Open Mon–Fri 9–6 · Open Saturdays 9–4 54/58 Princes Hwy, Arncliffe, Sydney NSW · minutes from Sydney Airport Call 0418 200 289
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Home / Repairs / Australia-wide ram rebuilds

Mail-in / mail-out service · rebuilt in Arncliffe, Sydney

Convertible roof hydraulic
ram rebuilds, Australia-wide

You don't have to live near Sydney to get your roof's cylinders rebuilt by people who do it every week. Owners and workshops anywhere in Australia post their hydraulic rams to our Arncliffe bench; we rebuild them with new seals, bench-test them, and post them back. If a courier reaches you, so do we.

20+ yrs in automotive repair 1000+ roofs serviced 4.9★ Google rating
Call before you post Text your make & model

The mail-in rebuild, explained

The same bench,
without the drive to Sydney

Hydraulic ram rebuilds have been a core specialty in this workshop for over twenty years. The mail-in service exists for one reason: the cylinders can travel even when the car can't.

Part 01

Who posts us their rams

Owners and workshops, every state

Interstate owners

Your SL's boot carpet is oily and the nearest roof specialist is a flight away. The cylinders are what failed, so the cylinders make the trip instead of the car. You (or your local mechanic) remove them, box them, post them to Arncliffe.

Regional & trade

Country mechanics and motor trimmers send us cylinders regularly. They handle removal and refit; we handle the seals and the bench test in between.

Why this bench

Rebuilding roof hydraulics isn't a sideline here — it's what the bench does week in, week out, by factory-trained technicians who've serviced over 1000 roofs. Your cylinders get the same rebuild a Sydney car gets, just with a postage label on either end.

Call about your cylinders Text us where you are
Part 02

Local quality, without the overseas round trip

Your rams never leave the country

Domestic post, both ways

Your cylinders travel inside Australia: ordinary domestic freight to Arncliffe and back. No international shipping in two directions, no customs declarations, no duties, no parcel stuck in clearance on another continent while your roof stays down.

A phone number that answers

A question mid-job, or a year later, gets answered by a Sydney workshop in your own time zone, by the people who held your cylinders. Our parts & labour warranty stands behind the rebuild, as it does for every job leaving this workshop.

Triage before postage

The biggest risk in any send-away rebuild isn't the rebuild — it's posting the wrong part. We don't accept cylinders cold: every mail-in job starts with a conversation, because perfectly rebuilt rams can't fix a tired pump.

Talk it through first Text a photo of the leak
Part 03

Why the phone call comes before the parcel

Rebuilding the wrong part fixes nothing

What we ask for

Make, model and year; what the roof is doing; a short video of it moving (or refusing to); a photo of any fluid residue. We triage roofs by phone every day, and that evidence usually tells us whether your symptoms read as cylinder seals or something else.

What it rules out

A slow or stranded roof can be a tired pump, a microswitch, a chafed hose, or the rams. Three of those four won't be cured by fresh seals. If your symptoms don't point at the cylinders, we tell you before you've paid a cent of postage.

What you avoid

The worst version of mail-in: removal, posting and refitting, and the roof still doesn't work, because the fault was never in the cylinders. Ten minutes on the phone with people who've met your roof system before is how that story doesn't become yours.

Start the triage call Text the video instead

How mail-in works

Four steps, two postage labels.

  1. 1

    Call first — always

    Tell us the car and the symptom, with a photo or video. We confirm the rams are actually the problem before anything goes in a box. Rebuilding the wrong part fixes nothing.

  2. 2

    We confirm what to send, and how

    Which cylinders to remove, how to cap and pack them so they arrive clean and undamaged, and the address. If a local mechanic is doing the removal, we'll talk them through it.

  3. 3

    Rebuild, then prove it on the bench

    Your cylinders are stripped, rebuilt with new seals by the technicians who do this weekly, then bench-tested under pressure. Nothing goes back in the post on a promise — it goes back tested.

  4. 4

    Return post, ready to refit

    Rebuilt rams come back ready to fit and bleed, covered by our parts & labour warranty. For current turnaround, call 0418 200 289. We'd rather give you today's honest answer than a number on a page.

What arrives in the post

The cylinders we see
from every state

The mail-in bench looks a lot like the Sydney bench: the same roofs fail the same way, whatever the postcode.

Mercedes SL vario-roof
Multi-cylinder sets from R129, R230 and R231 SLs — and their SLK cousins — where the seals have aged together and the boot shows it. Sets get rebuilt as sets.
BMW Z4
E85 and E89 cylinders, usually after the pump-or-cylinder question has been settled in triage. Z4 owners are among our most frequent interstate callers.
Holden Astra & Cascada
Hydraulic systems at the age where seals give up in numbers, with no dealer counter left to argue with. Rebuilding the original cylinders keeps these cars open-topped.

Audi, Jaguar, Infiniti, something rarer? If it's a hydraulic roof cylinder, odds are we've had one apart: text us the make and model or call 0418 200 289.

Straight answers

Mail-in questions
we hear every week

If yours isn't here, call. You'll get the same straight answer.

Ask us directly
Which cars' rams do you rebuild?

Most hydraulic roof systems that come through the workshop come through the post too: Mercedes SL and SLK vario-roof cylinder sets, BMW Z4 and 3/4 Series hardtop cylinders, Audi A4, A5 and TT rams, Holden Astra and Cascada systems, Jaguar latch cylinders and Infiniti retractable hardtops. If your roof lifts on hydraulics, text the make and model to 0418 200 289 and we'll tell you straight.

How do I know it's the rams and not the pump?

You usually can't be certain from the symptoms alone: fluid where it shouldn't be points at ram seals, but a tired pump or a control-side fault can strand a roof the same way. That's why we triage by phone, photo and video before you post anything: a short video of the roof moving plus a photo of the residue tells us a lot. If the evidence doesn't point at the cylinders, we'll say so — posting us a healthy ram helps nobody.

How long does a mail-in rebuild take?

It varies with the cylinder type and what the bench is carrying that week, so we don't publish a number that might be wrong by the time you read it. Call 0418 200 289 for the current turnaround before you post. You'll get an honest answer for your specific cylinders.

Do you rebuild rams for other workshops?

Yes — a steady share of the mail-in bench is trade work from mechanics and trimmers around Australia whose customer's roof needs a specialist's seals. Same process: call first so we confirm the cylinders and the packing, we rebuild and bench-test, you refit.

What owners say

From the 4.9★ Google reviews

★★★★★

"Michael is an amazing craftsman. For what would have taken us to get an entire large part from BMW and coordinate roof repair with expensive repair service, Michael created a small part for our car and fixed it then and there. He charges reasonably. I highly recommend his service and will happily be a repeat customer."

BMW · Roof repair
★★★★★

"Michael is the best. My Benz had a seized panoramic sunroof and the motor for the roof died. He had it fixed and working perfectly in three hours. And was by far the most reasonably priced."

Mercedes-Benz · Seized panoramic sunroof & motor
★★★★★

"It was an absolute pleasure dealing with Michael. With 29 years of experience, he really knows his craft. He was honest, friendly, and did a perfect job fixing the convertible top on my Mercedes. Definitely worth the 1-hour drive to get there. Highly recommended!"

Mercedes-Benz · Convertible top

Next step

One call before
one parcel

Wherever you are in Australia, it starts the same way: tell us the car and the symptom, and we'll tell you whether your rams should make the trip, and today's turnaround.

Call 0418 200 289 Text your make & model

Rebuilt at 54/58 Princes Hwy, Arncliffe NSW 2205 · Mon–Fri 9am–6pm · Sat 9am–4pm · Sydney? Book the car in instead · Back to all symptoms & repairs

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