Final Inspection Body Shampoo
This isn’t a full-on review, but sort of a mini review. Or, let’s call it a user experience.
I received my shipment of the Final Inspection Body Shampoo (the solution used for the “zero bucket wash” on Friday, March 11). Ended up getting the 1L size of the concentrate, along with their wash mitt.
The mitt feels soft, but it had a few pieces of lint that were falling off. I went through the mitt and rubbed it, like how one would pet a cat, to remove any loose parts, or lint. It wasn’t much.
As much as I wanted to try it out, I needed to go to a coin-op self serve car wash place, as I don’t own a HP washer. Timing didn’t allow. Instead, on the following Monday I ended up doing a rinseless wash using Blackfire’s Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash.
Fast forward to today, March 23. I took the Yaris down to the local wash to use their HP hose during my lunch break.
From the day I received the Final Inspection. As per the instructions on the label, I mixed at a 1:1 ratio. In this case, 4 oz of distilled water to 4 oz of the FI solution.
Yes, I did mix the water and concentrate to blend it better. No pic.
Well, the Yaris was dirty enough to try this. I purposely did *not* want to take a car that looked clean, as in that video. I also had neighbor-installed water spots. They were nasty! Thanks to the neighbor for his labor, and the city for providing some hard water. From after the wash, they don’t appear to be there anymore, but whatever. I was prepping for a polish anyway.
Here are some pics from before and after the wash using Final Inspection Body Shampoo
Here’s what I think. I thought it would smell better. Let me draw you a picture. I was in the garage mixing the solution (Body Shampoo) and sprayed a mist onto my left hand. Why on earth would I do a thing like that? Beats the heck out of me. I don’t remember. It had a strange smell to it. What was it? Hehe… hold on.
So I go to the kitchen with the bottle in my right hand, and asked my girlfriend what she thought my left hand smelled like. She looks at the bottle, and looks at me weird. I give her my left hand so she can get a whiff. She had a puzzled look and the conversation went like this:
Her: ew. That smells kind of bad. Like…Like…ummm
Me: Like a dirty gym sock?
Her: [face lit up, in a Eureka moment] YESSS. OMG, *THAT* is what that smell is!
Anyway. On to more of this experience.
Prior to the use, I had the notion in my head that this stuff would be a good cleaner and offer some good lubricity. Not sure if I got that from the podcast, reading it somewhere, or from one of the the guy’s interviews (yes, I watched a couple). With *my* experience, it did get the car clean. The pics above show that. I ran the back of my hand over the door panel, and I didn’t feel the slickness I was half expecting. In honesty, even during the process I hadn’t felt any slickness. I pre-rinsed the Yaris with HP water. I sprayed the panel down with the Shampoo *prior* to taking the wash mitt to it. That’s what the instructions called for, so that’s what I did. I also sprayed three times into the mitt itself, as per instructions. I did a few wipes then flipped the mitt over. This time, I sprayed it four times, hoping for more lubricity. Didn’t get it. So much for that.
When I felt the mitt was dirty (couldn’t quite tell, purple glove had some white-ish, um, lather/foam/soap(?) on it. Didn’t see much dirt. So I took the HP gun to hose off the mitt….while I was still wearing it. Um yeah. I still have my hand, but I don’t think I want to do that several times as I go around the Yaris.
Okay. So did the door panel and the quarter panel before my time was up at the car wash. I stopped that testing there, and continued with a regular HP wash.
Final thoughts: Yes, it does clean. But, it didn’t feel as clean as it has before using a 2BW. Also, it didn’t wow me in the looks department. The Blackfire Rinseless sort of did. Slickness? Sorry, but no. Again, the Blackfire felt more slick and that was both during and after. Perhaps my experience would be different if the panel(s) were polished and sealed with a coating or a good wax? I’ll find out soon enough. I do happen to have a polish job for the wee little Yaris coming soon.
And just for giggles, here are some pics of the Blackfire Rinseless before and after...
(on the first pic, note the vertical separation on the door. That was the film of dirt on the car. The cleaner portion was the result of a waterless product used about a week before - The last pic, that's a 50/50 during the BF Rinseless)
And I’m sorry. I was fully intending to keep this short. And I tried. Sheesh,
Thank you.
