Are terry cloths dead?

D

dfoxengr

New member
I have a bag of new yellow cotton terry cloths from years ago. They have no nap on them, they are just fabric and very soft. Are there any uses for these that won't cause marring or scratches?



Thanks
 
Ya know how I'm always ranting about how terry mars my paint/etc. as if I hate it? Well, I'll use 'em for undercarriages, wheels, and *sometimes* for engine compartments, and for interiors (pretty much use them *every day* on the dog-haulers).



Also for the initial passes on windows, but you gotta watch doing the interior side of the glass as many side windows have surrounds that will *really* retain cotton lint.



The low/no-nap ones (reminds me of the ones GG sells :think: ) are less useful fo *me* than regular cotton terry, but would probably be fine for glass and some interior surfaces.
 
are they like felt? I have a few of those, they are very soft but lint like crazy. I just use them for mopping up spills and such. The linting is just too much to bear.
 
I would start with a CD test first.



Secondly, ignite a strand or 2 or 3 and look for a clean burn or black smoke.



Then go from there.



My guess, you could probably use them on wheel wells, engine bays, exhaust pipe, glass polish...
 
I dried my cars with terry cloth through the 70's, 80's and into the 90's. So, now I use a thick micro fiber, but I don't think terry would mar the car all up. We used cheese cloth to buff off wax, and I don't recall anything but brilliant shines. Who, today, even knows what cheese cloth is?
 
Micro fibers are great, that said, the use of "surgical/huck" towels for glass, when folded into a "pad" are the way to go.

They are only good for "glass", and it is due to the fiber/weave structure.

They truly "agitate" the glass surface, use one to agitate and a second, folded in to the same sort of "pad" to dry the glass surface, gets the job done.

Just think of "sanding wood" with sand paper, you have to keep the paper "even" down on the surface or you end up with "grooves", etc,so by using them by folding into a "pad" and keeping them flat to the glass surface, they can evenly agitate and dry the surface of the glass.

So, if you have a friend who works at a hospital or know some one who works for a towel rental firm, get a hold of a dozen or so and learn what they can do for cleaning glass.

Used ones are superior to new towels, as the "lint" etc is gone from the numerous washings they have been through.

It is really just simple logic, folks.

Grumpy
 
I like terry cloth towels from Target, great for interiors and seem to clean up better in the washing machine than MF towels. I have separate towels for glass, wax removal, interiors, drying, and nasty crap like polishing chrome tips.
 
bill57 said:
I dried my cars with terry cloth through the 70's, 80's and into the 90's. So, now I use a thick micro fiber, but I don't think terry would mar the car all up. We used cheese cloth to buff off wax, and I don't recall anything but brilliant shines. Who, today, even knows what cheese cloth is?
Click to expand...



Yeah, I too remember using cheesecloth! Heh heh, we're dating ourselves here, huh?!?



Can't really say how the marring was in the '70s/early '80s as I used stuff that did a lot of filling back then. I do remember that I had to be *SO* careful on dark colors though, easy to mar it up right at the final buff (SS black lacquer from GM :rolleyes: ).



Cotton terry has marred paint for me sooo often...not always when it was relatively new, but eventually almost all my cotton towels get that way. No idea why, but I suspect my water/laundering regimen/who-knows-what. Even my CBT/DFT and reserged Charismas (anyone remember Kevin Overall?) end up doing it :nixweiss I do have some Egyptian Cotton from...uhm..."Rhapsody" (I think that's the name, lost its tag long ago :confused: ) that's stayed soft as can be despite being worn almost thread-bare, softest cotton toweling I've ever experienced.
 
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