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For snow foam you need a decent foam cannon & pressure washer
I have the basic one that came with my Karcher and I don't think it's top of the line but it works well enough. Foam stays on long enough to do it's job.
I would say that any spray-on/rinse-off type products with wax or ceramics in them are mostly marketing (in terms of any long-lasting benefits they claim)
It only claims to last up to three months, it's not pretending to be a full ceramic coating despite the word ceramic in the name. Given how easy it was to apply and it's fairly inexpensive, I'm happy so far. We'll see how long it actually lasts.
I'm conflicted now. I actually enjoy cleaning my cars (I'd say detailing is a bit far fetched but I do one or two big wash/polish/wax sessions on each car a year and then keep them looking decent inbetween) but do I continue killing wildlife with the stuff I use or do I contribute to modern slavery by getting some illegals to throw a rag over the car that'll have been on the floor etc, picked up a load of grit etc and damage my paintwork. Its not as if the illegals are using industrial grade TFR mixed so strong it'll take your skin off - they use rainbow water produced by the fairies.
Ransos – I think the correct thought is that excessive car washing should be on your TWO bucket list
Don't forget the grit guards.
but you can do it out of a hand pumped spray tank instead
Yep. I tried snow foam from a proper foam lance attached to a pressure washer, but found it messy and a faff. Swapped to using Bilt Hamber Auto Foam diluted in a hand-pumped 2L garden sprayer. Works brilliantly - it's enough to keep a car respectable over winter without doing anything else: spray on, wait a few minutes, blast it off with pressure washer. It helps if the paintwork's got a decent wax on it before winter though.
I don't understand the inverse snobbery around wanting to look after a valuable asset. Yes it's a car/van, yes it'll just get dirty again, but - to me at least - it's something I've spent a shitload of money on so why not look after it a bit?
Nobody ever mentioneds getting on their hands and knees making sure the wheelarch lips are free from mud or washing the road salt off the exposed subframes, or blasting leaves out from the arch liners. That to me is more important than shiny bodywork.
I used a cheap car wash once a few years back & vowed never again, while watching one of the blokes cleaning the car next to where I was waiting get a massive sponge, rub it along the sill first to get all the winter grit & crap onto the sponge, then proceed to rub it all over the side of the car.
I suppose if you don't really care about your car, or it's just a lease car that you are giving back in a couple of years, then it's not really a problem, but I buy my cars outright & hang onto them for a decent length of time so would rather take them time to look after them, than get them trashed by some bloke earning less than min wage at a car wash.
I don't find the time to clean my car very regularly, but do use decent products and find it quite therapeutic.
Headphones on, music or a podcast & just set to it. Similar to gardening or any other domestic job that needs doing, really.
I have tried the old snowfoam thing & find it more faff than it's worth - it's mainly the effort of getting the jetwash out, plugging it all in, dealing with the tangle of hoses & cables and then when you rinse the snowfoam off.........hmmmm, it's a little bit cleaner but I'm not sure if that's because of the snowfoam or because I've given it the once over with the jetwash.
I keep meaning to try it again at some point.
In relation to molgrips original post - I tried one of those expensive towels a few years ago & found it was crap. It was a Meguiars one & felt very nice, but just shoved the water around without really absorbing it.
It was weird, like it had some kind of hydrophobic coating on it 😄 - just went back to a chamois, which I think is frowned on in detailing circles, but does the job very well.
I've started using TurtleWax Hydrophobic sealant spray after a wash. It gets decent reviews & is basically a spray on, wipe off sealant for the paint. Not sure what it does in practical terms, but water beads up nicely on it.
I've often chipped into these threads...I really like cleaning my car..
It's the first posh car I've had in my life, and I'm proud...
I like to 'semi detail' it... Brushed, different pads/compounds..keep the alloys clean etc...
I'll clean it properly every few weeks, and keep on top (quick detail spray) every week.
It definitely looks better than a car that ISN'T treated like this. Whether that matters to you, that's your business 🤷🏼
DrP
Exactly. One of mine has been on the front cover of a car magazine and had the main feature about it. But sure, I’ll let foliage grow on it…
Careful. Before you know it, foliage growing on a car will be the next big 'scene' in the car world...
I've never managed to dry a car with a chamois! The Halfords towel though was ultra absorbent, very effective.
Snow foam has been meh in the past but this time I left it much longer. It softened the dirt so it almost all came off with the jetwash and, and any bits I'd missed wiped off very easily.
I squeegee all the excess water off, then use 2 or 3 amazing basics drying towels...
Gets it very dry, and then apply finishing stuff.
I will admit, I'd like a worx leaf blower to PROPERLY dry it!
DrP
"hmmmm, it’s a little bit cleaner but I’m not sure if that’s because of the snowfoam or because I’ve given it the once over with the jetwash."
Snowfoam should be applied to a dry car rather than prewash with the jetwash.
PS Where have the markup options gone?
shinton
Snowfoam should be applied to a dry car rather than prewash with the jetwash.
Yeah, I read that & it was done dry.
But when I rinsed the snowfoam off I used the lance on the medium setting & that seemed to be doing a lot of the job of dirt removal.
I also found that even though the car was in the shade & it wasn't a particularly warm day the snow foam was drying so I ended up rinsing it off much sooner than I had wanted to. I probably had the mix wrong, to be honest. Need to try it again, definitely.
I have tried the old snowfoam thing & find it more faff than it’s worth – it’s mainly the effort of getting the jetwash out, plugging it all in, dealing with the tangle of hoses & cables and then when you rinse the snowfoam off………hmmmm, it’s a little bit cleaner but I’m not sure if that’s because of the snowfoam or because I’ve given it the once over with the jetwash.
Just using water through the jetwash does virtually nothing, Jon on the Forensic Detailing Youtube channel demonstrates this on this video, start about 9:43 in, then skip to 11:25 to see the results.
edit- in fact you can see it in the thumbnail below, from left to right it's BH Autofoam, BH Touchless, a ph neutral pre wash, and just water
I can recommend Auto Finesse’s drying towel over the Meguires yellow towel.
https://www.autofinesse.com/collections/car-wash/products/silk-drying-towel
That and the wing mirror spider.
I’ve got one of them. And one that lives behind the sun visor. I wonder if they know each other ?
The lad who lives opposite us has all that gear, 20 quid Meguiars buckets and shit. Spends about 2 hour’s hoovering his car every weekend then another two hours cleaning and waxing the outside and unfortunately it still comes out looking like a Ford Fiesta when he’s done.
He’s probably equally bewildered that there are grown adults who spend thousands of pounds on pushbikes to ride through mud whilst wearing weird clothes. We’re in no position to judge other people’s hobbies.
I enjoy cleaning mine.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uqe7bJfiWfunecug9
That took about 6 hours! i could have gone on a bike ride i know..... worse still its dirty the next day.
However its a 11 year old car. Things are starting to rust and soon it wont be viable to polish it. While its still doable i like the fact that i can get some alone time, a bit of exercise and have a sense of achievement.
For those just dabbling in this. Get the autoglym polar kit (comes with a snow foam bottle) like all their stuff it just works (although it is more expensive)
multi21
Oh really? I’m so glad you mentioned that, I’d been using my tongue to remove it until now.
Obvious in hindsight.
Not wanting to turn this into a bicker-fest, but to be fair, you did say
multi21
Just using water through the jetwash does virtually nothing
which I guess is what molgrips was referring to.
I quite like that Forensic Detailing blokes videos, although he always seems to have a cold & sniffs a lot.
But, it is not really clear in that video how he has applied the different things he is testing. The shape of the spray pattern, makes it look like he hasn't used the jetwash/foam cannon to apply the different cleaning methods - probably just out of a spray bottle? Maybe he says how he did it, but I skipped through the wordy bits of the vid.
When he 'jet washes' the surface down, he uses what appears to be a very gentle lance from quite a distance away.
Using just a jetwash alone, I reckon I have managed to get the paintwork clean to somewhere around the PH neutral example in his video. But that's with the medium setting on the lance & holding the spray within ~100mm of the car.
And this is what I was getting at by saying I was unsure how much of a difference the snowfoam has to the pre-cleaning of the car, compared to just going over the whole thing with the jetwash. Just water & the jetwash seems to get a lot of the dirt off, prior to going at it with the mitt & bucket.
I have actually seen that video before & the touchless stuff (Bilt Hamber?) really does seem like a step-up. Maybe I should give that a try.
This last time there was almost nothing left after the snow/jet so I think it was worth it. I can't remember what brand of snow I have, I'll check later.
the thing with snowfoam lifts off all the rubbish that you would otherwise grind into your paint. its not to clean it fully.
There's also different types of snow foam, some are high pH and designed to be a bit more aggressive (but will also partially strip a wax coating). They can pull an impressive amount of grime off in a pre-wash. Others are more either to lift a bit off or even more just to provide a lubrication layer so you use your wash mitt without rinsing off the snow foam itself (I often do two snow-foamings, first to lift surface dirt that I rinse off then a second for lubrication for the hand wash part).
But detailing is similar to a lot of other things discussed on STW (e.g. knife sharpening), where there's a few basics everyone agrees on and then a whole load of stuff (best technique, equipment etc.) you can argue about for years and quote various conflicting sources etc.
multi21
Oh really? I’m so glad you mentioned that, I’d been using my tongue to remove it until now.
Obvious in hindsight.Not wanting to turn this into a bicker-fest, but to be fair, you did say
Well upon reading it back, my reply sounds a lot more snippy than I intended so sorry to @Molgrips for that.
But TBH I didn't think a caveat about being able to blast off caked-on mud was necessary on a thread where we're talking about 'detailing' levels of car cleaning.
Yes, it assists with softening mud etc, but snow foam is really for removing road grime, grease, grit, pollen, that sort of thing - as shown in the video I linked - so that you don't rub it into the paint during your contact wash and cause swirls. That is what my post refers to when I say "water does virtually nothing".
If you don't trust the video, then just pressure wash one panel only with water, then leave it to fully dry and you will see.
My dad was an industrial chemist, he reckons Fairy Liquid is an amazing cleaning agent for practically everything and could cost a fortune if it wasn't so ubiquitous/produced in such insane quantities.
His view of the world was fixed in about 1989 though, so make of the above what you will.
Autoglym Magma is magic stuff. My car is parked 99.9% of the time on my driveway. Last summer you could feel the iron deposits on the paintwork (nearby rail line). Bottle of this stuff for about £10, used half of it. Sprayed the whole car and it literally turned blood red. Rinsed off and all the iron deposits were gone leaving a lovely smooth paint finish.
Hands up, i like to clean my wifes car. Not my own Merc, that goes through a car wash. I enjoy handing the keys over to my wife on a sunday after and hour or so cleaning it. Guilty as charged.
Last sunday was a little more than normal. About 5 hours because its the clean that lasts the year and gets it down to about 30min + on future washes. It went something like this
1) Rinse (Just to get it wet really)
2) Wheel acid (Whatever brand is cheapest. Its turtle wax at the moment)
3) Snow Foam - I use Bilt Hamber Autofoam through foam gun. Works well but its not some kind of miracle soap. It does not remove 100% of dirt and it certainly doesnt replace a contact wash. Same with their touchless product.....it still needs a shampoo to be 100%. Ive used Autoglym Polar and Halfords own. BH is the best ive used but the halfords Own product is the best value for performance.
4) Rinse (Including wheels)
5) Shampoo - Autoglym Shampoo conditioner
6) Rinse
7) Clay Mitt with autoglym detailer lube.
8) Autoglym Tar & Glue on sills and lower front bumper
9) Rinse
10) Full Polish with da polisher - Autoglym Super resin polish - Ive just always liked it.
11) Full Wax with Turtle wax graphine Max Wax using da polisher
Next weekend the car is getting lanoguarded underneath. I would then wash weekly
1) Rinse
2) BH snowfoam
3) Rinse
4) Shampoo
5) Turtlewax flex wax spray
6) Rinse
7) Towel Dry
That takes me about 30-45mins.
That's something I haven't played with.. autoglym magma was recommended to me too.
Also..I'd recommend glyco glass cleaner/prep stuff... Works really well to clean glass and hydrophobe coat it.
DrP
I used normal glass cleaner as instructed after the spray 'ceramic' wax. The wipers don't smear but the windscreen is still quite hydrophobic so it's lovely and clear and the water mostly beads off anyway.
Oh i forgot another stage.
12) Autoglym plastic & trim conditioner (Lots of black plastic)
I tend to wax the car once a quarter - usually Autoglym stuff. I wash the 'well used' cars once a week - just makes the job easier and quicker. Snow foam for when filthy - spray on, let it soak in and sponge wash.
Autoglym seems to have the same reputation in the detailing world as Muc-Off does in the biking world.
My van gets the one manky bucket/sponge treatment every now and then. Need to invest in some better gear though as the wifes new Volvo is black, worth afew bob and came ceramic coated from the dealers so would like to keep it nice, plus I do enjoy doing it TBH. Patience runs out on the big cleaning sesh's though!
Autoglym seems to have the same reputation in the detailing world as Muc-Off does in the biking world.
That’s only because it’s not manufactured by virgins halfway up an Andean mountain out of unicorn tears and sold at a price of more than £1000 per millilitre. And because you can buy it in Halfords.
Autoglym in reality produce some bloody good, if slightly conservative, stuff and have been doing the car detailing game for longer than most “detailers” have been alive.
It all started when dads around the country decided they'd gone off the swirly psychedelic patterns in their new car's bonnet, that had been made by the gravel their kids left half embedded in the sponges they'd found in the kitty litter.
Also - those unhelpful people in the EU banned asbestos, despite repeated appeals and objections from the British Government of the day (a Tory Gov as it happens 🤔).
As a result of no longer being able to make brake pads from the Wonder Material, they changed to one that generated a lot more wear - both to the pad, and to the disc/drum. All that extra new wear had to go somewhere. Some goes down the sewers in the run off from the road. And a fair bit of it adheres to the fancy schmancy alloy wheels that most cars didn't have in the 70s and 80s.
For me, if definitely relates to the cost of the car and how long I'll have it.
After the engine had a terminal failure on the estate, I got a cheap (£400) stop gap as a run-around for 4 or 5 months. Guess how little care thst got.
But when I subsequently spent the same as 40% of the cost of my house purchase price, and will probably have it for another 10 years, I've taken a bit more care of it.