Is washing with foaming gun preferable to just regular wash? It certainly appears so given that foam can loosen dirt etc. Anyone recommend a reasonably priced foaming gun and wash?

Thanks!

 

The foam gun is truly designed as a pre-rinse. You soak the whole car with the foam for a few minutes, rinse, and then resume with the typical bucket washing. This allows the dirt to loosen, as you have already alluded, making it easier to wash a heavily soiled car.

I think Gilmour Foammaster II is a good brand.

 

Thanks Moe! Just sounds like an ideal step to add when the car is really dirty.

 

Precisely...

 

I think that it is a great alternative if the car is really dirty, it gets your process going and starts the cleaning process well before you ever have to lay a hand on the car. That is great for protecting your paint finish, and making your job easier to get everything thoroughly clean.

 

Is there any reason why you can't use a foam gun in lieu of a bucket? Can't you spray on the foam, and then use a wash-mitt to just scrub the car? (If you're really obsessive, you could rinse the mitt in a bucket of plain water to remove any grit while you work.) Even if you use the bucket for a rinse, you're still saving the "applying soap" portion of the wash, which has to be 30% of the work. Finally, can you use foam as a lubricant for claying a car? I'd think that could save a ton of time. I don't plan on doing anything until I hear from some of the pros.

 

Good question. I always thought the same thing. If the car is not really dirty maybe you can skip a step in the process???

Adam

 

you would want as much "lubricant" as possible to prevent swirls

 

Bringing this question to the top. Can you foam, rinse, then foam again, this time using a mitt to wash the car?

 

If you do that, you're going to have soap sitting on the car until you get to it with the mitt. That's a lot of time for the water to potentially evaporate leaving a film/streaks that will be more difficult to remove.

Let's say you foam, rinse, foam again then start mitt washing but wash off the parts that you mitt-wash as soon as you hit them. Now you're wasting product because the water will rinse off soap from the lower portions(as long as you're washing from the top down as you should) and you will be refoaming.

Foaming is nice way to pretreat the surface to break up contaminants. But I choose to not leave my pretreat on long enough for the water to start evaporating. There are exceptions to the rule tho and someone may find in their case it works. Only one way for someone to personally find out.

My take is that you can do it fast or do it right. Those two usually don't walk hand in hand.

 

Good points! Not necessarily trying to do it fast, but I don't want to make more work for myself either. A proper wash, clay, polish, seal, wax will likely take me an entire weekend (and this is not even touching the interior). With the temps reaching 100+ here everyday, I'm trying to streamline my process and avoid turning into a piece of jerky

 

I hear ya. I wasn't trying to imply you were trying to be cheap with your time. Just thinking out loud.

In the case that you're dealing with really hot temps, even in the shade, you're going to struggle with water evaporating using a regular wash. If you don't wash with DI water, make sure to rinse many times through the wash. If it's hot enough, I might even just foam/pretreat just lower panels or the lower front clip.

There's nothing worse than taking your time on a wash and finding out there are soapy streaks. urgh...

 

DI is a must here. Not only is it hot but the water is hard as rocks. My CR's resin depleted without my knowledge and I washed the car....needless to say I have never wiped down a car so fast in my life

 

Lemme guess, Arizona?

 

Give that man a prize