Review: Griots Garage Foaming Surface wash and Foaming Poly Gloss

Been a while since I have done a review. Since I have little bit of time with everything going on I decided to try out the Griots Garage Foaming Surface Wash and Foaming Poly Gloss.


First up the Foaming surface wash.


Quick description from the Autogeek store


Griot`s Garage Surface Wash will loosen and lift existing contaminants off your paint. The Ph-neutral formula of Griot`s Garage Surface Wash will make sure that your existing protection product is not chemically stripped from the paint during the washing process. Griot`s Garage Surface Wash uses a dual-layer foaming formula that will increase dwell time and give the product more time to clean the surface. The primary foam layer cling to the surface, working to loosen road film and organic contaminants. While the secondary foam lifts the abrasives and contaminants from the paint and gently carries them to the ground.






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There are a couple different ways to apply this product. I used 2oz of product and the rest water in a standard foam cannon hooked up to my 2000psi pressure washer.


The test subject is my 2017 F250 Lariat. This vehicle has been fully coated and does get frequent washes so for this test I wanted to see how clean it truly got the paint without doing a physical hand wash to it.


The passenger side I pre rinsed the paint and wheel liners with my pressure washer and the driver side I applied the product without pre rinsing first. I wanted to see if it made a difference.


Before pics.


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Truck all foamed


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The directions say to let it dwell 5-10 minutes and not let it dry on the surface. I went about 8min and this is what i looked like


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After the 8min dwell I pressure wash rinsed it very thoroughly. And just like it stated it didn`t effect the coating or hydrophobic properties at all. At first glance the surface to appeared to be perfectly clean. But I had to check. So I took a clean microfiber towel and dried a couple of the lower panels to check for grime. And to my surprise there was virtually none!




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There was a little bit of grime on the very bottom of the fender flare. If the vehicle was a bit more dirty I would suggest a quick hand wash to remove a remaining grime.


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Next up was the Foaming Poly Gloss.




Griot’s Garage Foaming Poly Gloss is a foaming paint protection formula designed to be used with the Griot’s Garage The BOSS Foam Cannon. Using hydrophobic polymers that enhance gloss, surface slickness, and protection on your existing wax, sealant, or coating, the Griot’s Garage Foaming Poly Gloss can be used on all exterior surfaces, including paint, glass, trim, chrome, wheels, and more! Help keep your ride clean longer with a quick layer of Griot’s Garage Foaming Poly Gloss!




So for this step I cleaned out my foam cannon and loaded up 2oz of the product and the rest water. I would say having a 2nd foam cannon would be helpful for this process.


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With the paint still wet from the previous step I went ahead and foamed it down again. This product only has a 2-3 minute dwell time.


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After rinsing I was treated to nice beading and it definitely added some nice beading on the glass as it hadn`t been coated yet.


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Once rinsed I dried it with a large glacier drying towel and boy did dry with a ease! Then After about 10-15min you could feel the soft slickness on the surface.


Overall I am pretty impressed with the results considering I only touched the paint during the final drying process. And no surface marring was present afterwards. The products also smell really good!


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Don`t mind the wheels. I got lazy lol!!!


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I used the same process on my GTO and my wife`s Mazda. The GTO has some coatings and sealants on different panels and it played well with them. My wife`s car has Xpel PPF on the nose and has been coated too. No problem with either. Her car needed to be hand washed as it had been a couple months since it`s last wash. Whoops lol.


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Glad you had success with the Foaming Surface Wash. This demonstration, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBBzOWc9iGU, keeps me weary of buying it as this is the grime that I am expecting my maintenance pretreatment to treat. I am on the lookout for more reviews like yours to sway me into trying the surface wash, thank you for your contribution.

What’s funny is I get results between the two with foaming surface wash . Wouldn’t polygoss and dry (would need to still touch and mechanical wash) but definitely cleaner than before. Definitely a great product.

I feel it soften ups the grime during dwell time so i can just drag the mitts across the paint when I bucket wash.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reviews Justin. Well done.

Thanks for the review. My results with this product are a lot like Coatings=Crack. It seems to be able to soften up grime, and if it`s loose enough, maybe take it all away....but I don`t count on it. Maybe you could expect more results like yours on coated cars....none of my cars are.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by briarpatch

Thanks for the review. My results with this product are a lot like Coatings=Crack. It seems to be able to soften up grime, and if it`s loose enough, maybe take it all away....but I don`t count on it. Maybe you could expect more results like yours on coated cars....none of my cars are.

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Yeah on heavier soiled vehicles it will remove the majority of grime etc but not all. I was actually surprised how well it did on my truck even being coated.

Have you ever tried the Surface Prep? I`ve heard that stuff is pretty nasty

Quote:

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Originally Posted by briarpatch

Have you ever tried the Surface Prep? I`ve heard that stuff is pretty nasty

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I was gonna give it a whirl as a pretreat to e maintenance wash for my coating. it’s pretty alkaline and Griot’s didnt recommend. Went with Bilt Hamber Auto Foam.

And to be honest I believe the surface wash is ph neutral but almost as good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve been using the BOSS cannon for over a year now. The Surface Wash and Poly Gloss are excellent and perform as advertised for me. The Surface Prep dries too fast and streaks for me. I saw no reason to use it anymore and I gave it away to my neighbor. He had the same results I did and he threw it away.

If the car needs a bucket wash, I’ll rinse it to get the big stuff off. I’ll then foam it with Surface Wash and use a mitt on it. Rinse off and then apply the Poly Gloss. Works great.

Add another happy BOSS foam user.

My approach with the Surface Wash is a little different from yours though. I foam the Surface Wash via BOSS Cannon onto the dry/dirty car, let it dwell, then rinse it off with the pressure washer. At that point, when I bucket wash it`s impressive how clean the water is when you`re done even if doing a single bucket/single mitt wash. At that point it feels like you`re pretty much just getting the last of the road film off.

I actually kinda like the Foaming Surface Prep, though I agree I don`t feel comfortable foaming the whole car (or really even half the car) before rinsing it off. I only tried it once on a whole car when I was going to be doing a correction after.
I mainly use it now in a secondary spray bottle at 10:1 (I think that was their recommendation). It`s pretty much my go-to wheel cleaner these days.

Oneheadlite,

I never thought to use it as a wheel cleaner.

After 2 coats of FK1000p on the wheels, a wheel cleaner isn`t necessary. I just use BH brush and rinse.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Older

Oneheadlite,

I never thought to use it as a wheel cleaner.

After 2 coats of FK1000p on the wheels, a wheel cleaner isn`t necessary. I just use BH brush and rinse.

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I`m jealous. :D

I did 2 coats of FK on my wife`s Q5 summer wheels, but whatever the clearcoat is on those (aftermarket) wheels is a nightmare. Paired with German brakes I`ve always gotta go just a little extra to get them clean. Best way I can describe it is that no matter what LSP I try on them, the clear always feels "dry". Thus the dust just sticks.

RE: Brake dust. You may want to look into Powerstop Z23 or Z26 pads. They work wonders on Brembo-equipped cars. About 95% less dust.