Helps in washing ?

[beefy z]

I once saw a professional detailer "pre-soak" the vehicle in certain spots, extra dirty door and fender panels etc, with what looked like an all purpose cleaner. He let it sit or run down the paint for awhile before he suds up the entire vehicle. His rationale was this loosened the heavy dirt in these areas and it made for less scrubbing with your mitt of choice which lessened your chances of marring. Anyone do this and what product are you using ?

 

[qballjr13]

If you search for foam guns you will find a ton of threads on this subject. That is typically how they presoak the cars.

 

[Accumulator]

beefy z- One thing to consider is that presoaking with an APC will probably strip off any LSP. That might be good/bad depending on the job.



But yeah, presoaking and/or prewashing without touching (pressure washer/etc.) can be a good way to loosen/remove the really bad stuff before you start touching the paint.



I use a foamgun for most such work, and I do a *VERY GENTLE* initial pass with a BHB, spraying the "foam" through the bristles for the same reason.

 

[beefy z]

ACC...thanks. i forgot to mention i already own a foam gun but notice with that really heavy dirt, even that will not remove all the film. that still requires some agitation with the mitt and foam and i'm even trying to minimize that. i also know about the apc possibly removing some of the lsp, but i would only be using it when i was ready to strip and detail the whole car anyway. what product are you using ?

z

 

[Accumulator]

ACC...thanks. i forgot to mention i already own a foam gun but notice with that really heavy dirt, even that will not remove all the film. that still requires some agitation with the mitt and foam and i'm even trying to minimize that...

That's where I really like using the BHB. It's too gentle (at least when used properly) but it'll "knock the big stuff loose" so you don't have chunks of abrasive stuff on the paint when you use the (less gentle) mitt.

i also know about the apc possibly removing some of the lsp, but i would only be using it when i was ready to strip and detail the whole car anyway. what product are you using ?

Ah, OK. I hardly *ever* use anything harsh on my vehicles except for the initial cleanup (and note that I don't polish even once a year). For that, I use either P21S or something like AutoInt's "A" if it's really bad. I really don't use APCs on the exterior, but that's just me. 99.88% of the time I just wash with my Griot's Car Wash.



I suspect we're talking about different types of situations :think: If I were doing this professionally and dealing with nasty customer cars, I might use the APC approach myself!