Automotive Detailing 101: The Microfiber Towel
It’s amazing sometimes what we can take for granted. It’s the simple things we forget about like hot water in our faucet system, a comfortable bed to sleep in at night, or for us car junkies the simple microfiber towel. Just think about it for a second would your car wash be the same without that fuzzy feeling microfiber towel in that lime green or baby blue color? We use it on everything from our dashboards to our body panels, windows, wheels, seats, and more. But have you ever wondered what is it that makes this towel just so amazing?
The truth of it is, this simple microfiber towel is nothing short of an amazing piece of technology! You may be thinking: “What this little pee colored green thing they sell in bags at Costco? There’s nothing special to it, just a towel.” WROOOOOOOOONG!!!! In fact, the microfiber towel is the end result of years of research many of you may never have known of until today. I won’t go into detail about the history of fiber R&D, but I will tell you what a nano is.
nano-
- Very small or at a microscopic level
- One billionth of
“So wha???? *scratches head* why are you telling me what nano is”? Well, to truly understand the magnificence of the microfiber towel you must understand its composition. The surface of a quality microfiber towel is lined with billions nano-fibers that are 1 billionth the size of your hair. Let’s think about this for a second; a human hair varies in size from 40 microns to 120 microns, a micron is 1 millionth of a meter, and a piece of paper is about 100 microns (.1 millimeters). So, each nano-fiber is about .1×1,000,000,000 millimeters thick, you do the math. BUT WAIT, that’ not all!
Consider my cheesy MS-Paint illustration above. The green line represents the “flat” surface of a microfiber towel. The first line that goes down is a nano-fiber, then an exploding end of nano-fibers, which are a billionth the size of your hair, expand outward from that first hair. The microfiber towels you have in your trunk or garage is line all across the surface with this structure of micro sized nano-fibers.
Ever wondered why your microfiber towel seems to scratching your car?
- The answer is within the microscopic nano-fibers. The composition of the towel allows an excellent ability to grab and pick up dust and other small and even microscopic particles with ease. This is why it’s so great when cleaning dirty dashboards or wiping off wax. The billions of nano’s will pick up just about anything in an instant and will not let go.
- IF YOU DROP A MICROFIBER TOWEL ON THE FLOOR SET IT ASIDE IMMEDIATELY AND DO NOT USE IT ON YOUR BODY PANELS! The towel will immediately pick up all particles that were on the floor and contaminate it. This is the reason why sometimes the towel seems to be scratching your car while you are trying to dry it or wipe it down. The towel picked up something sharp unseen to the naked eye and is now scratching your cars paint.
- KEEP CHEMICALS SEPARATE ON EACH TOWEL! If you’re washing your entire car with just about 2 towels you’ve probably contaminated them with mixed surfaces and chemicals. Personally, I try to color code a towel for exterior wipe down, wax only, polish only, buffing compound only, interior, etc. If needed I zip lock bag them and label so I don’t forget. Don’t just keep your microfiber towels laying in the trunk, they should be kept in plastic bags to prevent picking up any unwanted harmful particles so they don’t scratch your paint. If you don’t understand why some of your towels work better than others, they were probably stored improperly and exposed to catching random particles. Think of your microfiber towel as having a gravitational pull for dust and other unwanted particles.
Simple Microfiber Tips:
Fold into 4′s:
- It sounds like common sense, but more than enough I see sloppy improper use of towels. Fold the towel in half one way, then in half the other way to form a small square. This will allow maximum efficient use of the towel. Say your quick detailing the car. You would use one side of the towel for the wet wipe, flip it over or fold it over to the opposite side and use it for the dry wipe down. When it gets too dirty simply fold into a new side. By the end of the day you’ll realize how little towel you’ve actually used up. Sounds simple right? THEN WHY DO I KEEP SEEING SLOPPY TOWEL USE!?
Prime the towel:
- It’s a good idea to prime the towel with ONE spray of quick detailer or similar product before usage. A completely dry towel is more prone to scratching your car. Realistically speaking however, there is actually NOTHING that will not scratch your car. It is the simple law of physics that when something rubs against another there will be friction and with your car it will leave micro sized scratches. Under special lighting these easily can be easily seen. The only thing we can do is add lubricants such as quick detailer to reduce these scratches.
Organization:
- It’s a good idea to keep your towels organized. This can be done in a number of ways from color coding to bagging and tagging in ziplock baggies. This will also keep them nice and clean so nothing gets trapped in those nano sized fibers a billionth the size of your hair.
Wash your towels IMMEDIATELY!:
- Don’t hesitate to wash your towels immediately after use. This allows dirt to come off easily before it gets time to set. I wash my microfibers in warm to hot water using dawn dish washing soap. It does the job very well with a little bit of effort. After I hang dry them, but it’s not bad idea to throw them in the dryer by themselves so they don’t pick up lint from your clothes. You don’t want to keep buying new towels or using dirty contaminated ones.
Keep them bagged:
- Don’t leave them lying around in the garage or flying around your trunk remember they will pick up anything. Just tie them up in a grocery bag to prevent any mishaps.
Microfiber DON’TS:
- Drop on floor, if you do immediately stop usage until washed
- Leave out in open to collect dust and unwanted particles, remember your microfiber is absorbs like gravity.
- Mix them up or cross contaminate chemicals
- Use on extremely greasy/dirty engine or suspension parts. Terry towels are better for those.
The microfiber towel is nothing short of an amazing piece of technology composed of nano fibers so small to a billionth of your hair size. Proper usage of this technological marvel involves proper knowledge and understanding of it. I hope you’ve learned a thing or two about microfiber towels today. It is one of the key tools we use in detailing and before I get into the major processes of detailing I want to first go over in-depth over the small things we over look such as this. Maybe now you’ll think twice about where you put your towels or using them across multiple surfaces. After all, you don’t wanna scratch up your car when you just finished polishing now do you?
This is only the beginning and while an article like this may seem like an unimportant minute detail it all comes together in the end…
- Alvin
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