A fantastic cleaning product

The vinyl roof on my Pontiac has been in dire need of cleaning for a good long time. Overall my car shows all of the signs of having been a daily driver for 30 years. This isn’t terribly surprising, but I feel like I need to get as much of it as clean a possible. The roof has been a source of frustration since the day I purchased the car. Some polishing and waxing has improved the look of the paint and I’ve made a fair amount of headway with the interior but that roof has been unchanged no matter what I do.

I started out when I got the car with a vinyl and leather cleaner from Meguiar’s. This may very well be a great product but it had as much effect as rainwater. While I’ve had considerable luck with polishing compound on interior vinyl I saw no change when using a similar process on the roof. I had decided to focus on other details for a while but I’m always keeping my eye out for new cleaners and means of improving the overall look of my car. On a recent visit to Walmart I discovered a vinyl cleaner in the RV section of the automotive aisle.

Camco RV Awning Cleaner is intended to clean mobile home roof vinyl and awning that have been exposed to years of rainwater and road dust. It struck me while reading the bottle that this is precisely the sort of scenario that I was looking to address with the roof vinyl of my Pontiac. I didn’t hold out a great amount of hope but the bottle wasn’t that expensive and I took a shot.

The bottle states that it can be used diluted or full strength on tougher stains. Since my vinyl has resisted all previous attempts at cleaning I used if full strength. I poured a little bit of the cleaner in a cup and picked a small area of the roof to get started. I dipped an old toothbrush in the cup of cleaner and started scrubbing. Within moments the difference was astonishing. After only a few passes with the brush the roof got many shades lighter wherever I scrubbed. I immediately got a larger brush and more cleaner and went to town. I managed to remember to snap a photo when I was halfway through to share and demonstrate just how well this stuff worked. You can see in the photo below that I’ve done the left hand side and a small portion of the right side. The vinyl is quite stained after 30 years of exposure to the elements, but it’s definitely one heck of a lot cleaner than it was. Within 30 minutes I had the whole roof done, coated with a vinyl protectant and ready to go.

I’m really impressed with just how well this stuff worked. All that was really required was less than a cup of cleaner, a brush, and a bit of elbow grease. If you’re looking for something to get rid of that grey haze on your vinyl roof don’t hesitate to pick up a bottle of Camco RV Awning cleaner.