Foaming Question

[jw3571]

I`ve never wanted the hassle of a pressure sprayer but I have been intrigued by the snow foam. I purchased a foamer that`s used with a garden hose, it never worked very well. I have now purchased an IK 9 pump foamer. My question is, do people spray the foam on, then rinse, then do a 2 bucket wash? Or do people put the foam on, let it sit, then use a mitt to wash and get the foam off?

[phatrs]

I`ve never wanted the hassle of a pressure sprayer but I have been intrigued by the snow foam. I purchased a foamer that`s used with a garden hose, it never worked very well. I have now purchased an IK 9 pump foamer. My question is, do people spray the foam on, then rinse, then do a 2 bucket wash? Or do people put the foam on, let it sit, then use a mitt to wash and get the foam off?

I rinse off the foam, starting at the bottom, then do the bucket wash.


Ben - Melbourne/Australia

Now: ‘19 VW Golf R, ‘15 Polo GTI
Before: ‘06 RenaultSport Megane 225 Cup, ‘14 VW Polo GTI, ‘12 VW Golf GTI, ‘06 VW Golf GTI, ‘05 VW Golf Sportline, ‘01 Holden Astra SRi, ‘00 Nissan Pulsar SSS, ‘99 Holden Astra CD, ‘98 Nissan Pulsar SLX, ‘91 Nissan Pulsar GL with Q engine swap, ‘80 Subaru Leone

[Ancient_1]

for me the last wash I did I started with foaming with 3D surface prep and my IK9 foamer and let dwell a few minutes the PW off I then foamed with fast foam with my foam canon and did the bucket wash and did a final rinse after.

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[Coatings=crack]

I like to foam cannon with griots surface wash (just bough BH auto foam stuffs good). let dwell 4-4 min then rinse and then I use one bucket with 7-8 MF mitts. Once done using it doesn’t see paint again till washed. I use to foam again and then wash but I feel soap sits too long.

I then tried foaming one side washing then switching tip to rinse but took too long. So back to foaming and then the 1 bucket.


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[BudgetPlan1]

Pressure Rinse
Foam and let sit for recommended time
Pressure Rinse
Bucket Wash

[SWETM]

I would say that without a PW and foaming on a prewash foam even how good it is. It`s hard to get effective cleaning ability when you rinse off the prewash foam. Maybe in your case I would try to knock off as much dirt as possible with the hose. Then dilute your car soap in the iK9 and foam on a section you are able to be washing before it dries. This way you get the advantage of a high suds car soap that aid the lubrication from it I think. If you use something like Meguiars Hyper Wash D110 that`s high concentrated and gets economical. It can be worth to foam it on as a prewash foam and rinsing it off thoroughly. Then use it in the wash and foam it on and just have a rinse bucket or multible wash mitts. Or have a wash bucket with D110 too.

Remember that the car soaps can be very much stronger when you dilute them stronger than the recommended dilution. Think accumulator use 3D Pink car soap and Griots Garage Car Soap in strong dilution without any harm on the LSP. So if you need to be dilute the D110 stronger than the recommended dilution of 1:400 to get the desired foam thickness in the iK9. Look at if it`s degrade your LSP faster than usually. Carpro Reset car soap is such of a soap that gets very strong if dilution is stronger than the recommended one of 1:500 especially on the wax or sealants. Coatings you can do it when you decon wash with Reset once and a while. Also some car soaps can be harder to rinse it off cleanly and leaves surfactans behind that after some washes can be clogging your LSP. Generally car soaps even in foamcannons or foam guns should be the recommended dilution when it gets on the paint. The same is with prewash foams that you don`t dilute them stronger than the recommended one. That`s also how I go with on how I judge how good a prewash foam or car soaps is are to use them foamed on in the recommended dilution on the bottle.

And to ad I do recommend you to use a PW when washing your cars. It`s something that I always does. The risk of wash indused swirls and scratches gets very minimal with a thorough prerinse with a PW and a little more with a great prewash foam. Especially when you flooding out the seals and the edges with the higher water pressure from the PW. This is where you often have the dirt that can be picked up by the wash media and swirl and scratches your paint. I go a step longer and don`t go on to the paint again after the wash media been on the glass. As there is the highest risk of wash indused swirls and scratches that you could pick up dirt from. And also the lowest parts of a vehical there I use dedicated wash mitts and they don`t get higher up and it`s around the whole car. Maybe excessive but gets easy to do when you use multible wash mitts and mf wash pads and when you are done with a section it`s done and a fresh clean wash mitt or pad is used on the next section. When I start on the roof I then finish with the windshield and a fresh one and one the side of the cars paint and trim and finishing with the side windows and the same on the back of the car. But leaves about 2 wipes high that I use the dedicated wash mitts on the lower parts of the car. The hood and work my way to the front bumper and does also the lower parts of it with this mitt last before it`s done. This way I use 5 wash mitts and mf wash pads on the bigger sections of the car and 2-3 extra on the lower side panels and the back of the car. And this has worked really great for me with very little wash and drying indused swirls and scratches during last 2 1/2 years when it where last polished. A fine polish on a Rupes Yellow Foam Pad took care of those defects which I think is very good. Have some old defects on the paint that needed some more and some small sections where things just happens on a DD that needed some extra attention. But I was surprised that my maintance had not doing more defects on the paint on my Kia cee`d SW with a silver metallic paint that`s on the softer side of hardness of the clearcoat also. So as Mike Phillips says when you have polished the paint it`s how you touch your paint from that on how it looks in the longrun.

/ Tony

[dcjredline]

Pressure Rinse
Foam and let sit for recommended time
Pressure Rinse
Bucket Wash

Same here...when I do a foam pre-soak.

[Coatings=crack]

A lot of the snow foam makers don’t recommend rinsing 1st as it waters down product and lessens dwell time..... don’t know if it’s a thing but I go straight foam to dirt


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[SWETM]

A lot of the snow foam makers don’t recommend rinsing 1st as it waters down product and lessens dwell time..... don’t know if it’s a thing but I go straight foam to dirt


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I can be doing both but mostly it`s foam on the dry dirt. But when I have been doing some testing it`s not hardly any difference between when prerinsed before the foaming. Guess the prerinse takes of the large amount of dirt so the prewash foam has less to desolve. So the little extra dilution don`t do that much of a difference IME. The difference is when I do apply it on a dry dirty paint the foam clings better and gets it to run off in a pace I like. Especially on the thicker foams like the Sonax Extreme Rich Foam Schampoo I have. If I get a little much foam on some places when prerinsed first it slides off so fast and it dries on the paint faster too when I do this. So for me personally it`s about which foam I have chosed and what kind of dirt I want to remove. Also if the car is wet before I start to wash. I pre-rinse and gets less water standing on the paint and it dilute the foam less that way. Mostly it`s foam on the dry dirt. When I want to test and see how my LSP is then I usually prerinse before foam. Many differences when and why but usually not any difference in the results LOL. And you save a step when you don`t prerinse.

Man I need to be washing the Ford Focus I maintain LOL. The road salt build up has started to look as waves on the paint. Nasty stuff this year when don`t have any snow here in southern of Sweden. But it`s not any time to maintain the cars now during the holidays. Maybe I`m able to be washing them before the year ends LOL.

[briarpatch]

I like to foam cannon with griots surface wash (just bough BH auto foam stuffs good). let dwell 4-4 min then rinse and then I use one bucket with 7-8 MF mitts. Once done using it doesn’t see paint again till washed. I use to foam again and then wash but I feel soap sits too long.

I then tried foaming one side washing then switching tip to rinse but took too long. So back to foaming and then the 1 bucket.


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Similar process. I will re-foam smaller sections and do the multi-mitt wash, as I use CarPro Reset for the contact wash and the layer of foam makes it easy to see where you`ve been.

[mobiledynamics]

I`m only pre-foaming/dwelling when the car is utterly filthy with salt/sand/ rain/traffic film/dirt. And when I do, it`s sorta limited to maybe a handful and then some, only during the winter months primarily.

I don`t find it add`s anything use-fulness to my wash routine for most of the normal washes. I actually find the foam when washing a bit annoying as sometimes it`s too -fluid- if that makes sense...

[Dan]

The whole idea for me was that you washed off as much dirt as possible before you put a mit on the surface. To that end I used to spray foam on and then blast off. I never got the results I was seeking. Unless you use a very strong soap, you aren`t getting much off, certainly not budging the film buildup. So I quit foaming. I also quit 2 bucket. I get no swirls from washing, just more time.

[mobiledynamics]

That`s quite the comment Dan on the 2BM. I`ve been running doubles or quads (depending on you look at it) since the cyclone came out. Cyclones on the bottom, GG on the top. And there is residue that is entrapped on the bottom of mine, and that`s with HP pre-rinse about 75% of the time

[Accumulator]

I`m always surprised that people need to do the foaming step. By the time I finish rinsing with the Pressure Washer I`m ready to switch to start touch-washing with the foamgun/BHB step. Admittedly, the BHB (used *PROPERLY*) is much safer than mitts (which I use for the next step of the wash). I always wonder whether people`s LSPs are shedding dirt as well as mine...


.. Think accumulator use 3D Pink car soap and Griots Garage Car Soap in strong dilution without any harm on the LSP.

Good memory! Yeah, I use 3.5oz each of GG and 3D with enough water to make a gallon, and run that concentrate through the foamguns (which does dilute it). I use the same concentrate (undiluted) on wheels/wells/undercarriage, and it`s still *VERY* mild, not even stripping SprayWaxes/etc.

[Accumulator]

That`s quite the comment Dan on the 2BM. I`ve been running doubles or quads (depending on you look at it) since the cyclone came out. Cyclones on the bottom, GG on the top. And there is residue that is entrapped on the bottom of mine, and that`s with HP pre-rinse about 75% of the time

I`m using both the GG/washboards and Cyclones too, even though my buckets basically stay dirt-free. Since I don`t refresh my Wash Buckets for ages, it`s probably a good idea for those as well as the Rinse Buckets, but I suspect it`s probably just peace-of-mind more than anything functional. But hey, that`s worth something too.