WHAT IS MICROFIBER?

Microfiber is the terminology used to describe ultra-fine manufactured fibers and the name given to the technology of developing these fibers.  Fibers made using microfiber technology, produce fibers which weigh less than 0.1 denier.  The fabrics made from these extra-fine fibers provide a superior hand, a gentle drape and incredible softness.
Comparatively, microfibers are two times finer than silk, three times finer than cotton, eight times finer than wool, and one hundred times finer than a human hair.  Currently, there are four types of synthetic microfibers being produced.  These include acrylic, nylon, polyester and rayon.  In this article, I will be discussing the most common blend of microfiber material used in automotive detailing applications; nylon and polyester.

Automotive microfiber is created by combining two DuPont fiber inventions: polyester and polyamide (nylon).  The polyamide is used as the core of the hybrid fiber (generally 20 to 30% of the content) and the polyester is the outer skin (70 to 80%).  Each fiber has specific qualities that, when properly blended, can be used to weave functionally specific fabrics.  For the purposes of this discussion, I’m specifically referring to toweling and other automotive detailing products.

The best way to understand microfiber engineered for cleaning is to look at a cross section of the fiber itself.  As you can see in the diagram below, the fiber is sliced into wedges (polyester) and attached to spokes (polyamide).  Changing the fiber design allows cloth to be woven that scrubs, polishes or absorbs (e.g., functionally specific fabric).  This was not previously possible.  In the design pictured, the polyester wedges have the ability to scrape away microscopic bits of dirt while the polyamide spokes create a wicking action that pulls liquid into the fiber.  Many microfiber yarn manufactures claim their microfiber yarn will absorb seven to eight times its weight in water, nearly double the capacity of cotton.

AUTOMOTIVE MICROFIBER PRODUCTS

There is a diverse offering of microfiber products for automotive detailing, including towels, applicators, gloves, dusters and wash mitts.  In the towels category alone, you will find dozens of different weaves, material weights, fabric blends, colors and sizes.  It’s almost dizzying when you look at the different products side-by-side.  Here’s how I categorize microfiber towels for my own use:

1.  General Purpose – This is typically a microfiber towel (16″ by 16″) with a standard terry cloth weave and an 80/20 blend of polyester and polyamide.  The towel has no specific purpose, and will be equally adept wiping paint, glass, vinyl, plastic and leather.  This towel will have a medium thickness (plush-ness) nap.  If you do a lot of quick detailing on your car, this will be the towel you use most frequently.

2.  Glass & Polishing – Microfiber cloths that work well for polishing and glass cleaning seem to have the same basic characteristics.  First, the towel should be 100% lint free.  In most cases, this means the weave is going to have a shorter nap than a general purpose towel.  Many people believe that a good glass towel will leave as little water as possible so the droplets will evaporate without leaving a spot.  A good glass towel needs scrubbing power to successfully remove the residues that cause streaking.  It’s the same characteristic that makes a good polishing cloth.

3.  Drying – There are two different microfiber toweling weaves that make good drying towels: terry cloth and waffle (Piqué) weave.  I have found that a short terry loop or one of the offset (longer on one side than the other) terry loops work well for drying.  If you choose a microfiber terry cloth with a heavy, plush nap, you won’t be able to wring it out when it gets wet.  My favorite drying towel material is the Piqué fabric that mimics a waffle pattern.  It has the ability to wick up water like nothing else I’ve found or tested.  According to Leo Cerruti, a manufacturer of natural microfiber products, “[Piqué fabric] isn’t more absorbent  than terry but the ridges act as hundreds of little squeegees which push the water up into the cups giving the fabric time to absorb.” As with the terry material, it’s best to find a fabric that’s not too heavy, or you won’t be able to wring it out when it gets saturated.

4.  Cleaning – There are a few microfiber weaves that are marketed specifically as “cleaning towels”.  The nap is very tight and course, and the microfiber strands are not split.  These towels have very little absorbency.  The intended purpose of these towels is janitorial work, not car detailing.  What I have found works best for me are hand towel size waffle weave towels and polishing towels.

5.  Final Buffing – A couple years ago microfiber “suede” fabrics hit the clothing market.  These fabrics crossed over into the automobile detailing arena as final wipe towels and final buffing bonnets.  I have not been overly impressed with the fabric for automotive use.  It is soft, but it does not seem to perform any better on paint (for final buffing) than a general purpose towel.

You may have seen microfiber towels labeled for other uses, but I have not found anything to date that does not fit into the five categories I listed above.

After buying and using microfiber products for more than 1 year now, I have made some interesting observations:

1.  Look and feel is deceptive.  You cannot judge how a microfiber product will perform by its look or feel alone.  You must test.  Some towels that look and feel very soft and plush may, in reality, leave micro marring on a delicate paint finish.

2.  Color makes a significant difference.  Dark colors will not feel as soft as light colors.  You can take towels of the exact same fabric that are dyed different colors and the darker towel will not feel as plush or soft.

3.  Edge binding makes the most significant difference in towel safety (as a detailing towel).  Towels surge bound with heavy polyester thread or improperly cut by a hot wire are more likely to cause micro marring on your paintwork.

4.  The weave determines the best function of the towel, not the material blend or weight.  While it’s true that polyamide is more absorbent than polyester, a towel made from a blend of 70% polyester and 30% polyamide is not necessarily a better drying towel than an 80/20 blend (respectively).  The weave and fiber treatment (splitting) will determine the wicking ability of the towel as much or more than the material blend.

When comparing quality microfiber towels, here’s what you need to know to make an intelligent buying decision:

1.  Towel density is important.  Density is a measure of fibers per square inch of fabric.  The range for quality microfiber is 90,000 to 225,000 fibers per square inch.  Generally speaking, the higher the fiber count the better the towel will absorb water and clean.

2.  The ratio of the polyester and polyamide blend is important.  While 80% polyester and 20% polyamide is typical, a 70/30 blend will absorb water faster.  As polyamide is much more expensive than polyester, you can expect to pay more for a 70/30 blend.

3.  Make sure you look at the weave and fabric thickness (plush-ness) of the towel.  Depending on the specific task the cloth is designed to perform, the fiber ends may be hooked (for cleaning), feathered (for polishing and glass cleaning), or tufted (for drying).

4.  We all know the saying; it costs more to make quality.  Microfiber is no different.  Quality construction is not always obvious, so let me share some observations.  The biggest complaint with automotive microfiber is that towels with cheap edging scratch your paint.  There are two possible reasons.  First, the factory uses a hot wire system to cut their towels.  If not properly adjusted, or if a cheap machine is used, the hot wire will melt the fabric.  When polyester and nylon melt, they turn into hard plastic.  The second complaint is that the towel creates excessive lint.  Microfiber lint is caused by towels with a high pile or a broad weave using a fiber split that’s inappropriate.  The high pile or loose weave allow the fibers to break off, creating lint.  The same split fiber used in a towel with a higher fabric density will lint less or not at all.  Don’t assume that a towel that does not lint is a high quality towel.  The cheapest towels don’t lint because they do not have split fibers.

MAINTAINING MICROFIBER

I’ve read a lot of tips on how to clean and care for microfiber.  People seem to be all over the map with their recommendations.  It’s really very simple.

The best general purpose cleaner is a liquid detergent.  It’s better to use too little than too much.  Liquid is recommended over powder because some powders do not completely dissolve and the granules will lodge in the toweling.

Wash in cold water only.  Warm water can be tolerated, but hot water cannot.  Polyester and polyamide both shrink in hot water.  If you wash in hot water the fibers will shrink and the towel will not perform as intended.

Do not use fabric softeners of any kind.  The softener will become lodged in the microfiber reducing its ability to absorb water, clean and pick up dirt.  In short, you’ll have a soft towel that’s useless.

Do not dry above medium heat.  Treat microfiber towels the same as you would your delicate clothing.  Drying with high heat is worse that washing in hot water.

At Sonus, we have created a special detergent specifically designed for washing detailing products out of microfiber and foam detailing accessories. Sonus Der Wunder Wasche  is a highly concentrated liquid detergent that a cleaning solution was developed specifically for cleaning microfiber towels.  Sonus Der Wunder Wasche is an active cleaner designed to restore microfiber towels, wash mitts, applicators and foam buffing pads to their as-new condition. Der Wunder Wasche is an engineered blend of micro cleaning agents designed to lift, emulsify and suspend waxes, polish residue, oils, proteins, silicones and soil for complete removal in the rinse water.

The Der Wunder Wasche formula cleans without bleach and softens through natural fiber lifting. With regular use, Der Wunder Washe extends the life of all microfiber textiles and foam pads.

The future of this wonderful technology is very bright.  Manufacturers are developing unique ways to deal with towel bindings to eliminate potential paint scratching problems.  Competition from the low-cost providers is keeping the quality towel prices in check.  We should expect to see better fabrics with new weaves and even higher thread counts in the near future

Teflon Car Wax

The Great Pretender

Teflon car wax is one of the biggest misunderstandings in the car care industry. There has been no evidence to substantiate the claims of products using this ingredient. Teflon, DuPont’s trade name for PFTE, gained notoriety as a non-stick surface from its use on frying pans. So someone got the brilliant idea that creating a Teflon wax for cars would keep bugs and dirt from sticking to the paint. The fact that nothing sticks to Teflon is one of the biggest reasons why it is not effective in waxes. It will not stick to paint either! In order for Teflon to stick to the cars paint, you would have to rough up the surface to create many microscopic scratches in the surface. Then the Teflon would have to be forced into those scratches with pressure and a temperature of greater than 572 degrees F. That’s how the finish is applied to frying pans. Do you really want to do that to your paint? And would that achieve your desired result? In actual fact, calling most of these products Teflon car wax is a misnomer. There is only a small percentage of this ingredient added to the wax. Not enough to have any real impact on the effectiveness of the product. But clever marketing continues to keep it in demand. Another popular way to market Teflon is as an autommotive paint sealant. Dealers and detailers are charging as much as $500 or more to coat a vehicle with Teflon. They tell their customers this sealant will last for 5 years without anything but periodic washings to maintain the shine. There is absolutely nothing that can be put on a vehicle finish for a long term maintenance free shine. The only way to keep you car looking great is with regular periodic cleaning and polishing.

HOW DOES DETAILING CLAY WORK

I frequently see detailing clay marketing information that reads something like this: “…clay pulls contamination off of your paint…” This statement sounds pretty ridiculous when you realize that you must lubricate the surface you’re 

cleaning with the detail clay. How in the world do you pull on something that’s wet and slippery? This myth was born from a fear of telling people the truth. Clay is an abrasive paint care system. Yet used properly, detailing clay is not abrasive to your car’s paint; it is abrasive to paint contamination.

Oh my goodness… did I really say that clay is an abrasive? You bet I did.

Read the patents on detailing clay and they describe very clearly that it is a mixture of a clay base (polybutene) and various abrasives. The primary detailing clay patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,727,993) identifies three unique elements (claim 57) used in concert:

“A method of polishing a protrusion or stain from a surface comprising; applying a plastic flexible tool to the surface, the plastic flexible tool comprising a plastic flexible material having mixed therewith an abrasive comprising grains from about 3 to 50 m in diameter and; applying a force to the plastic flexible tool such that a polishing force per area is applied by the plastic flexible tool to a protrusion or stain on the surface, and such that the amount of force per area applied to the surface is less than the amount of force per area applied to the protrusion or stain.”

Detailing clay is an abrasive system. If not used properly, detailing clay can cause light surface marring. There’s no need to fear if you use proper lubrication.

An easy way to think about detailing clay is simply this: detailing clay is a “selective polish” with a built-in applicator. Its job is to “polish away” dirt and surface contamination from paint, glass, chrome and plastic without polishing the surface itself. A pretty simple concept, isn’t it? Detailing clay technology has been around for many years, with roots dating back to the 1930’s. That’s when the idea of combining polybutene (a soft plastic resin material) with abrasives was first put to paper.

Enough with the techno-speak; how does detailing clay really work?   What I 
learned from my research and speaking with experts is simply this:

• Detailing clay works by hydroplaning (floating) over the surface you’re cleaning on a thin layer of clay lubricant.
• When the clay (polish) encounters surface contamination, it abrasively grinds it away.
• Detailing clay shears off any foreign material above the level surface of the paint.

Those are scary words to a car enthusiast, but it’s an accurate description. You can see the end results of this “grinding” work by inspecting your clay. Does your clay have large particles sticking to it or does it have what appears to be a dirty film? It’s the latter, of course, and it’s proof that your clay is doing its job gently polishing away contamination.

Detailing clay formulation determines the optimal function of the clay and its potential to do damage when used improperly. As an example, professional grade clay that’s designed to remove paint overspray is very firm and contains abrasives equivalent to heavy rubbing compound. Used properly it will remove heavy overspray without damaging the paint. Used improperly, it can leave some pretty significant surface marring. That’s why it’s a professional product.

Most consumer grade detailing clays are designed to be used as an annual or semi-annual paint maintenance tool prior to polishing and waxing. At this frequency, these detailing clay products work great. Simply use the clay as part of your major detailing regimen. The problem we were beginning to see is that many car enthusiasts wanted to clay their vehicles frequently; as often as monthly. At this rate of use, some consumer grade detailing clay can begin to dull clear coat finishes. After all, it is an abrasive!

CLAY FACTS

Over the past four years I have received a lot of email questions regarding clay.  Here are some common questions and answers:

Q1. I dropped my clay on the ground.  Can I still use it?
A1. The safe answer is no.  Clay will pick up small particles of grit from the ground that will scratch your paint.

Q2. If I use clay do I still need to polish my paint?
A3. Yes.  Clay will not remove swirl marks, scratches or etching from acid rain or hard water spots.  Paint polish is still required to remove these paint defects.  If your paint is new or like-new, detailing clay will significantly reduce the amount of polishing required to keep your paint in good condition.

Q3. What is the best clay?
A3. What label do you like?  There are only a couple manufacturers of clay, and the technology is protected by U.S. patents.  Clay is manufactured with different levels of abrasiveness and colors to suite different applications.  There are some subtle differences in technology (plastic vs. elastic material) and the firmness of the material.  In general, softer clays are safer and easier to use.  A firm clay cleans better with a little more risk of scuffing or scratching.

Q4. Is it better to use soapy water or a spray lubricant?
A4. Both work equally well.  If you want to do the job fast, use a bucket of soapy water.  If you want to work inside or do a thorough job, use a spray lubricant.  With a spray lubricant you can wipe down each panel as you go and feel for areas you missed.

Q5. How do I store my clay? 
A5. If your clay did not come with a re-usable plastic container, store it in a plastic Ziploc bag.

Q6. Will clay remove my wax?
A6. In most cases, clay will “scrub off” wax protection.  Some paint sealants are hard enough to withstand being cleaned with clay, but most are not.

SUMMARY

Don’t overuse detailing clay. In my opinion, it is often over-prescribed as a cure-all. I think once or twice a year is adequate for most well-detailed cars. Be sure to use a proper lubricant.Choose a prewax cleaner with the least amount of cleaning and polishing capability necessary to get the job done without being harsh on your paint. The goal is to maintain your paint in excellent condition, not wear it out by over-polishing.

Polish this, Polish That, What is Polish?

Polishing Your Car’s Paint To Perfection
 

In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need to polish your car’s paint.  Cleaning and waxing is all that’s really necessary to protect and beautify your car’s finish.  Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world.  Your car’s paint is bombarded by contaminants and assaulted by foreign objects every day.

Some automotive appearance experts suggest that it’s possible to maintain a car’s paint without polishing at all.  I’m not as optimistic.  I recommend polishing when it’s necessary to solve a specific problem or to achieve a desired result.  I will discuss advanced uses of polish in later chapters.  For now, you can think of polish as a tool for pre-wax cleaning and improving paint gloss.  A fine polish gently removes surface contamination and improves surface reflectivity.

UNDERSTANDING CAR POLISH

Before we can talk about polishing, we need to establish a common understanding of what polish is.  The word polish is highly misused throughout the car care and appearance industry.

For our purposes, a paint polish is an abrasive lotion or cream used to remove small amounts of the paint’s surface.  The cutting ability of the polish will determine the amount of paint removed with each hand stroke or each revolution of a buffer, as well as the resulting finish.  A fine polish will create a bright, glassy finish, whereas a coarse polish may cloud the paint’s surface.

Reasons to Polish Your Car’s Paint

Many people believe that cars come off the assembly line with perfect paint.  That’s far from the case.  There are many conditions that cause minor paint flaws requiring additional finishing work.  Dust nibs (small particles that land in the paint while it is still wet) are a good example.  Most car manufacturers take care of these problems at the factory using abrasive finishing materials.  Sometimes it is the car dealer who recognizes the flaw and fixes it.

Repairing minor paint flaws through polishing is not harmful to the paint system unless you remove too much paint.  If more than 50% of the clearcoat finish is removed, you stand a good chance of premature paint system failure.  If more than 75% of the clearcoat finish is removed, you will experience immediate paint system failure.  It can be a very fine dance between success and failure.

Here’s a general rule to follow.  If a scratch or other flaw can be felt with your fingernail, it’s too deep to be completely removed through polishing.  That’s not to say that polishing won’t help hide the flaw; it will.  Take a look at the following 3M diagram showing paint layers and minor scratches (marring) in the clearcoat surface.  These scratches can be removed completely through polishing, because more than 50% of the clearcoat would remain.  

 

If scratches run deep into the clear coat, as illustrated in our next 3M diagram, polishing cannot fix the problem.  However, polishing a deep scratch will hide or lessen the appearance of the problem.

 

Non-clearcoat finishes have the same basic rules.  You should not remove more than 50% of the top coat (color coat) finish when repairing a scratch or other paint flaws.

It is important to understand how a polish can be used to “hide”  scratches and other micro marring.

 

Use A Fine Polish To Refine The Finish

If your car did not require compounding to remove surface imperfections, that’s great.  You’re way ahead of the game.  Let’s get started on learning hand polishing techniques.

The purpose of polishing is not to fix paint imperfections.  That’s what we used the fine compound for in the previous step.  Polishing is used to refine the paint surface and to begin the process of glazing.  When a paint is fully glazed, it has taken on all of the natural gloss and reflection it can without assistance from a wax or sealant.

Just as with compounding, you need to adjust your thinking with polishing.  Many people and product manufacturers suggest using a terry cloth towel or terry cloth applicator to apply polish.  This is no longer the best polishing tool.

Today, the best tool for polishing is a high-quality foam applicator.  Likewise, for buffing off polish residue, do not use terry cloth or flat cotton toweling.  A good microfiber polishing cloth is far superior and is many times less abrasive than cotton terry cloth toweling.

The procedure for polishing is not much different than it is for compounding.  The idea is to keep the polishing applicator as flat to the paint surface as possible.

 

Polishing paint is a acquired skill.  It can take years to master.  If you’re planning to use a machine, my best advice is to practice on older cars.  Most importantly, select the correct polish for the job.  Use the chart at the beginning of the chapter to help determine which polish grade you should be using.  Once you’ve selected the right polish, make sure you use the right tools.