Boss foaming system - overview

I dunno. I think foaming is a feel good process.

Foam cannons create a lotta bubbles and whatnot - but I really don’t think there is much benefit if any over just pressure washing the vehicle with water.. Of course, you can use a foam cannon as a soap dispenser to wash stuff & that works well.

I agree.
 
I can honestly say the Griot’s wash does remove dirt! Even on a very dirty car, it removed about 80 percent of the dirt. That means there’s less of a chance to scratch the car. They don’t claim it’s a never touch your car wash, they tell you to follow up with a bucket wash if you need to.

Ok,I just washed my daily driver with the Surface Wash and PolyGloss. It hasn`t been washed in a week,(it wasn`t very dirty and still looked good enough to leave alone). This car lives outside 24/7.

I took a 370 mile road trip on Saturday. It had a one-inch bird bomb on it and some bug spatters. Nothing serious. It hasn`t been rained on between washes,either.

After I was done, (and before drying), I finger-swiped every panel and swiped the wheels, too. No road film anywhere. I was prepared to use my mitt, but surprised I didn`t have to.

As you may have noticed, I`m a person that kinda resists change. I still have my old Cyclo, and I probably won`t buy another machine. Though when they perfect the cordless machines,I may not be able to resist. And look how long it took me to buy a foam cannon.

I`m sure that the two fresh coats of FK1000p and the previous use of PolyGloss enabled that to happen. (Thanks again,Accumulator).

As always, my opinion is worth what you paid for it.

I am also a skeptic, so no offense taken there.
 
The reason I use a dedicated prewash foam is to get the car as clean as possible before touching it. With the foamcannon and the PW as tools I get it a little bit cleaner than if I don`t use it. The summer months the benefit is that the bugs sprays of clean and a part of the road film gets off too. I use Bilt Hamber Auto-Foam which I think is one of the most effective foams on the market. Does it work with foam it and rinse it off like you do with hose. No! I use the technique that the GG showed how to use theirs new foams. You use the water pressure from the PW to clean with. Start at the bottom and work my way up. It`s cause when you come up a bit on the panels. The dirt you rinse off then runs better off the already rinsed part. Then you have the chemicals to work till it`s gets rinsed off. In the winter months I use Bilt Hamber Surfex HD which is a little bit stronger and get the road film off better too.

Would the PW rinse off without any prewash work and then 2bm wash it. Sure it will! But the big difference is the amount of dirt you get in the rinse bucket afterwards. With a great prewash foam and a quality car soap like carpro reset and 2bm wash. You get alot less dirt in the rinse bucket and a very clean surface. The wash mitt and or mf wash towels don`t get as dirty either. There is where I see the biggest difference with a thorough prewash.

The use of a car soap and foam it as a prewash. I don`t see a much of benefit from. The PW alone would get the same results as it`s made for be aggitated with. I would get me a pump sprayer and use degreasers as a prewash step. Some prewash foams works as degreasers in this way and an example is Surfex HD. Do you use that in a quite strong dilution you get a great effective prewash.

As always this is my opinion and experience and could be different for others.

/Tony
 
Ok,I just washed my daily driver with the Surface Wash and PolyGloss. It hasn`t been washed in a week,(it wasn`t very dirty and still looked good enough to leave alone). This car lives outside 24/7.

I took a 370 mile road trip on Saturday. It had a one-inch bird bomb on it and some bug spatters. Nothing serious. It hasn`t been rained on between washes,either.

After I was done, (and before drying), I finger-swiped every panel and swiped the wheels, too. No road film anywhere. I was prepared to use my mitt, but surprised I didn`t have to.

As you may have noticed, I`m a person that kinda resists change. I still have my old Cyclo, and I probably won`t buy another machine. Though when they perfect the cordless machines,I may not be able to resist. And look how long it took me to buy a foam cannon.

I`m sure that the two fresh coats of FK1000p and the previous use of PolyGloss enabled that to happen. (Thanks again,Accumulator).

As always, my opinion is worth what you paid for it.

I am also a skeptic, so no offense taken there.

Thank you for posting your experience. Just out of curiosity, how long did you allow the Surface Wash to dwell before rinsing off, and how long ago did you apply the existing coat of Poly Gloss?
 
SWETM,

Does the Surfex HD shorten the life of your LSP?

Some QD it takes off when I use it concentrated in the pump sprayer. But the base layer of Gyeon Wet Coat I still got 2 months longevity with. And that`s in the winter months with alot of road salt on the roads. I use it sometimes instead of a tar degreaser based on naptha/kerosene. The sio2 products get revived if anything and stands up great to these products. Sometimes I use it as a prewash foam 1:6 in the foamcannon bottle and max chemical output setting. Then it works on any LSP I have had. You don`t get a shaving cream thick foam but that`s not what I`m after. It`s the cleaning ability I look at. Why I use a strong Surfex HD or a tar degreaser is cause of the road salt desolve many off the oil based road film that we get in the winter months. We have alot of the studded winter tires on cars here. That`s cause the many tar spots we get on the lower side panels and the back of the car. And also iron particals is alot of here too because of studded winter tires and people that drives with the brakes jammed. 2 times a year an iron remover is at least to be used in my experience.

The downside with dedicated prewash foams are that it`s expensive to use. And the upside is that it`s accually doing something to desolve some dirt. The most effective thing is a heated PW with a high water flow. I will see if I can get a video of the PW at the wash bay I have access to now. The problem is that the PW is so strong that you can not hold with one hand. My stepfather almost fell to the ground the first time he used it. He where to rinse the roof of hos work truck and hold the PW lance above his head. I saw it from the side and his whole body moved up and backwards. Was so I almost lmao hehe. That PW you don`t want to get to close to sensitive surfaces. Cause if you where to have paint chip you would get a bigger chip to handle lol. The warm water is a greater cleaner than cold water. A tip is to mix the foamcannon bottle with finger warm water and you get a little thicker foam cause of that.

And still I have to note that it don`t take away the need of touching the paint when washing. If you have a relatively clean car you could maintance wash it touchless with a good results. But that is if you have a touchless drying option. And it`s important to have a chemical resistant LSP on the car too. That`s where the coating and coating products excells. The Ultima Paint Guard Plus I had last summer is a sealant protection that is chemical resistant too. What LSP is most sensitive to is high alkaline products with ph level above 11-13 depending on what kind of LSP it is. Organic waxes is not so resistant. But many of those is hybrids with synthetic waxes and sealants in them that bonds them better. The touchless washes is only a quick fix till you do a touching wash. And it`s not recommended to use if you have hard water where you live.

To go back to the topic LOL. I think that the first impression off the BOSS foaming system seems promesing for you guys. And will be fun to see if the GG is takeing the prewash that is very much used in the EU to be something more common in the USA :)
 
Thank you for posting your experience. Just out of curiosity, how long did you allow the Surface Wash to dwell before rinsing off, and how long ago did you apply the existing coat of Poly Gloss?

I let the Surface Wash dwell until it started to dry on the high spots,(those areas where the horizontal panels meet the vertical ones). I`d say 3-3 1/2 minutes. Same for the PolyGloss.

I applied the Poly Gloss a week ago.
 
Swanic I think anyone that has gone through a “touchless wash” would probably agree with you. If you examine your car afterwards there is always a film of something that needs to be mechanically removed and I’m sure the soap they use is pretty strong stuff. I do foam my vehicles but I know I am also going to have to “rub” afterwards to get them really clean. For me the foam is just a prewash to remove some of the surface dirt.

This morning I drank the Kool Aid. Not the Griots Kool Aid - but the foam cannon Kool Aid.

Went through the whole thing with Bilt Hamber Snow Foam & HoneyDew in my foam cannon

I dunno. I think foaming is a feel good process. You see all that soap & feel like it must be doing something good.. Don’t get me wrong - I’ll do it from time to time - cuz why not? I have various soaps, the tools, and the facilities at my disposal. So, on a day off - I may spray some foam for fun.

But I find anyone making claims that foaming itself or with any specific tool/product does this or that a little suspect. You have to consider - the volume of what you are spraying is being highly diluted by the water from the pressure washer. It’s very close to pH neutral when it hits the panel. Why can’t you just dump a bucket of soapy water on your car and rinse it off? Nobody is doing that - but the net effect would not be significantly different IMO.

Foam cannons create a lotta bubbles and whatnot - but I really don’t think there is much benefit if any over just pressure washing the vehicle with water.. Of course, you can use a foam cannon as a soap dispenser to wash stuff & that works well.

Way I look at it is, in life - what else do you clean by simply spraying it with soap and rinsing it off? Not much. Prolly cuz the process isn’t very effective or efficient - unless you are using a very strong acid or base which is not soap.

I have obtained what I’d consider a healthy cynicism towards all detailing products and processes anymore. The industry is unregulated - anyone can claim anything in a bottle or any tool does anything and charge you a premium for it. You can claim some soap or chemical cleans something - but so can water if used in a certain manner. Nobody will tell us what is in these soaps that makes them “different” or better than any other soap out there.

My gut tells me dialing in a process that works for you will be much more beneficial than any specific soap or cleaner sprayed by any specific foam cannon. But, I guess this stuff does appeal to us on a level that is hard to define - cuz it does look fun to have your special bottles of stuff in special colors and a special foam cannon made just for those special bottles. I’m not saying it’s not fun or cool - I’m just saying I’d be leery of any actual different results vs using whatever else is out there.

I don`t know what region of the US you guys live in but if you`ve ever gone to a coin-opp wash and tried to pressure wash off winter slop or road film with just the rise or soap setting you`d know that it removes very little and is about equivalent to using a standard soap in a foam canon. Now if you first used the strong pre-rinse chemical at the coin opp you`d know that it removes just about everything when you follow it up with the pressure washer. Surface Prep acts much the same and is a night and day difference. Once my truck is dirty enough to do a test and I actually have some Surface Prep I`d happily demo it for you.

Now with that being said, I`m not an advocate of doing a touch free wash outside of maybe light dust from sitting in the garage, but again, less dirt on the paint before you touch it equals less chance of marring and using surface prep removes far more dirt then rinsing alone ever will.
 
Rasky -

I`m very interested in SP and I presume/assumed that many shampoos on this level did not exist in the consumer level format either due to VOC laws or just chemical strength....nonwithstanding the commercial side of things. I`d be curious what Griots comes up with that can be offered on a consumer level - and how clean is clean..
 
I don`t know what region of the US you guys live in but if you`ve ever gone to a coin-opp wash and tried to pressure wash off winter slop or road film with just the rise or soap setting you`d know that it removes very little and is about equivalent to using a standard soap in a foam canon. Now if you first used the strong pre-rinse chemical at the coin opp you`d know that it removes just about everything when you follow it up with the pressure washer. Surface Prep acts much the same and is a night and day difference. Once my truck is dirty enough to do a test and I actually have some Surface Prep I`d happily demo it for you.

Now with that being said, I`m not an advocate of doing a touch free wash outside of maybe light dust from sitting in the garage, but again, less dirt on the paint before you touch it equals less chance of marring and using surface prep removes far more dirt then rinsing alone ever will.

I live in Illinois and I agree with you about the coin-ops. The touchless car washes here are the same. I`ve never used the pre-rinse, worrying that it would compromise the LSP.

They just get the big stuff off and always leave a film on the paint.

Do the touchless drive-throughs use the pre-rinse chemicals?


PS: I`m sure you guys up there in MN laugh at our winters here.
 
The touchless Drive Throughs has to be ~strong~. Afterall, it`s a chemical ~wash~ albit helped with the mechanical power of the HP water. If it did not get it clean, then they would not have a repeat customer.
 
I live in Illinois and I agree with you about the coin-ops. The touchless car washes here are the same. I`ve never used the pre-rinse, worrying that it would compromise the LSP.

They just get the big stuff off and always leave a film on the paint.

Do the touchless drive-throughs use the pre-rinse chemicals?


PS: I`m sure you guys up there in MN laugh at our winters here.

Yes, I believe the tough-less wash pre-rinse chemicals are very similar to the pre-rinse at the coin opp.
 
Surface Prep acts much the same and is a night and day difference. Once my truck is dirty enough to do a test and I actually have some Surface Prep I`d happily demo it for you.

I`m very interested in this product, will make my final decision to purchase this based on your results (or someone else if they beat you to it).
 
Is surface prep caustic free? For those of you who are spraying out of a pump sprayer or garden sprayer, what ratio are you using? I`ve read everything from 1:10, 1:20, to 1:128 to "replicate the foam cannon"

My dilute APC is working fine but this could be a nice upgrade to give a little more dwell time before drying out
 
Is surface prep caustic free? For those of you who are spraying out of a pump sprayer or garden sprayer, what ratio are you using? I`ve read everything from 1:10, 1:20, to 1:128 to "replicate the foam cannon"

My dilute APC is working fine but this could be a nice upgrade to give a little more dwell time before drying out

Not sure TBH. I know it`s alkaline in it`s concentrated form but it`s supposed to be safe when diluted. I plan to test the ph out of the cannon when I finally get some. I don`t believe it`s meant to be used for every wash though, more for a heavily soiled cars or for a pre detail wash. I`m probably going to use it often on my truck though just to see how it affects all the coatings I have on it. :)
 
I know they recommend the Foaming Surface Prep @ 10:1 as a presoak for heavy bugs/grime or door jams.

Do you think there`s any advantage of taking the same approach with the Foaming Wash until the Surface Prep is available? Or since it`s listed as PH neutral will it not have much effect?

No where is it marketed for that use, just curious for while we wait for the Surface Prep.
 
Not sure TBH. I know it`s alkaline in it`s concentrated form but it`s supposed to be safe when diluted. I plan to test the ph out of the cannon when I finally get some. I don`t believe it`s meant to be used for every wash though, more for a heavily soiled cars or for a pre detail wash. I`m probably going to use it often on my truck though just to see how it affects all the coatings I have on it. :)

Thanks. I don`t mind a bit of alkalinity, I just try to avoid caustics because they`re bad for trim. And as you mentioned, the "solution is dilution" :)
 
I know they recommend the Foaming Surface Prep @ 10:1 as a presoak for heavy bugs/grime or door jams.
Do you think there`s any advantage of taking the same approach with the Foaming Wash until the Surface Prep is available? Or since it`s listed as PH neutral will it not have much effect?
No where is it marketed for that use, just curious for while we wait for the Surface Prep.

Good question, I just picked up the kit and the cannon and when the car is really dirty I plan on,
1) pressure rinse
2) foam for a few minutes
3) use mits to clean with foam
4) rinse with Poly Gloss

Not sure if I need to rinse the foam BEFORE using the mits to ensure most of the dirt is gone first.
 
Good question, I just picked up the kit and the cannon and when the car is really dirty I plan on,
1) pressure rinse
2) foam for a few minutes
3) use mits to clean with foam
4) rinse with Poly Gloss

Not sure if I need to rinse the foam BEFORE using the mits to ensure most of the dirt is gone first.

Just posted on this in your other thread, but just for the archives wanted to mention that Griot’s doesn’t recommend rinsing prior to using the Foaming Surface Wash (or Prep when it’s available) as it lessens the ability for the foam to cling.

Other thought was that the BOSS foams aren’t marketed as Foam, hand wash, rinse off; they’re designed to foam, dwell, rinse. I think the intention is to lift and release dirt/grit, not to provide lubrication for physical agitation like a standard car wash soap/foam.

I believe the work flow would be:
1: Foam with Surface Wash (from bottom up)
2: Allow to dwell but not dry for up to 10 min
3: Pressure rinse (top down)
4: Evaluate. Traditional wash of film remains, or proceed.
5: Foam with Poly Gloss (from bottom up)
6: Allow to dwell for a few min
7: Pressure rinse (top down)
8: Dry

(Edited to add workflow)
 
If I were using this system, I`d try disobeying the instructions and rinse it off first.

Reading what people posting about how they plan to use this, I can`t help but think how you shouldn`t expect the Newest Thing to make a long, hard job into a quick and easy one. Realistic expectations and all that...
 
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