Hey guys, just curious what product that is I see in your detail spreads all the time. Always see pictures of some foaming wash product you guys always start with and seems like to let it sit and soak on the whole car?? What's that all about?

 

I'm not Detailer's Domain, but I think it's just a good brand of car wash soap put on with a foam gun. It's a presoak that loosens the crap and helps lube the wash mitt when you start the actual wash process - all in the interests of preventing scratches.

 

Yep...thanks George. Did some searching and found it out.

 

Rich Mans Foam Gun

My Makeshift Poor Mans Foam Gun

 

okay so on some of the write ups we use a

Gilmour Foam Gun

on the rest we use a Foam Canon attached to a Pressure Wash.


Some good car wash shampoos to use with it.

Adam's Car Wash
Lusso Auto Bathe
Sonax Gloss Shampoo
Optimum Car Wash

 

I see the Gilmour is for a traditional water hose...how does that one work?? After some searching around, I see most use a pressure washer. I don't have one of those. Do the ones for the water hose work pretty good or are they a waste?

 

If a Gilmour on a hose is good enough for those guys, you would probably be very happy with it. Note the water pressure recommendations.

Note that they don't use Meguiars products - it's not because they are bad, they have other reasons. You should be able to use something like Gold Class if you already have it.

 

for regular washes and home use its great!

Meg's works as well.

 

Just discovered there is one out there for an air compressor...any info on those? How are they??

 

You still have to mix soap with water to make foam - and you don't need an air compressor to do that.

 

Understood. But, I have searched the internet ad nausium on this and found several videos of both types...pressure washer and garden hose. The garden hose type clearly doesn't do the job that the pressure washer type does, thus my thinking the air compressor type might just be closer to the pressure washer type as far as performance goes.

 

I've seen the Gilmour in use - and it does exactly what it's supposed to do - blows foam out onto the vehicle. Maybe I'm too simple minded, but I don't comprehend where this isn't good enough.

 

I have the Gilmour gun and have used it for about 3 years. In short, it's great and very simple to use. I simply wet the whole car down with water and blow off any of the bigger chunks. Next, I attach the gun and soak the whole vehicle down. I then use the two bucket method to wash the car. The difference the foam gun makes it loosening up the dirt and floating it off better than just a soapy sponge. Trust me, it's well worth the investment and much simpler to use that the other guns that require air or other things to power them.

 

The general theory of the Foam Gun is to spray a properly premixed soap solution on the vehicle.

The pressure washer and the compressor set up will probably give you more pressure spraying the foam on the vehicle and a foamier foam but the basic benefit of the foam gun is to foam the vehicle and let it soak before rinsing.
If you spray with a strong stream of water as you rinse you will still remove the same amount of dirt and road grime as you would with high pressure foam.

Unless your water pressure is low and you want to boost it, they all work on the same basic principle and you are still going to need to hit the paint with a wash mitt at some point.

 

This is a little late but I second the recommendation for the Gilmour. I've used it multiple times and is very easy to use and effective. Plus it's much cheaper than some of the others out there...