[Tragedy] The Fate of a Man Who Tried to Dye His S2000 Soft Top “Espresso Brown.” What is the “Blood Lesson” Gained After Throwing 20,000 Yen and a Day into the Gutter?

Listen up, S2000 owners across the nation. Our beloved cars are the best, but there is one destiny we cannot escape: Soft top deterioration.

In my case, there was no functional problem. However, black adhesive stains began surfacing from the base, making it look as filthy as “the roof of an old house that hasn’t been maintained.” A professional replacement costs 300,000 yen. So, I thought, “Why not paint it myself?” If I transformed it into a stylish brown, my S2000 was supposed to exude an elegant European vibe…

■ Preparation: The “Weapons” to Step Over My Corpse

Before we dive in, let me introduce the tools that shared this battle. Let me be clear: The tools are innocent. What was wrong was my “naive outlook” and inability to master them.

[Somay-Q Aerosol Espresso Brown 264ml]

“The protagonist of this story and the root cause that crushed my spirit. The adhesion to materials is incredible, but be cautious with color selection. Unless you want to get stuck in a ‘quagmire’ like me.”

I used a total of 5 cans this time. By the way, the catalyst for this operation was seeing a brave soul online who painted their soft top with this Somay-Q material.

[Iris Ohyama Cloth Tape Masker M-NTM1800]

“Without this, even the car body would have been dyed brown. This massive 1800mm coverage is the only sense of morality in DIY. Masking is everything.”

The set includes both the masking material and tape, making it extremely easy to use.

[303 High Tech Fabric Guard]

“I used this as a finish, and while the result is terrible, the water repellency is top-notch. This soft top will likely bounce off my tears with cold indifference.”

This is a soft top protector and water repellent. Since the top supposedly stiffens after painting, I used this. While its primary purpose is water repellency, the water beads up perfectly.

Just plain newspaper

Used to fill gaps in masking. I barely used it, but it’s best to prepare it before it’s too late.

■ Act I: Perfect Masking and a “Preselection of Victory”

Look at this wretched sight. The “traces of adhesive” crawling across the surface of the soft top like dark, bloated veins.

Previously, I thought, “It’s a little ugly, but it doesn’t leak rain, so it’s fine.” But once it started bothering me, it was no longer part of the car—it looked like nothing but a “black stain” eroding my self-esteem.

“If I paint it, it should disappear.” That shallow logic of mine was shattered the moment I sprayed the Espresso Brown. Far from being hidden, the black stains began to radiate a more ominous presence beneath the brown veil.

It was a symbol of “aging” carved by 20 years of time. Perhaps it was the S2000 demanding its “final payment” from me, who had run away from the reality of a 300,000 yen replacement fee. That black glue continues to mock my vanity—trying to hide it with a stylish brown—from the depths of the soft top even now.

Look at this perfect formation. Wrapped in newspaper and using Iris Ohyama masker generously, the car looks like a patient awaiting surgery. “Preparation is 80% of the job,” as they say.

At this moment, I was certain. The transformation about to begin would carve a new page in my car life. But this “perfect preparation” was the entrance to a hell I couldn’t retreat from.

■ Act II: The Creeping Terror Known as “Unevenness”

The moment I sprayed the Somay-Q, an alarm rang in my brain. “…Wait. Isn’t the color way too different?” No, no. It’s just the first can. If I do more, the European breeze will surely start blowing.

However…

What jumped into the eyes of someone imagining a noble espresso brown was a series of spots in some inexplicable “dirty brown.” Moreover, the more I painted, the more the unevenness spread. When I tried to paint heavily to hide the black adhesive stains, those spots stood out even more grotesquely.

Wasn’t it supposed to be brown… this is…

By the time I finished the fourth can, my fingertips were trembling with fear. The word “stylish” had vanished somewhere, and I had become a machine simply praying to God, “Please make this unevenness go away.”

■ Act III: Completion, and “Too Late for Regrets”

Looking at the finished result, I collapsed to my knees. What stood there was not a noble lady exuding a European breeze. It was something that looked like “the roof of a scrap car left in the rain for years,” dirty and muddy, with the black stains underneath still visible.

I want to beat up my past self for choosing brown. Why didn’t I just quietly pick “Black”? With black, those stains and the unevenness could have been logically resolved.

Failing this hard is rare even for me. It’s a failure on the scale of my very existence.

■ Afterword

“In the end, what I gained for my 20,000 yen tuition fee was not an ideal brown, but ‘regret that will never fade’.”

From a distance, well, it might pass. But take one step closer, and the ‘corpse of paint’ brought about by my vanity is stuck there. Functionally, there’s no problem. But my heart is completely broken.

Listen up, everyone. The line between ‘adventure’ and ‘recklessness’ in DIY is razor-thin. Before acting trendy and ordering an espresso, I should have known my place. …I still harbor a faint hope that when I wake up tomorrow morning, this soft top will have turned black on its own. …Of course, that’s not going to happen.

Now, I want to take a driving video, so it’s time to build a microphone mount. The soft top looks filthy, but I’ll make sure the recorded sound is top-notch. I have to, otherwise I won’t be able to stand it!”

関連投稿:

【悲劇】S2000の幌を「エスプレッソブラウン」に染めようとした男の末路。2万円と1日をドブに捨てて得た「血の教訓」とは？ 【極意】S2000を一生モノにする洗車術。俺が20年愛用する「魔法のコーティング剤」の正体 [Despair] The Toilet Was My “Cockpit.” 6 Days of Hell Bound to the Toilet Seat After Stepping Out of the S2000. [The Secret] Car Wash Techniques to Make Your S2000 Last a Lifetime. The Identity of the “Magic Coating Agent” I’ve Used for 20 Years