You're about to buy a brand-new Ford from Fox Marquette. It's a big investment, and you want to make sure it stays in perfect condition—but where do you start?
The world of automotive detailing can be daunting. Walk into an automotive store, and your senses will be overloaded with hundreds of different products, each offering their own promises, like "clear-coat safe" and "streak-free." Even picking out something as simple as a towel can seem like advanced calculus to the uninitiated.
When choosing towels, you want to look for three things:
- Microfiber. Always microfiber.
- Percentage of polyester and polyamide
- Density in grams per square meter (GSM)
For cleaning your windshield, look for a waffle-weave microfiber towel with between 200 GSM and 300 GSM, with a material blend of 70 percent polyester, 30 percent polyamide.
For scrubbing and drying paint, look for a medium-density towel between 300 GSM and 400 GSM, with about 80 percent polyester and 20 percent polyamide.
Anything thinner than 200 GSM will make a good throwaway rag for dirty jobs, but can cause scratches if used on paint. Thicker than 500 GSM towels are typically too plush to make effective cleaning tools.