Tip: reuse your old wash sponges.
02-17-2010, 06:46 AM
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Tip: reuse your old wash sponges.
Here's something that occurred to me a couple days ago, and I thought maybe I'd share.
As wash media goes, I'm a sponge person. Mostly Zymol sponges and Lowe's Pro Line grout sponges. They're cheap enough - the Lowe's ones especially - that when they start getting ratty, I throw them away. But now I've started cutting them into smaller pieces and using them for other things.
1. Applying interior dressings. Leather conditioners, vinyl dressings, and so on. For many years, when using products like these, I've used microfiber towels. What's one of the main things microfiber is designed to do? Absorb stuff! Here I was, spraying loads of product into my towels, leaving most of it in the towel, and not on the car. That wastes product. And, I can cut my sponge pieces into whatever shape I want.
2. Applying LSP. I haven't used this with all of the LSPs I've got laying around, but using a hunk of a Zymol sponge with Bilt Hamber Auto Balm was a revelation. The usual yellow foam disc applicators are the "exactly wrong" size to fit into the BHAB tub. Not so with a hunk of sponge - it's perfect. And since it's sort of a cube, rather than a disc, there's more to hold on to while working with slippery LSPs. Dropping an LSP applicator is a pet peeve of mine. Finally, since wash sponges are designed to be soft, it's unlikely that you'll scratch anything up. Probably not an option for a super hard wax like RBOE, but for softer pastes, and for liquids, it works well. Obviously, use judgment to know what old sponges are still safe for use on paint.
3. Working with exterior dressings, especially messy ones like Black Wow. A MF towel is unwieldy, with the extra unused pieces flopping around in the wind. A cube from an old sponge worked great on my wiper cowling and my convertible top.
These are just the first three things I've tried - I imagine there will be more uses still.
This is probably something some of you have been doing for decades, but I just figured it out, and I'm pretty stoked. :bla2: It's a small thing, but it'll save me a few bucks here and there on applicators, and I'll get more mileage out of my sponges. And I'll be using fewer towels, so the ones I use will go through the laundry less often.
Just thought I'd share.
As wash media goes, I'm a sponge person. Mostly Zymol sponges and Lowe's Pro Line grout sponges. They're cheap enough - the Lowe's ones especially - that when they start getting ratty, I throw them away. But now I've started cutting them into smaller pieces and using them for other things.
1. Applying interior dressings. Leather conditioners, vinyl dressings, and so on. For many years, when using products like these, I've used microfiber towels. What's one of the main things microfiber is designed to do? Absorb stuff! Here I was, spraying loads of product into my towels, leaving most of it in the towel, and not on the car. That wastes product. And, I can cut my sponge pieces into whatever shape I want.
2. Applying LSP. I haven't used this with all of the LSPs I've got laying around, but using a hunk of a Zymol sponge with Bilt Hamber Auto Balm was a revelation. The usual yellow foam disc applicators are the "exactly wrong" size to fit into the BHAB tub. Not so with a hunk of sponge - it's perfect. And since it's sort of a cube, rather than a disc, there's more to hold on to while working with slippery LSPs. Dropping an LSP applicator is a pet peeve of mine. Finally, since wash sponges are designed to be soft, it's unlikely that you'll scratch anything up. Probably not an option for a super hard wax like RBOE, but for softer pastes, and for liquids, it works well. Obviously, use judgment to know what old sponges are still safe for use on paint.
3. Working with exterior dressings, especially messy ones like Black Wow. A MF towel is unwieldy, with the extra unused pieces flopping around in the wind. A cube from an old sponge worked great on my wiper cowling and my convertible top.
These are just the first three things I've tried - I imagine there will be more uses still.
This is probably something some of you have been doing for decades, but I just figured it out, and I'm pretty stoked. :bla2: It's a small thing, but it'll save me a few bucks here and there on applicators, and I'll get more mileage out of my sponges. And I'll be using fewer towels, so the ones I use will go through the laundry less often.
Just thought I'd share.
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