Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
Must Have Microfiber! At least my opinion 
This is not an exhaustive thread but I did just take the time to type out a reply in another thread AND take and process some pictures so I thought I would share what works for me and anyone looking for help or direction, if you trust me, you can take what you want from the below.
For Prep Washing
Most of the cars I wash are PREP WASHES. This means I'm washing the car to prep it for machine polishing and then sealing. This could be compounding, polising and waxing or just poishing and istalling a ceramic coating, or claying and using a one-step cleaner wax. For this type of wash I love the Microfiber Chenille Wash Mitts. I show these in all my classes and use them myself when I detail cars professionally. I ALWAYS recommend buying in bulk so you have a back-up ready to go in case the current mitt becomes contaminated during the wash process. Contaminated means you get road tar on it or you drop it.
Micro-Chenille Wash Mitt 4-Pack
For Maintenance Washing
If you take care of your Microfiber Chenille Wash Mitts, or use a fresh new mitt for maintenance washing then these mitts are good for maintenance washing too. IF you want of finer or fleecier mitt then GYEON offers two very high quality wash mitts BUT the SECRET to using these SAFELY is keeping them clean. The longer fibers can easily trap abrasive stuff common to washing cars, like sticks and leaves, dirt, dead bugs, etc. Long fiber wash mitts are hard to clean. I guess you can get magnifying glass and some tweezers and inspect and pick out debris OR keep them clean.
This first one is a fleece microfiber - I have a review for it somewhere. Google the name of the product and he words mike Phillips review
Individual strands of microfiber. NOTE: these are NOT LOOPED. A LOOP style fiber traps dirt IN the loop.
This is lambswool - it was once a lamb.
VERY FINE individual fibers that also are NOT looped.
If you turn the wash mitt inside out....
You can see the leather SKIN or hide from the lamb.
NOTE: There are a lot of GOLD FLEESE wash mitts on the market that are cheap because they are NOT REAL animal fur or skin, they are basically a form of plastic and they will matte-up as you use them and then scratch your car's paint.
Drying Towels for Prep Wash
Again - along the lines of doing a PREP WASH - I like the 20" by 40" Guzzler Towels. They have a waffle weave design that keeps them from becoming contaminated since there's no loose fibers for dirt to bury into and lodge. You can wash and dry them and then use them over and over again. They are microfiber so they are soft and for a PREP WASH they work great. I can dry dang near any car with three of these towels. Here's a 3-pack
3 Pack The Supreme Guzzler Waffle Weave Towels - 20 x 40 inches
Drying Towels for Maintenance Wash
I really like the Griots Garage PFM Terry Weave Drying Towel for drying cars I've already detailed or a Maintenance Wash. Because these have a nap or LOOP of fiber it is very important that you keep them clean and uncontaminated. In other words - don't drop them on the ground and don't drag them over the ground when drying lower body panels.
Towels for Removing Compounds
When it comes to wiping compound residue off paint it tends to be a little bulkier than polish residue. What helps to make wiping off a compound, especially if it's hot or the compound is sticky, is a robust microfiber towel that looks and feels more like terrycloth than like microfiber. This difference is called,
Stout
These types of microfiber towels are not soft and limp but more stout or course. They are still GENTLE to paint surfaces because they use microscopic fibers as compared to cotton fibers used to make terrycloth, (like a bath towel), so they keep you from working backwards when wiping off compound.
Working backwards in this context means putting scratches in wiping off the compound when you just removed them by working the compound over the paint.
And - because in most cases if you are compounding paint, the normal secondary step would be to POLISH paint. So if a more stout towel were to induce fine marring that's okay, the polishing step will remove this marring.
The BIG PICTURE is for you to remove the compound residue fast and without tiring yourself. Most of us compound a car are compounding the ENITRE CAR. That's a lot of wiping. Then when you move on to polishing you move up to a higher quality and softer towel. This what I call working forward in the process. You think this is good stuff to know - try taking ANY of my classes. I do a literal BRAIN DUMP with all this type of info and more. There's really no one else out there that either knows this deep stuff or verbalizes it in a class let alone TYPE out the words for the world to read. Who else writes substantial how-to articles? :laughing:
The two towels I show below also have a nap or a LOOP of FIBER. This LOOP OF FIBER when pushed into and over a film of compound residue SLICES into the film and this helps to break it open, break it up and thus make removing it easier on you and the paint. It's hard to find microfiber towels like these because most towel manufactures focus on SOFT not STOUT. Also in my experience in this industry, no one has ever explained the above via the written word or in a video. I know this stuff because I do this stuff and I've been doing it for a long time.
Here's two great compound removal towels.
The Rag Company - 16x16 FTW Premium Twist Loop Towel - Light Blue
I'm telling you this is a good compound removal towel but the store page reads like The Rag Company recommends it for
Cleaning Windows, Glass, and Mirrors; Polishing Chrome and other Shiny Metals
So use your own judgment. These towels are the correct size for towels which is 16" by 16"
When you fold a 16" by 16" towel into quarters,
It fits your hand perfectly and you now have 8 sides to wipe with AND plenty of cushion to spread out the pressure from you hand and fingers. This does NOT work for towels that are rectangular in shape. There are no rectangular shaped towels in my classes.
Here you can see the loop style fibers - similar to a quality terrycloth bath towel but more gentle to car paint.
Griots Garage PFM Wax Removal Towel
Like the above towel from the Rag Company, this towel is stout. It also has a nap or loop of fiber. What makes it different and unique is it is 9" by 9" - this makes it a 2-sided towel. You don't fold it, you use one side and then the other side. This also means less cushion to spread out the pressure from your palm and fingers but for wiping off compounds that's okay for the deep reasons I shared above.
Griots Garage PFM Wax Removal Towel - Set of 4
Towels for removing Polishes, Waxes, Sealants, AIOs and Coatings
If a towel is soft enough to remove a polish without causing harm to the paint then it's soft enough to wipe off finishing waxes, finishing sealants, cleaner/waxes and the final buff for removing high spots after applying a ceramic paint coating. Here's what I've switched my classes over to and I use myself. They are SIMPLE and cost effective. Here's why I like them,
1: Edgeless
They have no seemed edge. A seemed edge is not a bad thing because if you hold a towel CORRECTLY you don't wipe with the edges. Duh. But by not having an edge they become bubba-proof and that's a bonus for newbies and people that don't really care about good technique.
2: Low pile length.
Long fibers mean it's easy for contaminants to LODGE into the fibers and NOT wash out and thus contaminate the towel and eventually scratch paint.
3: Low pile length means EASY and FAST to inspect.
If you have not read my article or watched my video on inspecting towels do so here.
4: Same weave on both sides.
I waste a lot of time trying answering the question - which side for what? - when using towels that have a flat weave on one side and a fluffy weave on the other side. I teach a lot of classes, I dare to say I have more people (paying classes), go through my classes than any other instructor and any other class so I get asked a LOT of questions by a LOT of people and the towel questions are good and they always come up. By switching my classes over to the Forrest Green Edgeless towels I save time and avoid this question. Not a big deal to someone that doesn't answer a lot of questions but a it is something I deal with and I like to make my classes fun and easy.
5: Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
By this I mean, these towels are not to hard, not too soft they're just right for most paint related car detailing duties. They are not perfect for wiping off compounds but they work and I have something to share for this.
6: Did I mention they are soft?
Isn't that one of the reasons we use microfiber instead of terrycloth or other options? Clearcoats are SCRATCH-SENSITIVE - this means even though they are harder than traditional paints they still scratch easy and of course there are some very soft clearcoats and anyone that has worked on soft paint knows a soft towel is crucial.
My personal inspection
I inspected each one of these towels and LOOKED at the fiber weave and simply FELT them and yeperdoo - they all feel the same except the white towel. Could just be me or maybe it's the processing the towel goes through to make it white, but it feels softer and more limp. Nothing wrong with that as it makes the towel better at jobs where you need a towel that is less stout and more gentle, for example for doing the final buff on very soft paints.
Links to each color in the order I show them in this picture
Carbon Black Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Forrest Green Edgeless Polishing Cloth
Sky Blue Edgeless Polishing Cloth
Crimson Red Edgeless Polishing Cloth
Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Storm Gray Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Arctic White Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Panel Wipe Towels
For using a solvent to chemically strip paint before installing a ceramic paint coating, what you want is a soft towel but you want some girth or stoutness to the towel.
Why?
Because if a towel is too soft and fluffy, when wiping a solvent over the paint the towel will tend to fold and roll-over itself and this means you're fighting the towel to do one of the MOST IMPORTANT aspects of installing a coating and that's removing any trace oils or other substances OFF the paint without at the same time SCRATCHING the paint. You see, solvents are NOT great LUBRICANTS. So it takes more skill to chemically strip the paint on a car without marring the paint at the same time. And for most of us, when we get to the step of chemically stripping the paint it's AFTER we've done all these steps,
The above on the average passenger size car will take once person, working fast, about 8 to 10 hours. Depends on how much time they spend on their cell phone instead of working. So by the time you get to the chemical stripping step you're tired. And NOW you need to get your second wind and step up your skill level and CAREFULLY wipe paint that you have just perfected with a liquid that is NOT a good LUBRICANT.
What helps is the right towel and a LOT of them. Why a LOT of towels to chemically strip paint? Because theoretically, if you wipe a section of paint or a panel after polishing that means there is now polishing oil residues on that side of the towel. If you continue wiping with that side of the towel you will be doing what's called,
Cross Contamination
You won't be removing trace polishing oils you'll be moving them around. If your reading this and have know idea what I'm talking about I cover all of this in my classes and of course I have multiple articles on this stuff here on this forum. If you would like a link to any article, reply to this thread. You cannot REPLY to this thread unless you are a member of this form. So join the forum
>>>Click to join the forum<<<
If you send me an e-mail instead of joining the forum I take your e-mail and post it to the forum, answer you and then send you the link. I don't answer questions via e-mail that should be posted to the forum. I simply don't have the typing time to type out in-depth answering and info for one set of eyeballs.
Here's the towels I use and show in my classes...
GYEON Bald Wipe Microfiber Towel - 16" x 16"
Hope this helps....
This is not an exhaustive thread but I did just take the time to type out a reply in another thread AND take and process some pictures so I thought I would share what works for me and anyone looking for help or direction, if you trust me, you can take what you want from the below.
For Prep Washing
Most of the cars I wash are PREP WASHES. This means I'm washing the car to prep it for machine polishing and then sealing. This could be compounding, polising and waxing or just poishing and istalling a ceramic coating, or claying and using a one-step cleaner wax. For this type of wash I love the Microfiber Chenille Wash Mitts. I show these in all my classes and use them myself when I detail cars professionally. I ALWAYS recommend buying in bulk so you have a back-up ready to go in case the current mitt becomes contaminated during the wash process. Contaminated means you get road tar on it or you drop it.
Micro-Chenille Wash Mitt 4-Pack
For Maintenance Washing
If you take care of your Microfiber Chenille Wash Mitts, or use a fresh new mitt for maintenance washing then these mitts are good for maintenance washing too. IF you want of finer or fleecier mitt then GYEON offers two very high quality wash mitts BUT the SECRET to using these SAFELY is keeping them clean. The longer fibers can easily trap abrasive stuff common to washing cars, like sticks and leaves, dirt, dead bugs, etc. Long fiber wash mitts are hard to clean. I guess you can get magnifying glass and some tweezers and inspect and pick out debris OR keep them clean.
This first one is a fleece microfiber - I have a review for it somewhere. Google the name of the product and he words mike Phillips review
Individual strands of microfiber. NOTE: these are NOT LOOPED. A LOOP style fiber traps dirt IN the loop.
This is lambswool - it was once a lamb.
VERY FINE individual fibers that also are NOT looped.
If you turn the wash mitt inside out....
You can see the leather SKIN or hide from the lamb.
NOTE: There are a lot of GOLD FLEESE wash mitts on the market that are cheap because they are NOT REAL animal fur or skin, they are basically a form of plastic and they will matte-up as you use them and then scratch your car's paint.
Drying Towels for Prep Wash
Again - along the lines of doing a PREP WASH - I like the 20" by 40" Guzzler Towels. They have a waffle weave design that keeps them from becoming contaminated since there's no loose fibers for dirt to bury into and lodge. You can wash and dry them and then use them over and over again. They are microfiber so they are soft and for a PREP WASH they work great. I can dry dang near any car with three of these towels. Here's a 3-pack
3 Pack The Supreme Guzzler Waffle Weave Towels - 20 x 40 inches
Drying Towels for Maintenance Wash
I really like the Griots Garage PFM Terry Weave Drying Towel for drying cars I've already detailed or a Maintenance Wash. Because these have a nap or LOOP of fiber it is very important that you keep them clean and uncontaminated. In other words - don't drop them on the ground and don't drag them over the ground when drying lower body panels.
Towels for Removing Compounds
When it comes to wiping compound residue off paint it tends to be a little bulkier than polish residue. What helps to make wiping off a compound, especially if it's hot or the compound is sticky, is a robust microfiber towel that looks and feels more like terrycloth than like microfiber. This difference is called,
Stout
These types of microfiber towels are not soft and limp but more stout or course. They are still GENTLE to paint surfaces because they use microscopic fibers as compared to cotton fibers used to make terrycloth, (like a bath towel), so they keep you from working backwards when wiping off compound.
Working backwards in this context means putting scratches in wiping off the compound when you just removed them by working the compound over the paint.
And - because in most cases if you are compounding paint, the normal secondary step would be to POLISH paint. So if a more stout towel were to induce fine marring that's okay, the polishing step will remove this marring.
The BIG PICTURE is for you to remove the compound residue fast and without tiring yourself. Most of us compound a car are compounding the ENITRE CAR. That's a lot of wiping. Then when you move on to polishing you move up to a higher quality and softer towel. This what I call working forward in the process. You think this is good stuff to know - try taking ANY of my classes. I do a literal BRAIN DUMP with all this type of info and more.
There's really no one else out there that either knows this deep stuff or verbalizes it in a class let alone TYPE out the words for the world to read. Who else writes substantial how-to articles? :laughing:The two towels I show below also have a nap or a LOOP of FIBER. This LOOP OF FIBER when pushed into and over a film of compound residue SLICES into the film and this helps to break it open, break it up and thus make removing it easier on you and the paint. It's hard to find microfiber towels like these because most towel manufactures focus on SOFT not STOUT. Also in my experience in this industry, no one has ever explained the above via the written word or in a video. I know this stuff because I do this stuff and I've been doing it for a long time.
Here's two great compound removal towels.
The Rag Company - 16x16 FTW Premium Twist Loop Towel - Light Blue
I'm telling you this is a good compound removal towel but the store page reads like The Rag Company recommends it for
Cleaning Windows, Glass, and Mirrors; Polishing Chrome and other Shiny Metals
So use your own judgment. These towels are the correct size for towels which is 16" by 16"
When you fold a 16" by 16" towel into quarters,
It fits your hand perfectly and you now have 8 sides to wipe with AND plenty of cushion to spread out the pressure from you hand and fingers. This does NOT work for towels that are rectangular in shape. There are no rectangular shaped towels in my classes.
Here you can see the loop style fibers - similar to a quality terrycloth bath towel but more gentle to car paint.
Griots Garage PFM Wax Removal Towel
Like the above towel from the Rag Company, this towel is stout. It also has a nap or loop of fiber. What makes it different and unique is it is 9" by 9" - this makes it a 2-sided towel. You don't fold it, you use one side and then the other side. This also means less cushion to spread out the pressure from your palm and fingers but for wiping off compounds that's okay for the deep reasons I shared above.
Griots Garage PFM Wax Removal Towel - Set of 4
Towels for removing Polishes, Waxes, Sealants, AIOs and Coatings
If a towel is soft enough to remove a polish without causing harm to the paint then it's soft enough to wipe off finishing waxes, finishing sealants, cleaner/waxes and the final buff for removing high spots after applying a ceramic paint coating. Here's what I've switched my classes over to and I use myself. They are SIMPLE and cost effective. Here's why I like them,
1: Edgeless
They have no seemed edge. A seemed edge is not a bad thing because if you hold a towel CORRECTLY you don't wipe with the edges. Duh. But by not having an edge they become bubba-proof and that's a bonus for newbies and people that don't really care about good technique.
2: Low pile length.
Long fibers mean it's easy for contaminants to LODGE into the fibers and NOT wash out and thus contaminate the towel and eventually scratch paint.
3: Low pile length means EASY and FAST to inspect.
If you have not read my article or watched my video on inspecting towels do so here.
4: Same weave on both sides.
I waste a lot of time trying answering the question - which side for what? - when using towels that have a flat weave on one side and a fluffy weave on the other side. I teach a lot of classes, I dare to say I have more people (paying classes), go through my classes than any other instructor and any other class so I get asked a LOT of questions by a LOT of people and the towel questions are good and they always come up. By switching my classes over to the Forrest Green Edgeless towels I save time and avoid this question. Not a big deal to someone that doesn't answer a lot of questions but a it is something I deal with and I like to make my classes fun and easy.
5: Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
By this I mean, these towels are not to hard, not too soft they're just right for most paint related car detailing duties. They are not perfect for wiping off compounds but they work and I have something to share for this.
6: Did I mention they are soft?
Isn't that one of the reasons we use microfiber instead of terrycloth or other options? Clearcoats are SCRATCH-SENSITIVE - this means even though they are harder than traditional paints they still scratch easy and of course there are some very soft clearcoats and anyone that has worked on soft paint knows a soft towel is crucial.
My personal inspection
I inspected each one of these towels and LOOKED at the fiber weave and simply FELT them and yeperdoo - they all feel the same except the white towel. Could just be me or maybe it's the processing the towel goes through to make it white, but it feels softer and more limp. Nothing wrong with that as it makes the towel better at jobs where you need a towel that is less stout and more gentle, for example for doing the final buff on very soft paints.
Links to each color in the order I show them in this picture
Carbon Black Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Forrest Green Edgeless Polishing Cloth
Sky Blue Edgeless Polishing Cloth
Crimson Red Edgeless Polishing Cloth
Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Storm Gray Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Arctic White Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Panel Wipe Towels
For using a solvent to chemically strip paint before installing a ceramic paint coating, what you want is a soft towel but you want some girth or stoutness to the towel.
Why?
Because if a towel is too soft and fluffy, when wiping a solvent over the paint the towel will tend to fold and roll-over itself and this means you're fighting the towel to do one of the MOST IMPORTANT aspects of installing a coating and that's removing any trace oils or other substances OFF the paint without at the same time SCRATCHING the paint. You see, solvents are NOT great LUBRICANTS. So it takes more skill to chemically strip the paint on a car without marring the paint at the same time. And for most of us, when we get to the step of chemically stripping the paint it's AFTER we've done all these steps,
- Washing
- Chemical decontamination
- Mechanical decontamination
- Drying
- Taping-off
- Compounding
- Polishing
The above on the average passenger size car will take once person, working fast, about 8 to 10 hours. Depends on how much time they spend on their cell phone instead of working. So by the time you get to the chemical stripping step you're tired. And NOW you need to get your second wind and step up your skill level and CAREFULLY wipe paint that you have just perfected with a liquid that is NOT a good LUBRICANT.
What helps is the right towel and a LOT of them. Why a LOT of towels to chemically strip paint? Because theoretically, if you wipe a section of paint or a panel after polishing that means there is now polishing oil residues on that side of the towel. If you continue wiping with that side of the towel you will be doing what's called,
Cross Contamination
You won't be removing trace polishing oils you'll be moving them around. If your reading this and have know idea what I'm talking about I cover all of this in my classes and of course I have multiple articles on this stuff here on this forum. If you would like a link to any article, reply to this thread. You cannot REPLY to this thread unless you are a member of this form. So join the forum
>>>Click to join the forum<<<
If you send me an e-mail instead of joining the forum I take your e-mail and post it to the forum, answer you and then send you the link. I don't answer questions via e-mail that should be posted to the forum. I simply don't have the typing time to type out in-depth answering and info for one set of eyeballs.
Here's the towels I use and show in my classes...
GYEON Bald Wipe Microfiber Towel - 16" x 16"
Hope this helps....
