the thing does to the dogs in a few years I can repair it and, in fact, I'd like to - the materials challenge here fascinates me.

I'll revisit this thread with updated photos over time and we can see what folding really does to a nice targa top, inside and out. Pictures can do funny things but there is nothing this picture isn't revealing - it looks like it looks. If you have photos that document top damage over a known time and with known service methods, please tag them along.

Ed Hughes

It's no different than bending credit car in half repeatedly. It will take its toll. One could use the same logic about parking in the sun with a freshly covered leather dash. On such a nice car, increasing in value, why not take a little care?

There are those that will say: "That's how Porsche designed it". I'm pretty sure Porsche wasn't too worried what would happen to a Targa top, years down the road.

Mine wouldn't fit in front of the roll bar, but if a car doesn't have one of those, it should fit nicely-unfolded-behind the seats. Then again, I never really felt the need to have the top on, except when I was on the track.

Mister Moo

I value your experience, take your point and acknowledge conventional wisdom. Nonetheless, I'm a 35-year textile guy who loves to test conventional wisdom and respecfully disagrees with the creditcard analog. I have some practical experience in engineered fabric performance and design for difficult environments (Florida close to, but not quite, the worst) including long-term sub-sea, sub-terranian, outer space, polar- and equatorial long stays, maritime, combat, etc (what else is there? ). It all tells me these tops could be used often* and remain cosmetically A- to B+ for at least a decade.

In fact, the typical textured vinyl top fabric is quite tough, flexible and forgiving stuff over long periods of time. UV- and chafe deterioration aside, I can't fault the prized "german" vinyl (if it is vinyl - I don't know for sure, yet) for anything except the price. I haven't verified it is superior to alternatives; I will try to analyse its chemistry in the course of the time trial. But I suspect there are applicable top-strata synthetics which outperform vinyl in everything except, perhaps, cost. Over a useful life of +10-years a difference of $20/yard won't matter.

Elongation, recovery and durability of the right synthetic fabric in a typical targa top shouldn't be an issue over a long period of challenging use. Don't include "abuse" as regular use. I'd call abuse storing a folded top hot and/or wet for more than a few days, leaving it to extended UV exposure or allowing a top to be wet/dirty for long periods of time. Like a worst case scenario would be a folded top left outdoors, uncovered or covered with a tarp, in Dade county for months or years. Second worst case would be the same situation, unfolded.



The community likes picking and choosing. I find we agree with Porsche right up until we don't. For example, I opt for oil change intervals of less that 15,000 miles.

For me, Ed, this examination has less to do with original design intentions and more to do with examining material performance and storage/handling procedures towards reducing cost, improving cosmetics and extending the useful life of the top. I'm wishing I had one that was totally shot so I could investigate the substrates. I so distrust substrates...


*I can't qualify "often" so I'll limit the definition to my loosely recorded use.

TheMystro

I also think people baby their targa tops a little excessively. It is the same material or even better than the convertible tops used in millions of cars. A classic Corvette top comes to mind. These tops are folded thousands of time with out issue. Just keep the top clean and use a good preservative like Vinylex by Lexol. I would never store the top wet or dirty. I also never fold the top when it is cold out. Other than that there's nothing to worry about. I will leave mine folded up in the trunk for a few days at a time. I am in the Northeast and the weather varies greatly from season to season. I also wouldn't leave the house without the top for fear of a quick rain shower.
http://www.lexol.com/Category_vinylex.aspx
My top is original with the exception the headliner was replaced. The original seals and everything still looks new.

Mister Moo

A diversion - fun to have your own rag shop sometimes. It gets hot in North Carolina: here is a one-off cover. Top is Sunbrella, bottom is lightweight black Cordura and center strata is aluminized mylar. I'm thinking it'll keep out UV, heat and prying eyes with or without the targa top in place. Weird lines and angles on a P-car - hard to get it laying flat.

Ed Hughes

I had a cover just like that for my Targa. It got more use than the top. It was nice to park-cover and not come back to really hot seat belts. It was made out of Sunbrella too, as I recall.

GothingNC

I like that cover, white would be perfect.

I am looking for something like that since I will be losing my covered parking at the office.

TheMystro

Where can I get one of those???? Great idea.

kuba_kuba

I'd be interested too. Great idea.

Mister Moo

I heard that. Someone local asked me to make him such a cover and I tried it out late this morning (thinking, as I was, about targa top protection). It makes it very easy on the seats and steering wheel; and the dashboard wasn't radiating those Dubai kind of pizza-oven heat mirage lines.

Mister Moo

Come by the house and get a color swatchbook, Goth. White, however, would not be recommended; darker is better for longevity.

Mister Moo

Thanks for the interest!



I've been fooling around with a few patterns for car-, backseat- and folded/unfolded targa-top covers for the last few weeks. Let me gather up some final designs and test them a bit. If they work well then I guess I should put up a proper ad. Not ready yet - don't want to jump the gun with a design that isn't tested. I like my folded targa top cover a lot and use it most of the time which provoked my interest in top longevity depending on this-and-that variable (and this thread).

TheMystro

Has anyone tried this??

Ed Hughes

No, I bought the same type of cover from them that Mr Moo has concocted, a few years back.

Mister Moo

Any shortcomings on the design you recall that could stand improvement, Ed?