diy foam cannon?

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brownbob06

New member
I was doing some thinking and thought to myself "it can't be that hard to make a foam cannon yourself." I searched the forums and it seems like its never been brought up. There are all kinds of tuts on YouTube for it (mainly people using them for parties or as toys basically.) But would it work?



The one I saw that seemed to work good involved drilling a hole in a leafblower, putting a water/soap solution in a 2 liter bottle and a screen on the front of the leafblower.



Do you guys think this would work good on cars? Anyone ever tried it?
 
I'm thinking if you got one of those plastic bottles that attach to a garden hose for spraying pesticides or whatnot, it may work if filled with concentrated soap. I've been thinking about this myself. I'm trying to go as touchless as possible, so a foam cannon (wait a few minutes), then rinse clean, followed by drying with a leaf blower (which I have been doing, and works great) would be ideal. I hope someone else chimes in with some ideas to do this on the cheap.
 
I went to Home Depot and got the foam attachment for the pressure washer that is used to clean siding. Found it in the garden section. Works great and was $20 if I recall.
 
Gotee7 said:
I went to Home Depot and got the foam attachment for the pressure washer that is used to clean siding. Found it in the garden section. Works great and was $20 if I recall.
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Is the foam rich and lathery and stay on the car for a while?
 
Buffer_Wannabe said:
I'm thinking if you got one of those plastic bottles that attach to a garden hose for spraying pesticides or whatnot, it may work if filled with concentrated soap. I've been thinking about this myself. I'm trying to go as touchless as possible, so a foam cannon (wait a few minutes), then rinse clean, followed by drying with a leaf blower (which I have been doing, and works great) would be ideal. I hope someone else chimes in with some ideas to do this on the cheap.
Click to expand...





This might apply soap to the car, but not a rich foam. If you want to go cheap you could buy one of the 50oz garden pump sprayers from the garden section. It would serve the same purpose and prevent you from having to drag the hose around with it. It will also use less soap. I have a few and have one always full of ONR for pre-treating and working on areas like door jams.



Your idea for going touchless has the same downfalls as going to a mechanical touchless; gets off the dust but not very effective at removing contaminants unless the concentration is high, then you risk stripping your LSP. It is often the drying that causes the majority of marring, so a safe two bucket wash with the blower should be just about as safe.







Gotee7 said:
I went to Home Depot and got the foam attachment for the pressure washer that is used to clean siding. Found it in the garden section. Works great and was $20 if I recall.
Click to expand...





I think this is the same one I use except I found mine with the pressure washers. $15 and works well. Sure there are better ones out there for $60+ but I just don't think they are 4x better. The key is learning the right ratio of soap to get the best foam. By far this is the best value, provided you have a pressure washer first.
 
Buffer_Wannabe said:
Is the foam rich and lathery and stay on the car for a while?
Click to expand...



Works great for me. I rinse with the pressure washer, turn on the soap, soap up the car, let it dwell for 5 minutes and rinse off. Then move to the two bucket wash with grit guards. I have a black camaro and this works very well for me.
 
I'll have to pick up a sprayer and try that out. Was going to get some to use ONR for wheel wells anyways.



Any particular soap that works well in them?
 
brownbob06 said:
I'll have to pick up a sprayer and try that out. Was going to get some to use ONR for wheel wells anyways.



Any particular soap that works well in them?
Click to expand...



Haven't actually tried it for car washing other than ONR. My thinking is that the results will be the same as you would get with a trigger sprayer, but without the sore fingers. Probably not going to get much foaming from it other than maybe with Dawn, but that doesn't mean the soap isn't doing it's job at some level to break down the dirt.
 
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