Using Micro Fibre Towels The first thing you should do when you get a new micro fibre towel is to wash and dry it. During the manufacturing process the fabric has a tendency to become flat and it might have picked up contaminants from the air and machinery. There will also be a number of loose threads that, while they cause no harm, can be annoying the first time you use the towel. Some towel manufacturer’s use a chemical to make the fabric soft, theses chemicals should be removed by washing Only use liquid detergents; never use dry detergents as many times the granules do not fully dissolve and become trapped in the towel. This can cause scratching of the surface you are cleaning. (See also Micro fibre Care) There are many towel edge treatments including over- locked, serge, blunt cut, laser cut, ultrasonic cut, silk edge, microfiber edge, suede edge, satin edge, and many other combinations of style and material, but nearly all of them will cause scratching. Either use borderless or fold the towel so the border is on the inside A good microfiber cannot unload particles without being immersed in water. If you wipe back and forth while detailing, you will be rubbing the dirt you pick up back and forth over the paint. Water provides the necessary surface lubrication. Simply wet the towel with clean water and wring as dry as possible, use it damp, if the cloth is too wet it will leave streaks. Wet – Wring – Wipe. If the towel becomes too dirty, it will begin to streak; it is then time to use another clean towel. Methodology - when using microfiber towels, it’s best to wipe in a single direction until all visible contamination is removed, flipping the towel frequently; micro fibre enables you to clean almost everything with just the towel and hot water. They eliminate the need to carry around different cleaners for different uses. These cloths are a great environmentally friendly healthy alternative to cleaning with chemicals. What is equally important with any micro fibre towel is the way they are used; they need to be turned frequently, and don’t apply too much pressure, especially at the edges. Fold the micro fibre towel in half, then in half again, using very little downward pressure, gently wipe the surface and then flip the towel to a clean surface and wipe again. When you see the towel start to show a line of dirt, flip it around and use a different, clean section. With it folded properly you'll get a couple of first wipe / second wipe sections out of it. It usually takes 4 or 5 towels to wipe down an average vehicle. When you are ready to clean them, rinse well, re-wash and leave to air-dry (See Micro Fibre Washing / Care) An extract from one of a series of unbiased Detailing Technical Papers, a library of educational materials that has become the #1 reference for car care on the Internet I more than appreciate these articles are very technical in content and therefore will not appeal to every detailers level of knowledge or experience. But chances are you'll learn something about detailing if you read any of these. © TOGWT ™ Ltd Copyright 2002-2010, all rights reserved
Thanks for the article. Could you mention the pro's and con's about nap, plushness? Or did I miss one of your articles? I might have, sorry.
Reminder - post revised Micro Fibre article Types and Uses for Detailing Towels Like detailing pads there is no standard colour system to denote what a towel is used for, each manufacturer uses a different colour for their towels General Purpose - a micro fibre towels with a standard terry cloth weave, a medium thick nap and an 80/20 blend of polyester and polyamide. Used for buffing paint, glass, vinyl, plastic and leather. Ideal for quick detailing (QD) this will be the most frequently used towel. PolyFibre2 - micro fibre towels, are very soft while having more bite and polishing ability than traditional micro fibre, it's 25% more absorbent using 80/20 Polyester/Nylon micro fibre mix woven in Brazil with no generic polyamide (typically referred to as a nylon by-product).These towels are finished and inspected in the USA under the strictest quality control standards. Glass – cleaning towels fibre is feathered as opposed to hooked; this produces a cloth with substantially greater absorption. Soil, grime and oily films are removed from the surface by capillary action. Micro fibre towels that work well for polishing and glass cleaning seem to have similar characteristics, the towel ideally should be 100% lint free; this means the weave is going to have a shorter nap than a general purpose towel. A decent glass towel needs scrubbing power to successfully remove the residue that cause streaking, sharing the same characteristic that makes a good polishing cloth. This micro fibre towel is so effective at cleaning glass that often a glass cleaner chemical isn't even necessary. It features a very low-pile cut in a zigzag pattern which literally attracts and removes off-gassing, residue, smudges and oily finger prints. Its efficient cleaning action is truly a time saver. Drying - There are two different micro fibre towelling weaves that make good drying towels: terry cloth and Piqué or waffle weave. [Piqué isn't more absorbent than terry but the ridges act as hundreds of little squeegees which push the water up into the cups giving the fabric time to absorb.] Leo Cerruti Waffle Weave Towel (Piqué) - is a synthetic micro fibre woven with a dimpled pattern, which provides thousands of small pockets to trap dirt or grit. The absorbency of these towels is quite remarkable; they are able to hold seven or eight times their weight in water. when they are wet they’re very soft and super absorbent, and glide easily over the surface, the ‘pockets’ in the weave ‘hold’ any dirt or surface debris unlike some other super absorbing products that trap dirt between the towel and paint surface with the potential to cause serious scratches (never use it when it’s dry as it can potentially scratch) That goes for whatever you use for drying, including cotton towels. Ensure that the towel is really wet and then wring it out thoroughly before using. You may find micro fibre towels labelled for other uses, but most will fit into the categories listed above An extract from one of a series of unbiased Detailing Technical Papers, a library of educational materials that has become the #1 reference for car care on the Internet I more than appreciate these articles are very technical in content and therefore will not appeal to every detailers level of knowledge or experience. But chances are you'll learn something about detailing if you read any of these. © TOGWT ™ Ltd Copyright 2002-2010, all rights reserved
