Review: Poorboys Super Slick & Foam Pre-Soak Shampoo

**ScottH** · 04-10-2017, 08:32 AM

Dear Forum Members,

In a continuing series of reviews Meghan asked me to do, this one is Poorboys Super Slick & Foam Pre-Soak Shampoo. As the name implies it is intended to be used in a foam gun for pre-soaking the car but I wanted to mix things up a little, and use it as a regular car wash soap - with the intention of seeing/feeling exactly how slick it is while in use.

The test subject was my wife's white 2012 Audi A4. I wash her car at least once a week by hand, and always follow with a spray wax as a drying aid. Last week I polished the car and applied Griot's PolyWax. We had 3 heavy rain storms this week so the car got dirty but was hard to capture in pics (white car in the sun). But suffice to say it was dirty enough that I was itching to make it clean again, and certainly enough to give a car soap a good test.

I was sent a 4 ounce sample and because I wasn't going to foam it on, I decided to use 1 ounce in 2.5 gallons of water with a wash mitt. Second bucket of clean, warm wash mitt rinse water. Upon opening the bottle, it smells GREAT!! I am having a hard time placing the exact smell, but would say a fruity smell like pina colada/rum mix. Suffice to say it was a very pleasant smell.

Once hit with water in the bucket it foamed up instantly - as I sort of expected it to. As a test, I then let the bucket sit for 5 minutes to see how long the foam would last. At the 5 minute mark, I would say approx. half the foam had dissipated but that wasn't by any means a negative. Very few shampoos/foams will hold 100% over that time period. Hit it with water again, and it foamed up again. Plenty of suds to work with. Time to wash.

Using a chenille wash mitt loaded with suds, the mitt glides over the panels with very little drag - and THIS is what I was looking to test. I have used some other car soaps, shampoos that excel in this area (Gliptone, McKees and Pinnacle for example) and others that fall short and provide almost no lubrication despite high price tags.

The dirt on the horizontal panels was then rinsed off easily. No second washing necessary. Moving to the vertical panels where significantly more dirt is always found, I loaded up the mitt and again with ease the dirt was removed in two passes of the mitt. The soap gave me plenty of working time without feeling rushed to rinse it off. (BTW: Sunny 60 degree day). Had I been working on a darker car in warmer conditions that might have been different. A final rinse of the car yielded a clean surface that I was ready to dry, except this time I did not use a spray wax as a drying aid as I did not want to interfere with the final look and feel of the product.

The car did not dry as easily as it does with a spray wax as a drying aid, but it was by no means difficult. In fact I used a water blade to remove most of the water and then followed with a plush MF. Once dried, I was able to walk around the car and assess the results - and I was happy with the cleanliness. Note: This product does not have any "wax" in it (but Poorboy's does have one with wax - this wasn't one of them). The paint felt sterile once dried - sort of the way N914 leaves your car. As slick as the product was to use, the paint didn't feel "as slick" when dried. I would give the after-dry slickness a 7 out of 10 rating, and the product a 9 out of 10 slickness rating while in-use. This would normally never matter to me as I always use a spray wax as a drying aid. This was the only time I didn't use a drying aid (don't tell my wife please - she is well versed now in all of this! LOL) In fact the lack of wax in the product is clearly by design and likely keeps its price down to a very reasonable $ 17.99 for 32 ounces. Now that I have a (literal) hands on feel for the product, next time I will use it as a pre-soak foam.

The results are shown here in the pictures. Next review with be McKee's 37 Tire Gel and Boyd Wheel Cleaner....

ScottH