I thought about this on my way home today, there are probably a lot of people on this forum that have friends or parents that have convertibles. Working at this Ford dealership that I used to, I learned a lot about how to take care of certain aspects of cars (the leather care thread, rust proofing thread, paint tip thread and now this thread to name a few). This Mustang Specialist showed me some tips of how to make sure your canvas or cloth top should be maintained for the longest possible life. Well the biggest mistake that people make is right after they wash their car on a sunny day, they lower the canvas/cloth/leather top back into its "storage bay". This is single-handedly ruins the materials, since the wet (or even SLIGHTLY MOIST) canvas/cloth/leather top sits in its bay, where its totally dark with very little air circulation. This would be fine and all, but you now have serious bacteria problems to worry about. Actually the bacteria fester and multiply like crazy in these conditions, so what happens? your soft top now rotts in its bay. (check for discoloration.. smells give it away too) The bacteria (over time) eat away at the fabric, weakening it significantly. This is basically why most tops start to decay very prematurely. Most tops should last at least 20 years, if they are maintained. But few are. Thats why you commonly see discoloration and severe wear and tear of soft-top cars that aren't even 10 years old. So in short, wait until your soft-top is fully dry before you lower it back into your car. About 30-45min (in the sun) should be plenty... or just an hour to be safe. Another thing that really ruins the fabric is road salt. All the Southern US people dont have to worry about this, but the northern US folk as well as fellow Canadians have to really worry about this. In short, its best if you keep your soft-top car off the road in the winter months: if they use salt when its freezing out. Another thing, dont worry about soap getting on the canvas/fabric top. Unless its very acidic (some are, you have to be careful: soaps of any sort are EITHER acidic OR Alkalyic.) Most fabrics used are very resistant. Just make sure you thoroughly hose off your top before you let it dry... a soap build-up would not be good for it in time obviously. If you want to water-proof your soft-top, this is a GREAT tutorial. http://www.boatus.com/boattech/casey/22.htm There are some great water-proofing spray-on chemicals that work great. One of them is this stuff http://www.fcsurplus.ca/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=1341 Any campers store should carry a good line water-proofing spray. I hope this helps. Best wishes to all. If you think this tutorial is helpful, feel free to copy and paste it onto other forums for all to see, or make it into a sticky. -Cheers.

Great advice.

Another way people cause a lot of damage to their cloth tops is putting it up & down when it's not really clean. Even if it looks fairly clean, dust and grit particles will sit between the fibers. Then when the top is moved, they will grind and breakdown the cloth fibers (especially in the folds). This can lead to weakening and eventually to rips and tears.

When parking a vert for an extended period of time (roughly more than a day) or storing it (even indoors), the top should be in the up position. This is the roof natural "stretched" postion. When the top's down, creases can eventually develop at the folds.
Interesting note; the 3rd gen Camaros (not sure about the Firebirds) tray that the roof sits on when it's down, is not completely flat. There is a slight rise on the left (driver's) side. I'm not sure if all years are like this, but the ones that are often result in, when the top is up, appearing as if the edge of the cloth is not sitting completely flush on the tonneau cover. The weather stripping is still sealing. This is an ASC design "oops?" that annoys me a little bit. When the roof is up, they designed the back of the roof to sit on a completely flat surface. But, when it's down, because the tray isn't also flat, the corner of the top can develop a "memory" of that rise. I know that ASC probably has a reason for this (might be structural or the gas filler tube might be interferring, etc) but things like this can usually be engineered out.

Oh well, I still love it!