Meguiar's recommends a Meguiar's Supreme Shine Microfiber cloth or 100% cotton terry cloth towels - they both have their place in the detailing industry.

100% Cotton Terry Cloth

A high quality 100% cotton terry cloth towel can be used for both applying and removing just about any Meguiar's product. For this reason 100% cotton towels are quite versatile. Some people prefer removing compounds, paint cleaners, and pure polishes with terry cloth towels because of the larger fiber loop size that makes up the nap. This larger loop size can be quite helpful when you're trying to break-up continuous layers of liquid, semi-liquid, and dried product.

100% cotton terry cloth towels (or pieces of terry cloth towels) are also quite useful for applying Meguiar's products. For example, a small piece of 100% terry cloth towel can be quite useful for applying Gold Class Trim Detailer to narrow, but long pieces of rubber trim, such as the rubber trim around windows. The nap helps to clean the rubber trim by agitating it and loosening any contamination on the surface while pushing the product's rich conditioners into the rubber for a protective, long lasting dark appearance.

Terry cloth towels absorb water really well and are an excellent material for removing water after washing and removing quick detailers like Meguiar's Quik Detailer, and Final Inspection.

Premium quality microfiber polishing cloths like the Meguiar's Supreme Shine are made using the highest quality microfiber technology available. Microfiber is a unique blend of two tiny synthetic fibers - polyester and polyamide.

Generally speaking, towels made with traditional polyester and/or nylon fibers are too scratchy for use to remove polishes and waxes from highly polished automotive finishes because they tend to inflict scratches and swirls. This negative characteristic is completely eliminated however, when these same fibers are miniaturized to 1/100 the diameter of a human hair, and 300 times smaller than conventional terry cloth fibers. In their miniaturized size, these fibers take on new characteristics that do not exist in their larger size. This new characteristic is the ability to adsorb liquids

Adsorb versus Absorb

• Adsorb means to attract and hold to the surface substances, liquids, or gasses.
• Absorb means to take-up or draw something into itself through pores or interstices.

Microfibers adsorb liquids, semi-liquids, and dried product incredibly well. This includes both water and oil based products, which makes them ideally suited for removing many Meguiar's products.

Another unique characteristic attributed to the microscopic size of the fibers in a microfiber polishing cloth is the ability for these miniature fibers to get into small microscopic surface imperfections and remove liquid and semi-liquid films like polish and wax. At the microscopic level, your paint is not completely smooth and flat, but actually resembles a surface made up of miniature hills and valleys, with holes (pores), and interstices (microscopic fissures and scratches). Microfiber polishing clothes are better at removing products imbedded into these surface imperfections, dramatically better than the larger fibers found in terry cloth towels.

Another unique feature of premium quality microfiber polishing cloths is the unique triangular shape of the cross-section of each of the fibers. This triangular shaped cross-section enables these fibers to slice into coatings such as polish and wax lifting and removing them from the surface (much like a miniature squeegee) as they are wiped across the surface.

The above three characteristics, 1) miniature size, 2) ability to adsorb, and 3) triangular shaped cross-section, enables microfiber polishing cloths to lift and remove liquid and semi-liquid films better than traditional towels and with dramatically much less pressure. This is quite apparent when trying to remove oily smears after the majority of the product has already been removed.

Meguiar's research concludes that wiping cloths with a flat sheen or surface, like diapers, t-shirts and flannel, increase the potential for inflicting scratches because there is no place for contaminants to go/hide/bury into should they become trapped between your paint and the flat surface of these types of wiping materials.

On the other hand, both 100% cotton terry cloth towels and premium microfiber polishing cloths such as Meguiar's Supreme Shine offer a thick, plush nap that will draw contaminants up into it providing a level of protection that flat sheen cloths don't offer.

Another benefit to terry cloth and microfiber polishing cloths are they can capture and hold more product from the surface because of their greater surface area compared to flat sheen cloths. Each of the fibers in a microfiber polishing cloth and each of the little cotton loops of a terry cloth towel dramatically increase the total useable surface area of the cloth.