What is everyone using for keeping their MINI clean and scratch free?
Zaino boys say good cotton towels, I hear others say microfiber is the way to go.
Thanks all.

 

I'm still learning, but it seems to me that even the staunchest advocates of cotton do make allowances for certain microfiber products. The key to using microfiber is getting products that are designed for automotive use and WILL NOT scratch your paint. See, folks are using microfiber for all kinds of chores nowadays....not all are suited to automotive finishes. My 2 cents....I ultimately bought all my microfiber from North American Car Care (...they were running specials!!). I'm sure there are other good vendors out there as well. Earlier I had some ill-chosen microfiber that introduced some scratches to my IB (...which I dealt with) but those cloths are long gone now. Never again will I treat all microfiber the same!

PS-I do have some select cotton products around which I use if I'm unsure, but generally good quality microfiber seem to work better for me.

_________________
'03 IB/W Cooper

 

I always used white cotton towels but have discovered the microfiber towels since I bought Louie. After a year the finish still looks like new. No swirls or fine scratches.
I bought them at a BMW detailing session & I do believe they are North American Car Care. They have a very large one which will dry the entire MINI. I vote for microfiber.

Lois

 

Maybe it was the brand, but the microfiber towels I bought left micro scratches. So I've returned to using cotton flannel polishing cloths.

I have a feeling that all microfiber cloths are going to scratch to some extent because they are made of a synthetic material (ie, they're basically plastic).

I still use microfiber towels for cleaning glass and mirrors, though.

 

I love the Ultimate Drying Towel from N.A. car care (this site) and I have the detail towels which are the same but smaller and come in a pack of three. They soak up a lot of water and leave nothing behind.

I have had a hard time finding 100% cotton made in USA fieldcreat towels. I did find some on sale at Robinsons but they don't work nearly as well as Microfiber.

I would always recommend buying high quality towels and stay away from Wal-Mart etc.

 

Has anyone tried the Big Blue Drying Towel? If so, how do you like it?

http://www.properautocare.com/bigbludryint.html

 

I recommend http://www.pakshak.com/ for micro fiber towels...they work GREAT...just as good as stuff from griots, but without the Griot's Price Tag....check on ebay as pakshak sells them on there as well for less then their website at times.

Also for the cotton towels - I would suggest tearing out the stiching and restiching them with cotton thread...99% of towels that claim to be 100% cotton still use cheap polyester for the stiching and it will scratch.

 

Once you dry your Mini with a Microfiber towel, you will never go back to 100% cotton towels.

Cheers

 

>>Has anyone tried the Big Blue Drying Towel? If so, how do you like it?
>>
>>http://www.properautocare.com/bigbludryint.html

That looks like the same towel that Pakshak carries. I have two of them and they work good. The main thing is to water blade your car after a wash and the towel wil just dry off the remaining water.

Costco also has some good microfiber towels for sale. 12 16x16 towels for $8.79. They are good quality and passed the cd scratch test.

EDIT: I have Pakshak and Costco towels and the Costco ones seem just as good as the Pakshak, but they are made in China instead of Korea. The Costco yellow towels clean very well and are nice and thick. It's a good bargain.

_________________



Despite what others may think, I'm here to help.

 

>>Once you dry your Mini with a Microfiber towel, you will never go back to 100% cotton towels.
>>
>>Cheers

I agree. Costco has the best deal on them. Under $10.00 for a package

 

I'd like to second pakshak.com. Great towels and great service. I much prefer the pakshak microfiber to cotton.

I did a simple test. I took the Zaino recommended 100% American made cotton towel (Fieldcrest) and applied extreme pressure and circular motion to the data side of a CD.

I did the same with a pakshak microfiber towel.

Both did excellent in this test, but the cotton towel did leave very fine micro-marring. The microfiber did not harm the CD at all. I even tried pressing with all my mite with the microfiber towel just to see if I could induce scratches, but could not.

I also like the DF all-natural microfiber towel...made with natural materials, rather than synthetic. They are costly, but they are super soft and work very well. It will not cause any scratching. If you like microfiber but want to avoid synthetic, this is your answer.
http://www.dftowel.com

See ya,
JS

 

One more thing regarding drying...

If you are using towels to dry the car, you might want to consider something much faster, and much more thorough, plus it totally eliminates scratches and elminates 99% of water drips from mirrors, vents, side lights, etc.

It's an electric leaf blower. Try it and you may never towel dry a car again.

See ya,
JS

 

Try using a Depends undergarment for a quick dry....soaks up all the water and does'nt scratch....I also heard light days panty liners work very well but it takes alot of them and people tend to look at you funny...lol...

 

well - when I can't seem to find any Depends, I use 50 grit sandpaper (ok, I'm joking )

I'm always a fan of nice plush white cotton towels for cleaning up big areas, but microfiber is the ticket for detailing work.

and on that note, moving to Detailing 101
Cheers,
Ryan

 

throttle baby throttle.

 

>>One more thing regarding drying...
>>
>>If you are using towels to dry the car, you might want to consider something much faster, and much more thorough, plus it totally eliminates scratches and elminates 99% of water drips from mirrors, vents, side lights, etc.
>>
>>It's an electric leaf blower. Try it and you may never towel dry a car again.
>>


I am about to Royally P-off my wife, when I tell her I am getting a Toro Leaf blower to dry my Mini. She already thinks I am crazy for drying the car with Microfiber towels.

 

My $0.02:

Against the direct recommendations from Sal at Zaino, and based on the many positive comments here on MCO/NAM, I decided to try high quality microfiber towels in the detailing of my all Jet Black MCS. I'd never used anything but cotton before.

I spent good money on high quality towels (both polishing and drying), from a well known vendor (I won't mention the name). I used the Zaino system/methods exactly as directed (save for the micro-fiber versus cotton).

After several months of weekly detailing, and about 14 combined coats of Z5 and Z2, I became frustrated by persistent micro-scratches. Not the obvious power-buffer swirls you get from the local hack detailer, these were very fine and you had to catch them just right in the flourescent garage lights to see them. But they were there; and I didn't like them.

So I went to the local bedding store, purchased a stack of top dollar american cotton bath towels, and cut them up into appropriately sized pieces, discarding all the edging, labels, etc (just like Sal says to). For the next couple weeks I used the cotton exclusively. Within two coats of Z5 all the scratches were gone, never to be seen again.

Lesson learned...... Listen to Sal. My MINI has never seen anything but the cotton since and looks great. No, it looks incredible. And the micro-fiber towels have been relegated to house cleaning duty.

So many have reported great results with the micro fiber; so this may have something to do with the black color. It does show EVERYTHING. I think it has a lot to do with the absurdly soft MINI paint; you breathe on it the wrong way and it scratches (same with the glass BTW). But, I definitely get better results with the pure cotton.

Decide for yourself. For something as important as your MINI, I suggest buying some of both, micro-fiber and cotton, and testing it yourself on your own car.

Best of luck.

Cheers,

James

 

(I'm glad I used the search button; didn't want to start yet another thread on towels...)

Since I've had my MINI, I've been using 100% made in the USA cotton towels as Zaino recommends---no problems.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a sale on SONUS products so I decided to order the microfiber towel package and try them out. Well, they arrived last week and over the weekend I washed the car and applied my spring Zaino treatment.

I liked the drying towel. Worked well.

I did not like the other towels for polishing and buffing. When polishing/wiping off the Zaino (Z2 and detailing spray) the microfiber felt like it was "catching" the surface; like there was more friction. I also noticed more streaking even with turning the towel over to a fresh side. Anyone else notice this? Am I using them incorrectly?

When I switched back to my cotton towels, I got that slight resistance when wiping off the Zaino, but as soon as I turn the towel over, it is really slick and smooth. The cotton towel will actually slide off the bonnet; not so with the microfiber.

So, I think I'm going to stick with cotton for the paint.