Dear mid-60s Buick fans of
squeaky clean cars,
For many years I’ve been trying to find ways to wash a car with as little physical rubbing as possible. No matter how careful you are with equipment and technique, bringing anything in contact to the surface of the paint will drag abrasive particles that over time degrade the car’s clear coat.
Toward that end, I started experimenting with applying diluted car wash using hose sprayers like those used to apply insecticide. It was somewhat effective, but clearly wasn’t the best delivery system.
Griot’s Garage sells what they call a Foaming Sprayer:
https://www.griotsgarage.com/product/foaming+sprayer.doIt is an expensive product, but I decided to give it a try given my interest. If I wasn’t satisfied I certainly was entitled to return it. The instructions are a bit mysterious. In particular, you must insert one of 3 provided plastic pieces depending on your water pressure. Even if the sprayer is providing some additional water, you definitely need to dilute your typical car wash concentrate. I’ve have thus far only tried the sprayer twice. I started at 1/2 dilution. My last attempt was 2/3 water 1/3 concentrate. I suspect you could dilute still further.
The foam could be applied as a first step for a normal car wash, but I bought the sprayer specifically for a mini car wash that I affectionately called a automobile
“bubble bath.” The steps are:
- Wet the car down with something like a garden wand that has a “shower” setting.
- Apply the car wash foam and allow it to sit on the surface to lift up stains.
- Rinse the car off.
- Remove the bulk of the water using an electrical leaf blower.
I needed to give my sister’s car a
“bubble bath.” before it headed over to Orinda Motors for a checkup. This car is kept outside so it does get dirty. Here are some bird droppings that had accumulated on the fender:
Here is a You•Tube video showing the Griot’s Garage foaming sprayer laying down quite a thick layer of foam on the back of the car:
https://youtu.be/1c-5RFTr-IYI’m not sure how this product manages to create such thick form without using an air compressor but it really does what it claims to do. Here is a photo of the foam coming off the car and dripping onto the driveway:
Here is another photo of the foam accumulating around the drain at the bottom of the driveway:
The foaming action is so good that the foam literally remains hours after you wash the car.
The foam by itself wasn’t enough to remove the bird droppings, but a bit of water jet during the rinse phase was good enough to remove most of it. Here is the fender after the wash and dry:
This
“bubble bath” technique will only work under certain conditions. You certainly need to wash and wax the car periodically so the water will bead away after the rinse. Since the drying process is a bit crude, you need soft water to avoid any water marks. Finally, since you are relying on air drying to complete the job, it works best in a location with relatively low humidity. One other thing to keep in mind is that the process is still time consuming. It took me almost 45 minutes to do a compact car. Even if you aren’t making contact with the surface, you still need to go around with the leaf blower to remove most the moisture.
I’m not sure the Griot’s Garage foaming sprayer is a particularly good tool to use on a classic car. On any car, the foam needs to be directed with great care because of the quantity of foam it can deposit. However, this might be an interesting tool to keep modern cars cleaner without all the effort of cleaning with brushes and so on. With the time you save, you can spend more time
“luving” your classic Buick!
Cheers, Edouard
