Applying a ceramic coating can breathe new life into your car's paint . It helps the finish shimmer and provides hydrophobic properties, so water beads and rolls off almost instantly. However, if you're doing a ceramic coating yourself, it's wise to dispose of any microfiber towels after use.
๐ The Core Development
Ceramic coating products typically come with a small applicator pad, but if they don't, you can use a microfiber towel instead. Good quality towels with a density of around 250-350 GSM (grams per square meter) are recommended for removing excess coating before the curing process starts. If you're like me, you might hate throwing away microfiber towels. But if they come in contact with a ceramic coating that hasn't hardened yet, the coating will start crystallizing in the towel within minutes.
๐ Background & Sector Context
These tiny crystals work their way deep into the towel's fibers, and if you use the towel on your car's paint in the future, you'll likely be left with scratches and swirl marks. Washing these towels isn't an option either. Proper ceramic coatings, like those sold by CarPro, Gtechniq, and Gyeon, are solvent-based, and not even warm water will break down the tiny nanoparticles, which often include silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, and aluminum oxide.
๐ Industry & Real-World Impact
A couple of years ago, I went through the arduous process of applying a ceramic coating to my car. I spent a full day carefully washing the car , and buffing and polishing the paint before applying Gyeon Pure Evo ceramic coating. It came out brilliantly and still sheds water just as well now as when it was fresh. I used several microfiber towels to buff and level the coating after the 'flashing' process, and ended up with a bunch of towels that lost their water-absorbing properties.
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๐ฎ Strategic Outlook & What Lies Ahead
Although I could have thrown them out, I kept some for other cleaning tasks, but they'll never go anywhere near a car's paintwork again. For enthusiasts like us, a car's paint is often the first thing that catches our eye, and it's never nice to see light scratches that could have been prevented with a fresh set of towels rather than leftovers from a ceramic coating. Especially when detailing exotics like, say, a Koenigsegg Gemera.
The only time you might be able to re-use microfiber towels on your car's paint is if you used them with a spray-on 'ceramic' coating. Companies including Turtle Wax and Meguiar's sell spray coatings that promise easy, quick application. However, these spray-on ceramic products aren't true ceramic coatings as they don't have a high enough silicon dioxide content. In that case, you can get away with reusing microfiber towels from the application and buffing process, but it's wise to wash them thoroughly before any future use.
