Best soap for foam gun (already searched)

[GoudyL]

I am kind of late in buying a foam gun but i have a cheap $10 one & i liked the idea so i am going to get a gilmour gun.



There are so many car wash soaps.



What is the best soap for the gun. My car will be washed once a week during good summer weather and at least once every 2 weeks during the fall & winter.



Thanks

Any of the top shelf OTC car washes will be superb (E1, Turtle Wax Ice Wash, Meg's GC, Mother's California Gold etc) but IMHO they are overkill for a foam gun, unless you really like to create lots and lots of long lasting suds.



Remember that car washes, are intended to be diluted 128:1, and your foam gun's injection rate may be much higher, in which case you want to predilute your base solution so that whats comming out of the tip is properly diluted. It's the water that does the cleaning, the soap's job is to get things into the water.



I'd go with KIT Carnauba Wash n Wax. Or more generally any wash n wax or "self-drying" type product. These won't foam as much, but they will rinse away much quicker which is more useful in the long run.

 

[Wogdog]

...Remember that car washes, are intended to be diluted 128:1...

Doesn't that depend on the car wash product being used? Can such a blanket statement cover all car wash products?

 

[Accumulator]

wogdog- Welcome to Autopia!



Actually, the "one ounce per gallon of water" dilution really is pretty standardized. Check the label on most *any* shampoo and that's what it'll say.



Now whether that's really the *best* dilution to actually use is another matter...



I mix up a gallon of concentrate using 5-6 ounces of shampoo and the rest water. Yeah, that's stronger than I used to use but the Griot's doesn't strip my LSPs at that strength. That dilution probably won't give the thick, clingy foam that some people like though.



I then adjust the actual end-result dilution by adjusting the mixing bar on my(gilmour) foamgun. I usually use the settings around the middle of the bar. Stronger for the initial pass(es) with the BHBs, weaker for subsequent passes with the mitts.



Note this is *not* something I'm really precise about. IME it simply doesn't matter with the shampoo I'm using...a bit too strong doesn't strip the LSP (just wastes some shampoo mix), a bit too weak and I notice that it's not cleaning well enough (so I crank it up).