This is from old Yahoo! W113 site posts:
"There are a couple of ways to remedy a soft top that has shrunk. First, open your frame and latch the rear latch first. Then, while sitting in the car, reach back with one hand grabbing the vertical part of the frame that is just behind your head and pull forward until one of the soft top frame front turn pins reaches into its recepticle at the top of the windshield. Tighten down the first latch and then repeat procedure for the other side. If the above technique doesn't work, wait for a warm sunny day. Wet the top, let it sit in the sun for a while and then use the above technique. If you are still unsuccessful, you might try the technique suggested by Daniel Kelly from the Pennsylvania section of MBCA. Dan bought a 280sl that had its soft top in the storage boot for six years. He couldn't even straighten it, let alone latch it. He removed the entire top assembly and made a rack to gradually stretch it back in place. It is made of 2x4 lumber, 3 urnbuckles, some pieces of flat steel and some eye bolts. Every day or two he made a few turns on the turnbuckles until it stretched back into shape."
"Somewhere I saw another suggested procedure for stretching the softtop canvas. Put the car out, top up, on a hot day in the sun (heat features prominently in most suggested treatments) and let the fabric get real hot. Then, standing on the door sills, push up with both fists gently applying pressure upwards, working the entire top that way. I.e. stretching by hand, section by section. I have not yet had a real need to actually try this method, but supposedly it mimicks the original factory procedure for making the tops fit properly - albeit that, back then, they had custom made stretching racks properly similar to the one in the picture that Don Czapski posted today. I have my hardtop on the car for at least 6 months non-stop each year for the winter, and so far the soft top always fits well when I start using it again."
"I've done that with my first SL(1968 280SL) with the original soft top(was never taken up once in its life-about 21 years). Anyways I put the top up and of course it was shrunk badly, and I left it out overnight in a light rainstorm to make the fabric wet. In the morning I put it out into the hot sun to warm up the fabric and then tried what you just said, pushing upwards gently on all sections to stretch it back. By the time I got to the top most part, the fabric just disintegrated and ripped to shreds when pushing upwards. So out it went and a new one put on."
"My 230sl top was down for 11 years while the car was inoperable after about 2 hours I was able to get it to snap in. I used big halogen lamps as heat lamps close to until the top was soft. Once up I have not had much trouble getting it back up."
Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic
