Any good suggestions on what/how to clean the 'wax on' towel/cloth you use when you wax the car.

I won't suggest throwing it 'in the wash' because everything else will be left with a residue.

Any clever ideas?

 

Wash it by hand with dish soap. That's what I do with my sealant applicator pads.

 

I wash all of my micro-fiber towels in the washer with a special detergent called Micro-Restore, specifically designed for the task. I wait until I have one or two dozen towels to wash and then do a load.

-Keith

 

I started using the Meguiar's Even-Coat Applicator Pad. They fit perfectly in your hand, greatly reduce to nearly eliminate fatigue, wash up easily in the kitchen sink with some liquid soap, and are covered in microfiber. To top it off, at $3 for 2 of them, I use them a few times and throw them out.

BTW, they do a great job of applying a nice even finish as well!

 

Never use a towel to apply wax. Use a quality applicator. Towels crush, gum up, matt down and do not apply the wax evenly. More importantly, they allow uneven finger pressure and can easily cause swirls themselves.

Pure foam applicators offer the best, most uniform application. They are better than the terry cloth kind, but terry cloth is acceptable for light wax applications.

As for applying any abrasive, ONLY use a pure foam applicator. Even the terry covered ones can ball up and matt down and don't apply pressure evenly.

I wash all my applicators in the washing machine.

 

i use those cotton applicator pads they sell at autozone, but the ones that
are in a shrink wrap. I use it once and toss it.

I use a soft cotton under shirt (that have been machine washed a
couple of times) to remove wax and throw it out as well.

 

Yikes!

You're car is beautiful so obviously you have been lucky. The nap of t-shirts is so short and dense that is any debris gets into it it will press against the surface and cause a swirl. You really should use a quality microfiber to be safer.

There are polishing towels and quick detailing towels:

Polishing Towels are designed primarily to remove dried wax off of the paint surface. The weave is short and the many thousands of loops of the fiber can easily grab the excess residue off the surface of the paint without scratching. You can get them edgeless as well. The lack of a thick edge binding means this towel won’t scratch even if you accidentally rub against the edge while polishing.

Quick Detailing Microfiber towels are plusher, softer and more absorbent than Polishing towels. Quick detailing towels have a longer nap and provide more cushioning against the surface. This is perfect for wiping off and absorbing quick detailing spray. The long nap is also beneficial because it can grab loose dirt and debris any pull it up into the nap and away from the surface helping to avoid scratching. Because detailing towels are so soft and pliable they don’t always remove dried-on wax as well as polish towels.

 

^^ thanks for the tip...but i don't think i would change anything considering
how my car looks nice, but not a show car. the undershirts that i use are
soft and does not cause any visible swirls.

my cars are driven hard..just not in the wet and snow cause i hate washing
cars.