Boiling microfiber and keeping them clean

[anson89]

I've heard somewhere that boiling microfiber towels will open their pores? Won't this burn em?

Also, I accidentally used my $9 microfiber towel to wipe the dirtiest section of the car and got all kinds of dirt,oil and grease on there. I tried washing it in the washing machine and it still won't go away. It's somehow "printed" on the towel. Will this cause swirls, scratches when I use it in the future?

[Blackthorn One]

First of all, you should try a dedicated microfiber cleaner like Pinnacle Micro Rejuvenator, and letting it soak for a while. Microfiber cloths have finer fibers which require a wetter detergent to get them clean. If a towel is just stained, it won't necessarily causes scratches.

[sullysdetailing]

You should have mircofibers for wax/polish/compound only. Then a set for the interior, windows, and dash areas. Then a set used for rims, exhaust tips, ect.

The way i wash my microfibers are 5 gollon bucket filled with 3 gollon of water and DP microfiber cleaner. I would just put the power in the washer but my mom doesnt want to mess up her front loader so I use a bucket. I let them soak for about 15 minutes then rub the really dirty ones to get to try and losen the oil/grease. Then I ring them all out and them put them in the washer machine with a little bit of Tide. I wash them on delicate with extra rinse and spin. I let them ait dry.

Now Last time I was told by someone to try boiling them. So I did. When I boilded my wax rags and pads most of the wax will come of right then and there. I put the in the DP microfiber cleaner after just to make sure they were extra clean. Then I rinse then and put them in the washer machine on warm with no soap and extra rinse/spin. The reason I put the extra rinse is because one tip my drying towel still had a little bit of soap in it and it got on the car.

My exterior mircofiber that had grease/oil on them I did the same thing. It got all the grease and oil off. After i boiled them they went in the DP mircofiber cleaner then in the washer machine with tide and extra rinse/spin. The exterior microfibers are still stained with black marks on them but have no grease or oil in them.

You should at least have 2 groups of microfiber towels
Wax, Compound, Polish .......and.....Other

[Mike Phillips]

Shawn's right, at least if you're really into detailing your own cars or you do this for business.

Microfiber polishing cloths are superior at removing liquids of all types off smooth surfaces. They also can be very grabby or tacky. For example have you ever had a dried leaf break up and crumble on a microfiber polishing cloth? The small pieces of dried leaf can embed and intertwine into the nap of the microfiber and be very difficult to wash out and even pick out with your fingers. If you can't get the dried leaf out of the nap it would make that particular microfiber scratchy to use on paint.

Make sense?

Now lets use that above example with your wheel. If you have disc brakes, each time you step on the brakes small particles come off the brake pads and the steel discs and build-up on your wheels, we call this brake dust.

If you wipe your wheels clean with any kind of spray detailer and a wash mitt or microfiber towel, where do you think the brake dust, (abrasive particles), go?

They transfer onto and into your microfiber. Will washing remove 100% of all the metallic particles and brake pad particles? I don't know, but small things with jagged edges seem to embed into the nap of microfiber polishing cloths and are difficult to remove.

For this reason you might not want to use microfibers you use to wipe wheels clean on perfectly polished paint the next time you wash and wax the car.

So it's almost as though you need to have dedicated microfiber towels and polishing cloths separated by how and where they're used.

This all depends upon how deep you want to go, or how D.O. you want to get.

(Hope I just didn't complicate things for everyone)

A few years ago a friend of mine, Richard Lin, captured some pretty amazing photographs of metal particles embedded into microfiber polishing cloths, I don't remember where he was using the microfiber cloth but it was pretty scary to think about wiping down a nice paint finish with a microfiber with metallic particles embedded into it.

[sullysdetailing]

No you didn't... I hate when I drop the towel or it blows off the car and a dry leaf get on it because there goes a good polishing towel into the "other" pile

[alexjn1]

I use seperate colors and styles for various jobs:

Glass
Drying
QD
Polish/Wax
Interior Clean and Protect
Rims

Any that get nasty over time go in the misc. bin and are used to scrub only nasty stuff so I do not have to worry about it.

I wash all mine seperately when I get enough dirty ones.

Drying
Glass
QD and Waxing
Interior
All others except Misc ones
then Misc ones
then a good washing machine rinse

[Jossy92]

Now I understand why my permanently stained microfibers might not be suitable for paint.

Previously I had thought that my stained m/f towels merely had extremely fine particles sort of like the diminishing abrasives found in quality polishes. Felt that any scratches would be undetectable.

But then, when detailing someone elses vehicle, you don't want to gamble.

[Mike Phillips]

Now I understand why my permanently stained microfibers might not be suitable for paint.

There's a difference between a stain and a contaminant.

It's pretty easy to stain a microfiber, for example if you are working on a single stage paint. After washing the residue will be gone but sometimes the pigment will have stained the cloth. I don't think these would be dangerous to wipe paint.

I've seen a lot of microfibers stained black from being used to wipe off excess tire dressing off tires or or trim dressing off plastic and rubber trim. After washing the microfibers are clean but portions of them are stained black.

[ballfan4141]

get some cheap microfiber towels for the wheels. all you need is a few. then you can have microfibers towels for the wheels and they dont cost much. I am very careful with the towels I dry the car with and wax with. those are the two types of towels you have to be careful with. it is also good to have a towel just for the door jams. using the towel you use to dry the car off with always is not a good idea to dry the door jambs because they are not that clean eventhough they are the same paint that is on your car.

[ScottB]

I have found that MF towels seem color coded for a reason .... to help me use them in specific areas of the car. Once they've become stained or grabbed up something they should not have they go into a general pile or tossed out. Wife often can find something around the house to use them for also.

I have only heard of boiling from those which used fabric softner by accident and effected a towels ability to soak up water. I dont know if it really works but then again I remember when everyone suggested adding vinegar to towels to make them softer and then someone from the garment industry warned its also breaking down the towels fibers.