A successful auto detailing depends on having the right special microfiber auto detailing towels readily on hand. You should also keep them as clean and maintained as the cars they're servicing.
If it helps, you can sort them out by color coding to prevent cross-contamination between towels you use to buff up wax to towels used to apply wax, for example. Having color-coded towels should also help you out when it comes to keeping the towels from contaminating each other when you put them in the washing machine or wash tub.
Towel Organization
- Grease and Tar Towels: These shop towels are used for removal of grease from your doorjambs and engine compartments. Usually, you want to get your hands on inexpensive towels, used bathroom towels made of cotton, or frayed or old microfiber towels for this job. Don't wash these towels because the grease can bleed into your other textiles. You can use these to remove tar overspray too.
- Polishing Towels: Microfiber towels are best used as polishing towels. They can remove sealants, wax, and polish completely for buffing or used for your final wipe down. Compared to cotton, these towels last much longer, are certified lint-free, and do an excellent job when it comes to adding polish and shine to your car. Don't dry your microfiber polishing towels with other towel types because they're so absorbent that they could get lint or residue from other towel types.
- Window Towels: If you're using towels to clean mirrors, plastic, and glass, then you should reserve those towels for cleanup of those items only. The reason for this is because you don't want lint from cotton towels or residue from other towel types to contaminate your microfiber towels that are reserved for window usage. They're specifically used exclusively on windows to keep them from making streaks or mucking things up with lint smears.
- Interior Fabric Component Towels: For fabric upholstery like velour, carpets, and headliners, you should use a cotton Turkish towel. The idea here is to find a way to scrub and remove dirty soap water from your upholstery. Don't use any dyed towels because they lack absorption powers. These towel types make for excellent utility towels, but don't use them as a final wipe down towel of sorts. Polishing towels should be used for final wipe downs.
- Interior Vinyl or Leather Component Towels: The cleaning and detailing of leather or vinyl interior components can be done with the assistance of microfiber towels. This towel type can clean up leather and vinyl without scratching or ruining them. Furthermore, you should get 16 inches by 16 inches microfiber towels with a different fiber mesh from your glass-cleaning or car-polishing microfiber towels. These are perfect for cleaning leather seats, soft and hard vinyl trim, consoles, door panels, dashboards, and the like.