How to clean the plastic windows on your soft top

By: Jay Hart

I decided to write this article when I keep bumping into people who tell me that they have never heard of a way to successfully clean the window film on their soft top.

The procedure is relatively simple, so I won't really go into too much detail on the hands on portion of the project. I will include helpful bits of information I have found picked up over the years.

The first thing you should do is go to your local parts store and ask for Plastic Polish. What you are really looking for is both Plastic Polish and Plastic Cleaner. 3-M makes a good product, as well as the Napa branded stuff.

The next thing you'll need is quite a few old t-shirts or something similar. The number required depends entirely on how bad your windows really are.

The procedure to follow should be very close to what is printed on the bottles. You will start by vigorously shaking the cleaner. The cleaner contains minute abrasives, which need to be suspended in the fluid at the correct ratio. You don't want to be pouring straight cleaner with no abrasive on your rag.

You'll want to cut the t-shirt into smaller pieces so that you can make it last a little bit. Plan on folding the tee 2X (so that you have about 4 layers of fabric).

The next step is to get your windows on a clean, flat, hard surface. If the surface isn't clean, you'll just end up with more scratches. I do mine right on my hardwood floor after I have cleaned the floor well. Your rear window will zip out completely from the top.

You'll want to place a small amount of cleaner on the rag, until you get the hang of it, then you can increase as desired. Be careful not to get any cleaner or polish on the fabric portion of your top. It is difficult to get off fabric.

Now you can "wax on, wax off" in tight circles, applying moderate pressure. As you begin to work the abrasive into the plastic, you will feel the rag begin to have increasing friction. The friction you feel is the surface contaminants being lifted onto your rag. Have a look. The rag should be blackening where the cleaner is on the rag.

From time to time, use a new area of your rag to minimize the spread of contaminants that you already captured.

Continue this process all over the window. After you have gone over the window once, you can repeat the step... again, depending on how bad your windows are. After you have cleaned the window, clean all the remaining cleaner off the window with a fresh clean rag before polishing.

Now you will want to polish the window with the Plastic Polish. Repeat the same process with the polish, except you'll change the surface of the rag more frequently. You aren't going to be looking for anything near as dark as you got with the cleaner.

Now it's time for the other side! Start with the cleaner and finish with the polish. You can polish up a real bad set of windows in a few hours. If you have a new top, you may want to skip the cleaner and go straight to the polish.

I like to set up for production. I do all the windows on all sides with cleaner. I wipe everything with clean rags on both sides. I again clean the floor before the polish phase. Then I do the polishing of everything on all sides.

I also do NOT recommend using any type of powered object to polish your windows. This principal is similar to that used on your vehicle's paint. If you are using something that is powered, it is all too easy to get over zealous, and cause burning, or worse case scenario; burn into the window. You will not experience this by hand, because you just can't rub fast enough to melt the plastic.

After you're all done, be sure to spray both sides of your zippers with spray silicone before you zip them into place.

Now you can step back and enjoy the view, secure in the thought that you don't have to shell out big money for a new top just because you couldn't see.