Can I foam then rinse?

[vollychief]

How good of a job will foaming a vehicle, letting it sit for a bit, then rinsing it off with a pressure washer work in removing dirt? 

 

The reason I ask is on my fire department, we are volunteer.  After calls, getting things cleaned up, I'm looking for a quick way to wash the trucks.  This would be after taking the time to detail the trucks well. 

 

Hopefully this makes sense.

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

[chops1sc]

You certainly can. There are a lot of people that feel this is a better process even before washing. The only thing I would caution you on is the chance of getting water spots. If you will be in the shade or under cover this would be less of an issue though.

[Dan@Adams]

Hi Scott, great question!

 

In my experience, you're most likely still going to need to do a Two Bucket Wash afterward to remove all of the dirt. Foaming a vehicle down does aid in loosening and encapsulating dirt, but in most cases it will still need agitation with a wash pad, wash mitt, etc with more Car Shampoo if you've already rinsed off the foam from the foam gun/cannon, in order to remove all dirt.

 

If you have a fresh application of sealant or wax on the vehicle, dirt will usually stick less and rinse off more easily, but the foam gun/foam cannon can still only do so much of the job.

[jakerodz7]

Hi Scott, great question!

 

In my experience, you're most likely still going to need to do a Two Bucket Wash afterward to remove all of the dirt. Foaming a vehicle down does aid in loosening and encapsulating dirt, but in most cases it will still need agitation with a wash pad, wash mitt, etc with more Car Shampoo if you've already rinsed off the foam from the foam gun/cannon, in order to remove all dirt.

 

If you have a fresh application of sealant or wax on the vehicle, dirt will usually stick less and rinse off more easily, but the foam gun/foam cannon can still only do so much of the job.

 

I can speak to this as being spot on.  I was experimenting with a 04 Nissan Sentra with H2O as protection and detail spray every wash.  I went ahead and pre-soaked the car, then foamed it letting the foam run off (about 6 mins), then I rinsed that off again with the pressure washer.  I would say about 65-70% of the dirt was gone but especially in the lower pannels of the cars there was still quite a bit of dirt that was not removed.  I went over it with a couple of wash mitts and got rid of the rest of the dirt/mud stuck on it. 

[vollychief]

Thank you for the replies and information! 

 

I was figuring I wouldn't get all of the dirt off, but was hoping for a quick clean up to get some of the road dust/dirt off between washings. 

[Chris@Adams]

Scott, If your car isn't super dirty and you do try this method I would use WW & WW MF towel to spray down each panel as you dry.

I have done this on my truck after blasting off at the car wash, it does a pretty good job if the truck is not real dirty.

Always if in doubt go with a 2 bucket wash.

[GXPaycheck]

Doing a coating a fire truck would be interesting. A pre soak with a foam and pressure washer rinse would get the big stuff. Proper wash, or maybe a rinsless wash would get the rest. But that would be a lot of towels!

 

Got pics of the truck? We have some firefighters on here that might be able to give some good tips.

[01redcrew]

If my truck isn't to dirty I will do this and it does pretty good. It me just like the touch less car wash we have in my town

[vollychief]

Thank you for all of the advice!  It gives me a good direction to work towards. 

 

Got pics of the truck? We have some firefighters on here that might be able to give some good tips.

 

This is the only good one I have at the moment.  I need to take a better one after we get the trucks cleaned up from the winter. 

 

 

[Wy_detailing]

I'm getting ready to do a full paint correction and ceramic coating on our new fire engine and medic unit here next week! I can't wait to see how it all turns out, should make cleaning the rigs so much easier

[vollychief]

I'm getting ready to do a full paint correction and ceramic coating on our new fire engine and medic unit here next week! I can't wait to see how it all turns out, should make cleaning the rigs so much easier

 

Can you PM me the end results?  After watching the Ceramic Coating video, I'm quite curious about the product. 

[Wy_detailing]

Sure thing!