PDA

View Full Version : The 4 minimum categories of wiping cloths



Pages : [1] 2

Mike Phillips
11-24-2009, 08:38 AM
The 4 minimum categories of wiping cloths (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/tricks-tips-techniques/21944-4-minimum-categories-wiping-cloths.html)



Wiping cloths
Just as important as any product or tool in your detailing arsenal are your wiping cloths. You can use the best compound, the best polish, the best LSP and of course the best buffing pads and top of the line polishers but if you're using any type of wiping cloth that is in some way, shape or form contaminated then you risk putting swirls and scratches into your car's finish. For this reason it's important to separate your wiping cloths into dedicated categories and have some type of labeling system so that you or others know what a collection of wiping cloths can be used on safely.

The ultimate goal is to have confidence that when you go to remove your LSP of a finish you've toiled over all day long, that the end results will giddy with glee, not because the paint looks fabulous, not loathsome and infuriated because you just instilled scratches back into the paint you've worked on so hard.

More than that, you want friends, family and even employees to be enabled to choose the right cloth in case they're are to perform any kind of detailing task with or without your supervision. For example, you're gone, a bird leaves a bird dropping on the hood of your girlfriend or wife's car and in their attempt to remove the bird dropping you don't want them grabbing the wrong microfiber polishing cloth and remove the bird dropping but create a new Saturday Detailing Project for you in the process.


4 Categories Minimum
Everyone should have at least 4 types of wiping cloths, some of you may have more categories like a dedicated collection of glass wiping cloths, or wiping cloths dedicated towards leather and vinyl dressings. These are the minimum, feel free to separate your wiping cloths as much as you like and places like Target offer plastic roll-around bins with drawers that you can label and store your different groups of wiping cloths. It's important to separate any cloth deemed worthing of wiping a high gloss finish from all the rest.


Good Microfiber Polishing Cloths
You can 'touch' paint with microfiber polishing cloths from this collection. These are the microfiber polishing cloths in your collection that are new or you have washed and dried and you trust them to be safe on a high gloss, polished finish.


Tatty Microfiber Polishing Cloths
These are washed, dried and clean, but their quality has fallen to a level that you have deemed them not worthing of touching a high gloss, polished finish. You don't throw them away because they still have value for wiping spray detailers or cleaner/waxes out places like door jambs, chrome wheels or bumpers, a roll bar, the paint on a boat trailer, or some components in the engine compartment. You might even keep them around for checking the oil or wiping grease off your hands after changing the oil. The point is they are still great at removing residue, just not off a swirl-free, scratch-free, high gloss surface.

Good Cotton Towels
While microfiber is superior at removing polishes, waxes and paint sealants off paint, and especially trace residues off smooth, high gloss finishes, there's still a place for good quality cotton towels. For example, cleaning you pad on the fly (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/20135-how-clean-your-foam-pad-fly.html). Cotton towels with a large nap work better than microfiber towels. Some people prefer a cotton towel with a large nap to remove compounds because they offer a more aggressive bite but then switch over to microfiber for removing polishes and LSP's. Your good cotton towels should be clean and soft and worthing of working on paint in good condition or better.

Tatty Cotton Towels
Tatty Cotton Towels are cotton towels that are washed and dried but for whatever the reason, their quality is fallen off to far from what's acceptable to touch paint in good condition or better. They still have value however for mundane tasks like wiping excess tired dressing off the face of a tire, applying or wiping cleaners and dressings in the fenderwell area, applying or removing cleaners, dressings or cleaner/waxes in the trunk area or door jambs and engine compartments. They have value because they are absorbent, clean and ready to use and paid for. After some projects you might be better of discarding them versus trying to clean them well enough that they can be used again.


http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

MisterShark
11-24-2009, 09:46 AM
lol, skimming this quickly while doing 2 things at once: I read 'Tasty Microfiber Polishing Cloths'

Wonder what a Shamrock tastes like.. :hungry:

cnfowler
11-24-2009, 11:31 AM
Nice writeup, Mike. I have those four plus the glass MF category like you explained.

If my wife does the laundry before I get to it, she has been trained that terry cloth doesn't get washed with MF and the good MF doesn't get washed with the tatty ones.

Colin

GMC83
11-24-2009, 02:07 PM
I also use this same system for my foam and microfiber applicator pads.

Laura
11-24-2009, 07:49 PM
lol, skimming this quickly while doing 2 things at once: I read 'Tasty Microfiber Polishing Cloths'

Wonder what a Shamrock tastes like.. :hungry:

I guess you'd chase it down with a Guzzler :cheers:

Lilskeezer
11-24-2009, 08:22 PM
Mike, what cloth would you recommend when cleaning the engine compartment? Some engines I've cleaned are so bad that I would rather throw away the towel then get it anywhere near my washing machine. I was thinking maybe trying shop towels since I can dispose of them when I'm finished. Your thoughts?


Feed back please

maxisiri
11-24-2009, 10:33 PM
Mike, what do you mean when you say this on the Good Cotton Towels: "For example, cleaning you pad on the fly." Can you please explain me, I didn't get that part. Does AG sells cotton towels? Thanks in advance! :xyxthumbs:

Mike Phillips
11-24-2009, 11:14 PM
Mike, what do you mean when you say this on the Good Cotton Towels: "For example, cleaning you pad on the fly." Can you please explain me, I didn't get that part. Does AG sells cotton towels? Thanks in advance! :xyxthumbs:


A good cotton towel can be different thing, in the context of what I wrote it would be a 100% cotton terry cloth towel, terry cloth meaning the towel has a nap, which is tiny loops of cotton.

The nap of 100% Cotton Terry Cloth Toweling
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/TerryClothNap.jpg

It would be clean and contaminant free and safe to wipe a compound or polish off paint without instilling any toweling marks outside the normal use associated with terry cloth towel.

For cleaning your pad on the fly, same kind of think you want a clean, cotton towel with a nap because the idea of cleaning your pad on the fly is to remove built-up residue and absorb excess wetness out of the foam.

At this time Autogeek doesn't not offer any cotton towels, at least not that I'm aware of, you can usually count on quality brand names like Cannon and Fieldcrest to offer good quality, 100% cotton terry cloth towels.

My gym actually sells a pretty nice 100% cotton, terry cloth towel for a sweat towel but I often buy a few to have on hand for various car detailing process that I don't want to use microfiber for.

In this thread,

How to clean your foam pad on the fly (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/20135-how-clean-your-foam-pad-fly.html)

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/CleaningPadOnTheFly004.jpg


The terry cloth towels are from my gym. Like I always say, be open to new ideas and new products, when I first bought one of these for sweat towel I was quite impressed with the quality compared to the cost.

:)

mackdaddyhibble
11-24-2009, 11:32 PM
Good Cotton Towels?oooops I had forgot about those except for wiping engine compartment,I went microfiber crazy:awman:

autodromo
11-24-2009, 11:43 PM
nice post mike. i will be switching out some of my mf towels as soon as my order arrives. i took full advantage of the BOGO's!!

Joe@Superior Shine
11-25-2009, 02:27 AM
I wear clothes that are in both Nice and Tatty categories.

Jossy92
01-27-2010, 11:44 AM
Thank you for this post and I hope you do another about the logistics of storage and access for the 4 types. (Not sure if I should start another thread.)

Anyway, for mobile detailers, and those (like me) with space problems:

I am using a duffel as sometimes I go to friends houses. I put good m/fs on the top, new ones underneath, tatty towels on the bottom. Seems like as soon as my hands are wet/dirty, I wind up having to dig down to the bottom of the bag destroying the organization. I tried left to right, but m/fs stick to everything even side by side. More complicated now as I have use for tatty cotton towels.

Probably or a simple answer, but "simple" doesn't mean obvious.

Thanks again to AG members for all the help.

Mike Phillips
01-27-2010, 12:01 PM
Thank you for this post and I hope you do another about the logistics of storage and access for the 4 types. (Not sure if I should start another thread.)

Anyway, for mobile detailers, and those (like me) with space problems:

I am using a duffel as sometimes I go to friends houses. I put good m/fs on the top, new ones underneath, tatty towels on the bottom.




If you're working from a small car then storage is a problem. I've usually used plastic storage bins with lids for both clean towels, foam applicator pads and nick-knacks like scissors, painter's tape, etc., things that are clean and need a place to be stored.

If you don't have room for the large bins you can also find smaller bins.

Another option is plastic bags, like Glad Garbage bags. You can separate the towels into dedicated bags and the close the draw strings to keep them clean. Take extra bags to place dirty towels into and you can even have separate, dedicated bags for dirty towels to keep towels separate for washing reasons.

Bags with rags will conform to the area you have to store them, like your trunk or back seat in your car pretty easily. You can also mark the outside of the bag with a Black Permanent Marker so you can quickly identify which type of polishing towel is in your different bags.

Not the best system but when the goal is to keep your towels clean and dry before use and have a way to quickly find what you're looking for to stream line your time investment into the project, the bag system works.

Also, when you arrive at a customer's location, if you're working in their garage or shop, first sweep it out clean so you have a clean place to work, then find a place to set your towel bags for convenient retrieval.

I've almost always enjoyed a truck for toting bins around and it sure makes it easier, but there was time when I was using the below car and while I could get a bin or two into the back of it, using clean, new Glad Garbage bags saved the day for transporting the different categories of towels.

1974 260Z
http://www.showcargarage.com/gallery/files/1/260ZProfileShot002.jpg


Not much room in here to haul detailing supplies so you have to be creative!
http://www.showcargarage.com/gallery/files/1/260ZInsideFromTheRear01.jpg

Jossy92
01-28-2010, 07:58 PM
Thanks Mike, Now I got something to play with and tweak. :xyxthumbs:

Jenn1270
03-05-2010, 08:41 PM
For cleaning your pad on the fly, same kind of think you want a clean, cotton towel with a nap because the idea of cleaning your pad on the fly is to remove built-up residue and absorb excess wetness out of the foam.

At this time Autogeek doesn't not offer any cotton towels, at least not that I'm aware of, you can usually count on quality brand names like Cannon and Fieldcrest to offer good quality, 100% cotton terry cloth towels.

My gym actually sells a pretty nice 100% cotton, terry cloth towel for a sweat towel but I often buy a few to have on hand for various car detailing process that I don't want to use microfiber for.

In this thread,

How to clean your foam pad on the fly (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/20135-how-clean-your-foam-pad-fly.html)

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/CleaningPadOnTheFly004.jpg


The terry cloth towels are from my gym. Like I always say, be open to new ideas and new products, when I first bought one of these for sweat towel I was quite impressed with the quality compared to the cost.

:)

Can you just use a clean terry towel? Or does it need to a "good and soft" one.