How to wash a car with a foam gun

[Mike Phillips]

Mike, do you normally rinse the car first with water before you apply the foam or do you apply the foam to the dry car first?

Normally just foam down a dry car. I want the foam to stick and dwell. If the paint is already wet it will tend to cause the foam to slide off faster.

When I use the Iron X Snow Soap in a Tornador Air Foamer Gun I always spray onto dry car.


For heavy visible dirt however like on the lower body panels it's a good idea to blast it off first with a strong spray of water.

[Mike Phillips]

I've never tried a zero bucket wash technique which is what this appears to be?

Lower left at the bottom of this picture is my "Zero Bucket".

Were you rinsing the sponge out with the hose between panels or did you just wipe down the entire car?

I did use my water sprayer to flush the wash sponge after every panel or so... a bucket of clean water would be better then you just dunk it and then squeeze the heck out of the foam to flush water out and thus dirt particles out.

How is that safe?

See my answer above...

I'm assuming this car was not that dirty?

Allow me to bring the ORIGINAL thread for this project back to the forefront since you're asking great questions....

Here's where I extracted this article from, it's just a PORTION of the write-up I did for the 2006 SLK350 we recently purchased. Here's the sign-up thread, located in the forum group for where I create sign-up thread for all the projects done on this forum.

2006 Mercedes-Benz SLK 350 Show Car Makeover

We had not had the car an entire week before doing this makeover. I have no idea what was on the pain if ANYTHING.

The car was washed at the dealership and then we drove it home. We hit rain a few times on the way home and then drove it for the next 4 days here in Stuart, so the car was only lightly dirty.

I'm thinking the LSP has a lot to do with being able to use this technique?

Since we had just purchased the car we had know way of knowing what if any LSP was on the paint.

My guess is the car has not been properly detailed or waxed for years. The paint was in great condition as far as SWIRLS go but it did not feel slick nor waxed.


I describe the visual condition after inspecting it both the sign-up thread and the pictures and comments thread. I also noted that it needed to be clayed.

In the write-up thread I went into detail how I chemically decontaminated the paint.

Here's a visual portion of this process...


Removing Iron Particles out of Mercedes-Benz Ceramiclear Paints
Following the steps outlined in my how-to book, the next thing to do is decontaminate the paint. For this I'm using Auto Finesse Iron Out Iron Remover.




Bleeding-Effect in Mercedes-Benz Ceramiclear Paint





Light Iron Contamination
These pictures show the paint was in fact lightly contaminated with some type of iron particles...





Just to note.... it's BETTER to see LIGHT CONTAMINATION in your car's paint than HEAVY CONTAMINATION.


Why?


Light contamination means your car's precious, thin clear coat is NOT contaminated. That's a good thing. Iron contaminants is corrosive to the paint.


Heavy contamination means your car's precious, thin clear coat IS contaminated. While the Bleeding-Effect L00kS really kool... it's better NOT to see it.



Make sense?

I can see that as being a super fast way to wash a car!

Most wash jobs take me about an hour. I never rush, I always take the appropriate amount of time to do the job right. Especially when I'm going to do things like machine scrub the tires to prep them for TUF Shine.


It's all documented here...

2006 Mercedes-Benz SLK 350 Show Car Makeover Pictures



Cyclo Brush on a Griot's DA Polisher = Best Machine Tire Scrubber
These tires have a lot of very thin or fine lines raised lines in the sidewall so to get into these areas and agitate the tire dressing I'm use a Gray, Ultra Soft Upholstery Brush made for Cyclo Polishers on a Griot's Garage DA Polisher on about the 5.0 Speed Setting with the TUFF SHINE Tire Cleaner.







Decontaminate Wheels
Since I've only owned this car for 5 days I have know idea what's been done for maintenance in the past so after machine scrubbing the tires the next thing I'm going to do is decontaminate the wheels using Iron X and a Daytona Speedmaster Wheel Brush, to get behind the spokes, the back of the wheel barrels and around the brake calipers. I used an 8" Montana Boar's Hair Wheel Brush to clean the face of the wheels.








Does anyone have a copy of my how to book? If you do, do you remember what it says about the two different ways to wash a car? Can someone post the relevant portions? (I already know what it says)

In hindsight, these to approaches have turned out to be very important for anyone doing their own car maintenance to know and understand.


Great questions Jim...

[beamerstrumpet]

dang! i have a garden hose.. but my hose is connected to my apartment sink by removing the aerator... i have no idea how much pressure it's pushing! .. can i buy something to help pressurize the water?

Yep get a pressure washer. a low priced one from Karcher or just about any one will do the trick, but they dont hook to this model foam gun. They do sell a foam tim with karcher, but dont expect huge foam out of it, I could be wrong I have never tried it. and there is a foam cannon that you can buy for the karcher but its a bit pricy. if you just need to boost your PSI from the sink, you will do good with a basic electric washer. my karcher does really good on the hose, dont see why the sink wouldnt work, the washer just needs a supply of watter.

[wrx495]

Yep get a pressure washer. a low priced one from Karcher or just about any one will do the trick, but they dont hook to this model foam gun. They do sell a foam tim with karcher, but dont expect huge foam out of it, I could be wrong I have never tried it. and there is a foam cannon that you can buy for the karcher but its a bit pricy. if you just need to boost your PSI from the sink, you will do good with a basic electric washer. my karcher does really good on the hose, dont see why the sink wouldnt work, the washer just needs a supply of watter.

thanks! i'll take a look into this! how much water do i need? how do i know how much gpm my sink putting out, would it be enough for the pressure washer????

[beamerstrumpet]

just so the machine is getting its tank full, which is not that big. I have seen Gary Dean just use a karcher and a water tank with gravity feed. the karcher will suck it in. i think if you give your hose time to fill, and you leave the sink on, then you will be fine. the karcher I have is no longer made, (Karcher K2.25M - 1500 PSI Hand-Carry (Electric-Cold Water) Pressure Washer)
but this one comes with the foam gun and some other goodies
Karcher K2.26-75 - 1600 PSI (Electric-Cold Water) Anniversary Bonus Pressure Washer

I think I read it only needs 2 gallons per min after its primed, so a sink should be fine, the other bonus you have is being able to run some hot water in at the same time so you have warm water to wash with on colder days

[wrx495]

just so the machine is getting its tank full, which is not that big. I have seen Gary Dean just use a karcher and a water tank with gravity feed. the karcher will suck it in. i think if you give your hose time to fill, and you leave the sink on, then you will be fine. the karcher I have is no longer made, (Karcher K2.25M - 1500 PSI Hand-Carry (Electric-Cold Water) Pressure Washer)
but this one comes with the foam gun and some other goodies
Karcher K2.26-75 - 1600 PSI (Electric-Cold Water) Anniversary Bonus Pressure Washer

I think I read it only needs 2 gallons per min after its primed, so a sink should be fine, the other bonus you have is being able to run some hot water in at the same time so you have warm water to wash with on colder days

WOW! that looks very convenient! may i ask though . it says 1.5gpm is that how much the machine puts out? or is that how much is needed for the machine. because i can definitely let it fill up during the mean time while i set up then just get it going when i am ready

[wrx495]

I think I read it only needs 2 gallons per min after its primed, so a sink should be fine, the other bonus you have is being able to run some hot water in at the same time so you have warm water to wash with on colder days

sorry for double posting it but i saw in the questions section of it
"This machine not only requires at least 2 gpm's of water coming into the machine, you also need about 40-50 psi going to the machines intake in order to get proper operation. "
do you know how much psi is standard in most kitchen sinks ? and how do i find out how many Gpm of water i have

[t5620]

sorry for double posting it but i saw in the questions section of it
"This machine not only requires at least 2 gpm's of water coming into the machine, you also need about 40-50 psi going to the machines intake in order to get proper operation. "
do you know how much psi is standard in most kitchen sinks ? and how do i find out how many Gpm of water i have

I'm not entirely sure on the psi..there its probably an average for most sinks...but the gpm is sometimes engraved around the end of the faucet. Not sure if this is the same case for all sinks though..might just be the old sinks I've seen...

[wrx495]

I'm not entirely sure on the psi..there its probably an average for most sinks...but the gpm is sometimes engraved around the end of the faucet. Not sure if this is the same case for all sinks though..might just be the old sinks I've seen...

ok i think i have to buy one of those psi pressure gauges for like 9 bucks from HD but i have found out my GPMS! so what i did was convert 1 gallon to ounces (128 oz in 1 gallon) so i grabbed one of my ninja blender containers and it's max was 72OZ. so i timed it . and that left 56 remaining. I filled my 72 oz in about 21 seconds. then 56 by the next 15 seconds. (fought guestimates i don't have exact times) and i filled up one more 72oz with only 1.95 seconds remaining to 60 seconds. and i came with 200 ounces of water in 1 minute (with aerator attachment) and thats roughly 1.5 gpm's. that was 1 trial though going to do it without the attachment and see if it changes a lot! but i'll be looking for pressure washer's with about 1.5 gpm to fill it !

[wrx495]

sorry it won't let me edit but EDIT: took aerator off and barely made the 2gpm's mark. i think the AR will work i will just have to let the tank fill and let the hose build up pressure with the water running and no pressure released from the PW