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gintonic said:
can you do that with a bucket , or do you need the faff of a hose and/or pressure washer
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You can do anything with a bucket and brush. I just did, inspired by this thread. Like you my normal car washing strategy is to wait until the MoT tester fails it for illegible numberplate or unable to see out,but I have just given mine its first wash in 4 months /7k miles of ownership. The recipe was a mop bucket with hot water supermarket car shampoo, applied with long handled soft brush. No hose, no rinse. 10 minutes approx. It turns out that the wheels are painted silver, not some brownish black. I won't be having another go in a hurry, but it's better than it was and the salt is off.
 
Got all excited re cleaning the car , Opened the front door to find it's snowing :(

Squeegeeing off the list then , Thanks
 
Well today was the day to wash the car :D
No wind
No rain
No snow
No fog
Beautiful sunny afternoon
This is how dirty it was


And



Out with the kit


And on with the snow foam



Followed by HOLY CRAP its frozen solid on the roof :eek:



Quick wizz round with the brush in the 10 min time for the snow foam
Jet wash off the on with the polar wash , lambswool glove , Jet wash off again , then a quick dry with the large drying towel , At this point I gave up as the roof was a solid ice sheet :(



Not keen on the lambs wool glove , every time you take your hand out it pulls out the lining as well :mad: then you have to try and feed it back in again wet and un cooperative

At least its cleaner now than it was ,




Just hope I can open the door when its time for work later on

Thought better of using the Polar seal in freezing conditions
 
My car currently looks like yours when it's covered in Snowfoam. I won't be going near it for a while.
The road looks like it's been Snowfoamed too.
 
AudioAl said:
On the way home today after a night shift the outside temp gauge was reading 5c , Wow I thought a heat wave , May wash the car
Arrived home and upon exiting the car in the wind chill my enthusiasm ebbed away to " Bol-ocks it can wait " :D
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AudioAl said:
Attempted to clean the car today , Hose frozen :(
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AudioAl said:
Got all excited re cleaning the car , Opened the front door to find it's snowing :(

Squeegeeing off the list then , Thanks
Click to expand...

:D

Was beginning to see a pattern here....


But I see you’ve now come good :)
 
Back when it was dry and reasonably warm, I gave it a good wash, and clay-barred it, using Meguairs clay bar and lube fluid combo from Halfords. Once done, a coating of Turtle Wax Hybrid Sealant Hydrophobic Carnauba Spray Wax.

That left the paintwork feeling smooth as silk, and caused rainwater to fall right off. The Turtle Wax coating has lasted for ages. Absolutely ages.

I used to use Autoglym body shampoo and wheel cleaner, but I've found Simoniz products in Tesco that do the job just as well at a fraction of the price.

I've used snow foam (again Autoglym) with a power washer, but to be honest, I didn't really get the impression that it did very much. Felt that I still needed to wash it, and that it hadn't taken much, if any, of the surface dirt away with it.
 
@AudioAl It was always going freeze in this weather you crazy fool! :D

Good efforts though but I’ll wait until it’s a bit milder before attempting to clean mine, filthy as it is. :)
 
Tumeni Notes said:
Back when it was dry and reasonably warm, I gave it a good wash, and clay-barred it, using Meguairs clay bar and lube fluid combo from Halfords. Once done, a coating of Turtle Wax Hybrid Sealant Hydrophobic Carnauba Spray Wax.

That left the paintwork feeling smooth as silk, and caused rainwater to fall right off. The Turtle Wax coating has lasted for ages. Absolutely ages.

I used to use Autoglym body shampoo and wheel cleaner, but I've found Simoniz products in Tesco that do the job just as well at a fraction of the price.

I've used snow foam (again Autoglym) with a power washer, but to be honest, I didn't really get the impression that it did very much. Felt that I still needed to wash it, and that it hadn't taken much, if any, of the surface dirt away with it.
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We use foam cleaners in food factories. They cling and increase residence time, but still require some mechanical input to remove soil.
 
The issue, for me with folk re snowfoam, is that they expect it to perform miracles...

It doesn't.

But, in part of the full washing cycle of a car, which has good upkeep, it works very well.

It does loosen the surface crud, the stuff that generally gets washed around the car and causes the scratches etc...

Applied, left to sit and dwell and rinsed off with a power washer, it does do a great job. But then again that'll be down to the snow foam used and the cannon used to apply it...

There are a lot of crap snow foams out there, there a fewer good ones (Autoglym, Autobrite, Pro Kleen) in my experience. All much better than Bilt Hamber and similar
 
hifilover1979 said:
The issue, for me with folk re snowfoam, is that they expect it to perform miracles...

It doesn't.

But, in part of the full washing cycle of a car, which has good upkeep, it works very well.

It does loosen the surface crud, the stuff that generally gets washed around the car and causes the scratches etc...

Applied, left to sit and dwell and rinsed off with a power washer, it does do a great job. But then again that'll be down to the snow foam used and the cannon used to apply it...

There are a lot of crap snow foams out there, there a fewer good ones (Autoglym, Autobrite, Pro Kleen) in my experience. All much better than Bilt Hamber and similar
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Are you using AutoBrite’s foam lance too? Had mine a while & it took me a few goes to get used to it. They’re fairly local to me as well. I like their tyre/trim dressing gel along with the plastic sheen for the interior. It’s doesn’t actually shine the plastic (nobody wants that) but does leave a ‘as new’ look to it. Both great products. I didn’t get on with their waxes at all though. Hardens too quick and impossible to work off evenly afterwards. The washes were ok but I’m using Meguiars at the moment but going to try the autoglym that was recommended earlier when it’s used up.
 
The thing about snow foam is... It’s fun.

Does it work miracles, or obviate the need for a proper wash? No.

Does it help nonetheless, by breaking down dirt, or removing some of the larger dirt particles, or something like that? Plausibly, yes.

So if it’s fun, and at least plausibly helps at least a bit, why not?

As an aside, I thought Bilt Hamber was one of the better regarded brands. I don’t have experience of lots of brands of snow foam to compare, but I was surprised to see someone say it’s crap.
 
how eco friendly is all the snow foam and other sh!t you lot spread on your cars? - it'll be heading off into the water course.
 
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