I'm a foam on the dry surface guy. I then rinse and do another foaming for the contact wash. Really like the Sonax snow foam product and then i go with CarPro reset for the second foam and contact wash.
I recently started pre treating with GS on the lower or heavier contimated panels then foam rinse then contact. I did notice GS helping out in the rinse process knocking down some of the heavy mud and dirt. Next wash pretreating whole vehicle with rinse less before foam or put some rinse less in the foam cannon
Good video there! In the UK we've got a fairly big culture of pre-wash foaming, we'll tend to use something more like Super Foam in terms of pH levels, but we'd very rarely pre-rinse (unless there is thick mud). Obviously I don't speak for the whole nation 😂 but people who are properly into their detailing will always foam, and most will use something with a high pH. But now AF is in 1L (hopefully here soon) I will definitely give this a go!
Apex Detail did a video about the acidic nature of pollen and recommended pre foaming with a higher ph soap to naturalizer it. I like the concept behind it.
My perfect combo has been to pre rinse with rinseless wash solution and pressure wash it off and then do a contact wash using rinseless solution. Works great in the Phoenix heat
Hey guys this is so over my head it's ridiculous I have a 2012 white Tahoe and the body is pretty much Immaculate as far as any chips are damaged I have a Portland Harbor Freight pressure washer and it comes with the foaming gun. I have obviously been using a local AutoZone car wash and then a car wash brush and my garden hose. Question one if I switch to the pressure washer technique and I bought one of these good foaming concentrates and foamed my Tahoe down dry I assume you guys mean touchless as in foam it down let it sit rinse it off let it dry? Question 2 contact means I would foam it down let it sit and then use my car brush and brush it or a wash mitt then rinse it off? Last but not least what do you recommend for the little black spots of Road Grime that hit the front and around the sides of the panel near the floorboards
I wish i lived in San Diego so i could pay you to come detail my car, and learn from you, but im on the other side of the country 😭 But i'm watching all your vods and learning alot.
I Pre rinse because I work in my driveway and its almost always sunny when I detail a car so keeping the panels cooler outweighs having a slightly more diluted product. Doing a contact wash is going to work better than just foam regardless so its kind of a moot point.
I think the issue isn't dilution. That sounds pretty absurd to me. The real issue in my opinion is that absorbent dirt clumps will fill with water and practically resist the soap from entering.
I just tried Labocosmetica products for the first time, particularly Primus 2.0 (Alka) and Purifica (Acid) and was blown away how effective it is! I highly recommend them!
No pre rinse here. If I do that, it will remove a bit of surface crud but the car has Si02 and topper on it. As soon as I spray the car with water the hydrophobicity returns a bit and the foam doesn't want to stick on the panel. This means I have to use more soap. Having said that, I fom the car, rinse and foam again. The second foam is either for clay block or washing depending on what I am doing.
Living in the desert makes me scared to omit the pre rinse. I always start with a pressure washer to get rid of any surface dirt that might scratch when I start using a mitt.
Foam and wait 2-3 mins. Foam and contact wash with 2nd coat of foam - no bucket needed. Rinse thoroughly and dry with blower. If there’s excessive road film and road salt, start the process with high alkaline foam then follow steps above. I’m not a pro detailed, but my car looks almost showroom new and it’s 4 years old. Helps keep my close to 20 SUV looking spiffy too.
Good video, Josh. I've always been in camp dry-foam, but maybe that's not the most effective. I still think it's the safest method and the best for an only slightly dirty surface.
Foaming before rinsing with pressure washer on a dirty vehicle is also the safest method. Foaming allows the surfactants to encapsulate the dirt particles, making for a safer removal. Think of blasting dirt directly into the paint at 1000 or greater psi. It can make a big difference on black and softer paint types.
Put a rinse-less in a sprayer - spray the vehicle and give the rinse-less some time to encapsulate the dirt then use your power washer to rinse then foam and contact wash. Great results
I do a pre-foam, rinse, foam again, and do a contact wash. The prefoam gets a bunch of the grotty stuff off the paint, so my contact wash isn't knocking off all that big grit.
To be honest I don't see any difference if i use a snow foam or not, not even higher ph or something, I'm doing everything ok, all dilutions all that and i still don't think it makes a difference. However using snow foam instead of the 2 bucket method is way more efficient. And yes i do it in all sorts of vehicles and i still don't see a lot of difference. Even using it to clear some polishing dust after a heavy correction, all the dust is there unless i agitate it. For me, snow foam just for lubrication and show.
When I pre-foam, I turn up the water mixture a little so it's not so thick to let it break down loose dirt, then rinse, then full power foam, agitate, then rinse and dry.
On a cry dirty car I first use P & S PROFESSIONAL DETAIL PRODUCTS Absolute Rinseless Wash as a pre-treatment before I spray off with water and then you my car foam etc, I think it works well to pretreat before foam,
I tried this on my car that is washed & waxed all the time and my wife's car that is not. I find that using the dirt cannon on a dry car that has wax on it comes out much better that the dry car that has little to no wax on it.
After watching tons of videos of different youtubers, I haven't found the answer to this question yet, When is it better to use a lower ph car wash soap? Or it doesn’t matter at all? In some comments, I read it is good to disolve salt. Is it true? When use neutral? I guess for pre wash, it is better a high ph soap.
So Josh, what is your take on spraying rinseless wash from a pump sprayer onto the panels prior to foaming a car instead of pre-rinsing? I've used this method for the last three washes and have come to love the cleaning abilities before a mechanical wash. I've followed this cleaning up with a rinseless wash and have found very little contamination on my Eagle 350s! Products used are ONR version 3 or 4 and two different soaps, Stjarnagloss SNO and P&S Frostbite from an IK Foam Pro 12.
Imo it doesn't matter if you're going to contact wash. Also pre rinsing is just an extra step to me since you're going to rinse it again after foaming. Again, the negligible difference doesn't matter if you're going to contact wash. I think it matters more if you're not going to contact wash, or if you have literal mounds of dirt on the car but either way its getting rinsed off so I'd rather save time
Understandable but the point of pre rinse is to take a car that really dirty and safely remove as much dirt before the contact wash. If you just rinse and foam you will pick up a lot of that dirt and you have more of a possibility of scratching your car again it depends on the situation. Most cars you don't have to but some you should.
There's a few videos of someone showing a pre-rinse vs a prewash. Prewash visibly shows less dirt on the car. Less dirt on the car during contact wash = less chance of scratching paint. Meguiars Gold Class does have a lot of lubrication though so totally understand you trying to save time instead of be OCD like us lol.
Hi Josh. I just had a question about the 300 GSM Edgeless Micro Fiber - GRAY (12 Pack) that you have for sale on your website. Can you give me some advice on what those would be best used on? Would they be best for drying a washed car? Cleaning windows? (I think waffle weave are best for windows though?). Or is there something else they should be best used for? Also should they be prewashed before doing anything? Thank you very much!
I'm new to this cleaning regimen. In my younger days, just a bucket of water and some Dawn was enough to clean my cars. Thinking about the spray foam process but have a really basic question...after foaming and rinsing, would I still need to manually soap up the vehicle and hand wash? What soap is recommended for hand washing? Another complication is that my water source is well water.
Hey Josh I have a 2022 Chevy Silverado. Was wondering how you would go about washing a bigger truck and being quick about it so it does t get spotted up?? Love your videos!!
I got a 23 silverado myself. When i do it i start from top to bottom, washing and rinsing one panel at a time starting from roof, windshield and hood. I also do vertical panels on all the top halves first and then come back around and do the bottom halves since the bottom halves have more dirt and mud on it, so theres less risk of picking that dirt up and scratching up the upper panels. And to avoid the spots, get an inline mineral removal filter from amazon, it screws inline with your water hose, and i put a articulating hose joint, theyre made of plastic or metal, i put mine inline with my pressure washer at the hose inlet. The filter will remove the minerals from your water so when it dries, it wont leave mineral water spots. Same with washing, you don’t want the soap to dry on the paint, so go one panel at a time. Wash in shade or overcast, or before the sun gets too hot in the morning or if you can keep the paint cool as the sun goes down. You just dont want to let it evaporate before you rinse it. They do sell blowers specifically to dry cars after washes. Mine got a 9” lift with 37s, so its a pain in the ass to wash, especially on the roof, id recommend ceramic coat also, makes things much easier between coats.
Thank you I’ll have to look water removal products. I’m usually good during cooler months but it’s starting to warm up so the panels will air dry a lot faster. I always tried keeping the truck wet as I rinse off but sometimes it’s not possible. Thanks for the info
Your definition of "very very dirty" is a lot different than mine... I would classify that as "lightly dirty"... "Very very dirty" would be where it was a bit "chunky" after having gone off-road...
Just as a curiosity, I live in a wet environment, so road dirt get's really bad after rain. Do you experience the same where you live? And is there a way to get it cleaned without mechanical brushing? Cool video, I've obesrved the same thing with rince no rince. I do dilute my cheap soap 50/50 in the cannon.
I just came upon your channel about a week ago and have since purchased pretty much everything you suggest including the 1.1 orifice. Without trying to find a video that you might have already made can you direct me to a video where you show washing the vehicle from foam to finish? Thanks
I just did a video recently on prepping a car for a ceramic coating and the first half of that video should apply to what youre looking for! Here you go: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nGvebJqP3WE.html
@@imjoshvI'm in Maryland and I was just curious how does that stuff work on bird crap that's landed on your car that may have sat for a day or two before you got around to it or you noticed it because it was on the roof?
Foam first with light pressure....it will loosen up the filth, bird poop, and bug guts. Then when you use your pressure washer after foaming as then you are not marring up the protective wax and clear coat from hardened foreign substances. Anyways, manual by hand is best, use low water pressure - garden hose, car soap, couple of fresh water buckets to rinse the microfiber towels, washing, and waxing your vehicle is better than those contaminated and harsh automated car washes/brushless car wash as they can destroy your vehicle with unnecessary force, bad chemicals, and recycled toxic water.
Hey Josh, great video! If foam does dry on the surface do you typically have to polish the panel or will claying remove the spots? I've had issues with hard water spots and soap dried on older paint before.
Great vid. I've always been a good car wash soap in a bucket and wash mit guy. Been happy with the results. I'm now learning about car wash soap and foam cannons. Learned a lot in your vid. What, in your opinion, should be the max PSI when using a pressure washer to clean your car. Thanks. Scott.
Great video, thanks Josh. What would you recommend for a black, ceramic-coated car? I've been using the KC GSF - is AF safe for ceramic? Up to now, I've been foaming with GSF, agitating, rinsing.
I followed ditaling community for 2 years till I realized it behaves like fashion industry. After a while you can tell when something becomes “IN”, progresses and slowly becomes “OUT” while something else replaces it. All along tough, they (RU-vid detailers) give you the impression they been doing for years and it’s the only way, even as they themself shift their position with said “fashion”. In my, non professional life long experiences with soaps and cleaning chemicals, the results of this video are obvious: The prices are ridiculous. If you take all that money you could around to respray the clear coat every 5 years. Chemicals are dirt cheap. It’s like bottled water, you pay 1000 times more because of the bottle, redistribution, and shelf time. Everyone has to be payed the same regardless of the cost of that chemical. Economy 101. Not that long ago they took a auto car wash chemical that brakes down surface bond of the water so it can be easily BLOWN away with the fans at the end of the tunnel, put it into small bottles with made up claims and names and sold it for $20. Same chemical auto wash station gets for equivalent of less then $1 a bottle. Their distributor gets it for less the c10 a bottle and manufacturer less then c1. People were told not to use DISH SOUP because it would strip protections and then later when “striping” chemicals were marketed, same people said DISH SOUP wouldn’t remove things and not to use it 😂 Now I don’t believe dish soup is the ideal for cars but I’m just pointing the obvious. When foaming chemicals were introduced they never told people that the more foam they generated the less cleaning power they got cause they inherently cancels each other out. (Not exactly but for the sake of making over simplification). Then later they tried telling people to presoak to compensate for the foaming later. Wait, why exactly are you foaming if it does next to nothing for cleaning or at least is counter productive?…. On and on….. like a fashion industry always revolving to generate cash.
New drinking game! Take a shot of your favorite adult beverage every time he says, "and again," "right," or "kinda" and see who if anybody is still standing at the end of the video. :}
can you do a tutorial on cleaning and maintaining a foam cannon? my MJJC S V3 foam cannon stopped foaming last week, i have tried filling it with water and run it to flush out any debris but it did not solve it.
They say its safe for coated cars and leaves existing protection uneffected.. However, I think over time it can start to cause it to break down a bit sooner. But again, Active foam is only a 9.5 so not too bad and its not used for every wash!
I love adams mega foam. I would say the cleaning ability of Active foam is better especially for a foam on, dwell, rinse application. But yeah there are so many options that you can get lost. I always recommend that if you are happy with how something works and getting the results you want, then stick with it!
