Before we headed off to the Northeast Gathering a few weeks back, I wanted to purdy up my OG targa top. Tried a couple of things and finally WD40. The results were MUCH better than I expected, and have held up pretty well. Maybe you all knew this already, but I was pretty excited to have figured it out.

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Hadn’t thought of that! Did it hold up in the rain, or weep off? Let us know how long it lasts.
I use black shoe polish and a shoe polish brush.

use #102....it removed a scratch on my stainless steel fridge door

thats pretty funny. i used shoe polish in the 90s.
all the 911 targa guys did it - where i got it from.
i confess to not having done anything recently because i never put the top on.

It held up well in the rain. Water beaded up and didn’t seem to wash it off. I’m guessing the alcohol in WD40 effectively cleaned the top - the rag we used to apply it was filthy- and the oil added a little shine. Could also be the alcohol was removing a layer of the factory coating!

To do the job properly though, what expensive and thoroughly irrelevant tools should I insist are necessary? Two post lift? Plasma cutter? Alignment machine?

Seriously, I love quick and cheap solutions. I'm the man of the house and don't need a reason -- I'll buy those tools if I want to (and of course hide them and the credit card statement from my wife).

Nice work, Tom

Thanks Rob!

I’m with you on the tool purchases. In this case, the reasoning is that I saved sooo much money I can justify a new [fill in the blank]. Which, obviously is only necessary if “someone” sees the new tool/part.

WD stands for water displacer (I think) so it should repel water. I've been using it on sail plane vinyl for a while now.

I hate to rain on the parade but WD40 is mineral oil and wax. The mineral oil breaks down plastics and may cause swelling and cracking over time. Shoe polish similarly, is lanolin, naphtha, turpentine, paraffin wax, gum Arabic and ethylene glycol.. Just wax would be a better in the long run.

...if I had the energy to search, there was a similar thread about 15 years ago...and yeah, pretty sure someone else chimed in with the above info.

it still worked great on my fridge door.....

WD40 may not hurt the gelcoat, but believe it'll break down fiberglass over time.

Recently I used some left over black wood stain on a black plastic Jeep bumper. I was shocked how well it turned out. Stain is stain...right?

I use floor wax and it’s a desert topping !

And caution, I used to carry a can in my car with tools. But a friend of mine used WD40 to lubicate the slides on a pop-up camper and sat the can on the picnic table 4 feet from the grill.....Boom, very bad burns. So I checked the can label and it said at a 150 deg. it could explode. I no longer keep any in my cars. FYI, best, Mark

Awww man! I figured it was too good to be true. I had an oil drip from the car above on my lift, which I was tying to hide. It did the trick in the moment, but I guess I won’t be using it as a permanent solution. Oh well.

That's alright, Tom. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure we do worse things to our cars...like swapping out the air cooled German engine for a Japanese wasser-boxer.

Kidding! Kidding! Seriously, your Subie swap is awesome.



@Front yard mechanic I just want to point out that I always appreciate your humor. I'm not sure who else does, but I definitely do.

You were joking, right?

That doesn't work with my wife. She is a car person too. So trying to " hide them and the credit card statement from my wife" will result in my sleeping on the couch for a LONG time.

But it does have upsides. She understands why I wanted the flat fan setup, and she enabled me getting it.

WD-40 removed the residual butyl from my 914's rear window like a charm this weekend. Love that stuff!

I use Ziano Tire dressing.