Great article and write-up, Mike!
It's always good to be safer than sorry. This adds another safety factor before using MF towels on paint.
I agree with the better to be safe than sorry...
In context for anyone unsure of what that would or could mean....
If you spend all day machine polishing a car to perfection, or even hand polishing a car to perfection, all it would take is ONE form of abrasive particle trapped into the weave of a single microfiber towel, then rubbed over the perfectly polished paint and BOOM all your hard work is undone.
Not just all your hard work (hard work = physical labor especially if you're working by hand), but also all your time and the use of your chemicals and wear-n-tear on your pads and machines, (if you worked by machine).
In every class I teach now whether it's a formal detailing class or a casual project and even my own detailing work, before I wipe a microfiber towel over paint I've worked on I visually and physically inspect the towel.
Here's an example. At my last formal detailing boot camp class my class learned how to use the Rupes Paint Polishing System on a very rare 1962 Chrysler 300, in fact I created a dedicated thread just for this class session.
How to use the Rupes Bigfoot Polisher - Detailing Class
Now keep in mind... this isn't a Kia Rio this is a classic and rare 1962 Chrysler 300 Sport with a FULL RESTORATION of the quality you would see come out of Wayne Carini's F40.com restoration shop.
Except that it had overspray paint on other paint and swirls in the paint. My class fixed all the problems with the car and created a true show car finish by machine polishing using Rupes polishers, pads and products.
BEFORE i let them wipe on the paint however they had to learn how to inspect their towels or they would RISK undoing all their hard work as explained above.
The below is post #7 from the above article...
Wiping off the wax
This is actually a
VERY IMPORTANT step.
The reason this step is important is because if your microfiber towels have any abrasive particles lodged into the fiber the particles will inflict scratches back into the paint and this is what I call working backwards. That is you're undoing all the hard work you did when you removed the swirls and scratches.
So before you take any microfiber towel and wipe the wax, sealant or coating residues off polished paint first take a few moments to both visually look at the towels for contaminants and then feel the towels with your clean bare hand.
A lot of time your hand will detect abrasive contaminants that your eyes could not see and you can either pick them out of the weave or get a different towel. And as a rule you should inspect each towel before use.
If you watch My Classic Car with Dennis Gage you'll see me demonstrate this tip this year in their new season of shows for 2015.
Here's Meghan demonstrating how to inspect a microfiber towel using her hand and after finding "something" she's removing it before folding the towel 4-ways and using it to wipe off the wax.
Then everyone inspects their towels, puts on a pair of microfiber gloves and carefully wipes off the Pinnacle wax for show car results.
And of course... the car came out exactly as it should come out... and that's drop dead gorgeous!
Now we need to bring out the
Autogeek Microfiber Towel Inspector.
:dblthumb2: