Bought The Foam Gun Now What?

zippymbr

zippymbr

New member
This Gilmor gun is very nice. I got in on the deal over at Detailcity through Steve at Poorboys. I have been doing some searching but cann't find out the answer to this question. What ratio of soap and water do you like to use in the guns cup and what orifice setting do you use? All i have for soap right now is NXT and Gold class. They should work fine. Do you have a fav for foam gun use? Thanks for the help.
 
Both of those will do just fine. To reduce the frequency of having to refill the cup, I just have it on the smallest setting ( first slot). You can move it up as you see necessary ( any change in slickness/cleansing ability)
 
zippymbr said:
Cool, so do you put straight soap in the cup or do you dilute it?
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I bought my Gilmour from PAL Automotive Specialties early this year on Bill D's recommendation and love it! Undiluted Gold Class works just fine and at the setting Bill mentioned - pull the metering rod all the way to the right and use the 1st notch for 1 ounce to a gallon dilution ratio. :2thumbs:
 
I dilute mine by eyeballing it. I make maybe a 50:50 water : car wash mix or 60 car wash, 40 water. In the winter, I'd up the car wash content. Some even mix their solution up and store it in its own container to be poured into the cup. Even with the diluted mixing the cup and the foam gun on the smallest setting, the foamy mix is plenty slick and cleansing due also to the constant stream through the foam gun.
 
I think GC and NXT are too thick to use undiluted.



I haven't paid too much attention to the ratio. I just blorp (technical term) some into the cup and add a little water while swirling it around. I don't know, maybe 1:1 or 2:1. As long as it appears liquid and not gelatinous it seems to work fine.



Then I adjust the dilution orifice to as small as I can while still giving suds that "look good".





PC.
 
The "B" setting must be the all plastic foam gun. Do you know which ratio/slot on the brass fixture foam gun that is equivalent to?
 
I get the feeling I use less shampoo than most foamgun users. I do it by eye and I'm certainly not precise about it. I use Griot's Car Wash and I have a pump dispenser on the gallon jug. I take a second (empty) gallon jug and put in some water, maybe a pint's worth. Then I pump about four-six pumps of shampoo in, shake it lightly, and fill it the rest of the way with water. This might be different from what I've posted previously but it's what I did last night when I mixed some up.



I fill the guns from this jug. I generally use the next-to-smallest setting but I'll bump it up to a stronger mix when doing dirtier panels. But note that I still keep my mitts in a bucket of wash solution when washing, generally filling them with it by holding the cuff open and the mitt under "water". I still use the two-bucket method when using foamguns.



When I'm using the mitt-balloon method I use a slightly stronger setting, about the middle of the mixing bar. When I spray the foam through a BHB, for cleaning really dirty areas, I use a pretty strong mix setting.



The only problems from using a strong mix would be cost and LSP stripping. If your LSP holds up OK then do whatever you like doing; if your LSPs need redone more often then dial it back a bit. The more shampoo, presumably the greater lubricity/protection *and* cleaning but there's a limit to what most LSPs will tolerate. And it always pays to find a good LSP/shampoo combo.
 
Hmmm...I made up a spreadsheet for mix ratio with the different orifice bar positions and with different percentages in the cup :o I haven't tried straight shampoo in the cup yet, because I'm still experimenting around with different shampoos and settings and I don't want to have too much in there. There seems to be some difference of opinion as to whether straight shampoo works; that would certainly be the best for not having to fill the cup very often.
 
Bill D said:
To reduce the frequency of having to refill the cup, I just have it on the smallest setting ( first slot).
Click to expand...



Bill D said:
I dilute mine by eyeballing it. I make maybe a 50:50 water : car wash mix or 60 car wash, 40 water.
Click to expand...



Bill, if you use the first slot, that is 1oz/gallon...then if you dilute what's in the cup, you're getting less than the recommended concentration of NXT :nixweiss
 
Heh heh, I might be pretty off-the-deep-end with regard to the overall wash regimen, but you guys are sure putting me to shame when it comes to determining the proper dilution ratio :eek



Setec Astronomy- Realizing that I'm sorta careless about this, I'll still point out that "recommended" dilution ratios are a) based on conventional wash techniques, b) calculated to give consumers adequate cleansing so they think "this shampoo works" regardless of the vehicle's condition and the quality/hardness of available water, and c) intended to sell lots of shampoo and wax ;)
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Bill, if you use the first slot, that is 1oz/gallon...then if you dilute what's in the cup, you're getting less than the recommended concentration of NXT :nixweiss
Click to expand...





Still worked fine with NXT given the the constantly flowing soapy mix. This dilution and then smallest ratio on the foam gun is even more beneficial in the case of little bit more "heftier" washes. The Duragloss wash seems to be one and it's working especially well mixed and distributed through the foam gun this way.
 
Hmmm....maybe I should be dialing back my concentration a little...for whatever reason I've been trying to maintain the recommended ratio.
 
hmmm just to change the subject randomly, I went browsing thru gilmour's site and checked out their distributors page. One company, CSP Outdoors, has this disclaimer on their website:



Our parent company, Construction Safety Products, is an authorized Gilmour Distributor. We have access to all their products.



Visit Gilmour's website at www.gilmour.com to find out more about their product line. If you find something you need and do not see it at CSP Outdoors, please give us a call at the number shown below and we will be happy to get it for you as soon as possible.





I think I might be making a call this afternoon to get a price quote. I'll be sure to mention a possible group buy. Also, what specific model should I be asking for? I would assume the 73QGMR and the 73HGMR would be the models that we want because they have a variable dilution ratio. Just get back to me and I'll make the call.
 
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