Soak car before using foam gun?
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trekkeruss
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- Nov 25, 2013
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Most people use a foam cannon with a pressure washer, not a foam gun with an air compressor. A power rinse would be done with a pressure washer. 2BM is doing a two bucket wash after the foaming, to remove road grime that can't be removed by foam or a pressure wash.
J Cole
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- Jan 30, 2015
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I've used both the Tornador foam gun and a foam lance on my pressure washer. The foam gun will produce much thicker foam but in my experience it doesn't last longer than the foam from a pressure washer.
I usually use my foam gun on tires and by the time I've hit the fourth tire the foam on the first tire has died down. However, of course, this may vary depending on what you put in your foam gun. I usually mix some degreaser, sonax full effect, and APC.
In my foam lance I mix Iron X snow soap, degreaser, APC, poor boy's bug squash, and some Meguiar's hyperwash. I find that it works pretty well as a pre wash soak. But you don't get a lot of soaking time. A lot of the foam and what not runs off the car. But I'd say you get a good five minutes. So I usually hit the car once, work on the bugs up front, or some tar or something, hit it again, maybe hit some spots with Iron X, then I rinse it all off, so I get about 10 minutes of good soaking time and it does seem to help during my 2BM wash.
In my opinion I would use your foam gun before rinsing the car if it has a moderate to low amount of contaminants on it. But if it's really dirty, such as mud, I would definitely rinse it first.
I usually use my foam gun on tires and by the time I've hit the fourth tire the foam on the first tire has died down. However, of course, this may vary depending on what you put in your foam gun. I usually mix some degreaser, sonax full effect, and APC.
In my foam lance I mix Iron X snow soap, degreaser, APC, poor boy's bug squash, and some Meguiar's hyperwash. I find that it works pretty well as a pre wash soak. But you don't get a lot of soaking time. A lot of the foam and what not runs off the car. But I'd say you get a good five minutes. So I usually hit the car once, work on the bugs up front, or some tar or something, hit it again, maybe hit some spots with Iron X, then I rinse it all off, so I get about 10 minutes of good soaking time and it does seem to help during my 2BM wash.
In my opinion I would use your foam gun before rinsing the car if it has a moderate to low amount of contaminants on it. But if it's really dirty, such as mud, I would definitely rinse it first.
2BM = 2 Bucket Method
Souldetailer
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- Feb 13, 2015
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I agree with Bob on this one, although I DO foam after the hitting it with the PW. I don't know why, I guess I'm one of the folks that thinks it helps. I mean, come on, who doesn't like a ton of foam to make things fun. That's reason enough! Then 2 bucket and proceed as usual. Take care.
Peace,
Darrin
J Cole
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- Jan 30, 2015
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They're all either around 7 or close to 14 at 13.5. I originally didn't use the Iron X Snow Soap or the Bug Squash but slowly added them in. When I added in the Iron X I ensured that it still reacted with areas iron was present. The snow soap isn't as strong as normal Iron X but when I rinse the car off there is still some purple in the foam being rinsed off. And last I added the bug squash, I'm still trying to determine if it's better to add that to the foam lance or if it's more beneficial sprayed onto the surface of the car by itself. So far it seems like it's working pretty well and by putting it in the foam lance it does save time.
Obviously every car is different so it's hard to compare side by side. It may add no benefit at all but the cars seem to come cleaner easier during the following 2BM wash - and the foam lasts a bit longer.
DZ302
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- May 9, 2015
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I always rinse the vehicle first to remove any large debris, mud, dirt, bird dropping etc than I use the foam gun....much better final product and your not grinding mud , dirt etc you can not longer see through the foam over the painted surfaces....make sense ?
How well could you drive a Pinto with a 428 cu CobraJet? So, IMO, you can definitely have too much horsepower.... Plus ducksfan said it as well as can be.
lawrenceSA
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- Feb 7, 2012
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I often see people commenting about how little benefit there is to using a foam cannon, and I've never quite understood why...
The sequence of pics (all the pics are straight out the camera) were put together for my fellow local VW Club members to demonstrate how effective a pressure rinsing and foaming are at removing dirt before you make contact with the paint...
The 'before' condtion - with around a month's daily driving on it.
The wheel, arch and front fender were then pressured rinsed clean and dried using a blower, leaving less dirt than before
Then some snow foam was applied (Valet Pro ANSF @ 1:10 if anyone is interested - I know its not a product AG sell so mods can remove that bit if need be as this is not so much a review of the product per se, more just the process as a whole)
Left to dwell
Then pressured rinsed and air dried again.
Setec Astronomy
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- Aug 31, 2010
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Lawrence, I could argue that the pressure washer alone would do that without the foaming prior. IME a hose-end foam gun at normal dilutions doesn't touch road film, it's going to be the pressure washer or at least a "flat spray" which is a sharper stream, from a regular hose nozzle, that is required to really knock anything other than loose dust/pollen off.
lawrenceSA
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- Feb 7, 2012
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Firstly, I must apologise.... I misread and thought the OP was talking about a foam cannon, not a foam gun (I have no experience with the gun, so can't really comment on its effectiveness). :doh:
I agree that the pressure washer itself does remove a lot of the dirt, as is evidenced by this pic
But, if you then look at the same area after foaming, some more dirt is removed - to my mind, this is evidence enough the the foam does remove some additional dirt...
To clarify, the process in the above sequence of pics was
Pressure rinse the dirty paint - and I really did try and get it as clean as I could
Air dry to see effectiveness of the pressure rinsing step only
Foam and let it dwell
Rinse
Air dry to see the effectiveness of the foaming itself.
I accept that in respect of the total amount of dirt removed, a larger portion of it may be coming from the pressure washing itself, but I can't accept that the foaming step does nothing (and this was more where I was coming from - that I often read about people claiming there is NO benefit to the foaming step).
I still personally think the spend on the cannon and associated 'foam' products is money well spent as a 'swirl mitigation measure', but obviously this thinking may not be the same for everyone....and I respect that.
Lastly, when it comes to traffic film, I agree that your typical snow foams don't usually tackle this and I would typically use a dedicated TFR product for this purpose through a normal handheld pump sprayer, should the car have been driven in the wet an exposed to traffic film, and then, it would usually only be on the lower half of the vehicle...
I agree that the pressure washer itself does remove a lot of the dirt, as is evidenced by this pic
But, if you then look at the same area after foaming, some more dirt is removed - to my mind, this is evidence enough the the foam does remove some additional dirt...
To clarify, the process in the above sequence of pics was
Pressure rinse the dirty paint - and I really did try and get it as clean as I could
Air dry to see effectiveness of the pressure rinsing step only
Foam and let it dwell
Rinse
Air dry to see the effectiveness of the foaming itself.
I accept that in respect of the total amount of dirt removed, a larger portion of it may be coming from the pressure washing itself, but I can't accept that the foaming step does nothing (and this was more where I was coming from - that I often read about people claiming there is NO benefit to the foaming step).
I still personally think the spend on the cannon and associated 'foam' products is money well spent as a 'swirl mitigation measure', but obviously this thinking may not be the same for everyone....and I respect that.
Lastly, when it comes to traffic film, I agree that your typical snow foams don't usually tackle this and I would typically use a dedicated TFR product for this purpose through a normal handheld pump sprayer, should the car have been driven in the wet an exposed to traffic film, and then, it would usually only be on the lower half of the vehicle...