Man of Honour
Auto Finesse products are great. Used their citrus rinse and off the back of how good that was I bought a few more, will be buying them instead of Gyeon for now
*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***
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Underboss
I have used autofinesse avalanche, i would recomend it. I will get round to using some more of there products in the future.
Soldato
They're very mediocre. Some are decent but most is just all marketing very little actual performance.
Bilt hamber, autobrite, tac-systems are the brand that are constantly good.
Man of Honour
Of course there are going to be some crap products, there are with every brand. Bilt Hamber's foam for example, probably the worst foam in existence, yet their wheel cleaner, immense
Erm...pretty sure Bilt Hamber's foam is almost universally regarded as one of the most effective on the market. Certainly better than AFs Avalanche, which I found completely ineffective. It's put me off buying other AF products tbh.
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Soldato
Their foam is probably the best in the market like @Conscript said.
Multiple real world tests been done and bilt hamber always comes out on top.
Man of Honour
Perhaps, but the time I bought it after a recommendation on here, I found it to be useless. It was a weak foam and did nothing to loosen or remove dirt with rinsing. Much prefer Gyeon foam or Valet Pro pH Neutral foam, not tried the AF Avalanche yet although I plan to.
Mmmm sounds like user error here, Bilt hamber and autobrite magifoam are the 2 market leaders by a country mile. And ive tested more than I care to recount at this point.
Man of Honour
I wouldn't say human error as I'm more than aware of how to use and prepare foam
However, not discounting that the lance I have may be a factor. It's not the best by any means and probably is due a replacement.Should probably give Autobrite a go as I do hear good things
Soldato
Were you using it in a snowfoam lance, or a pump sprayer? If so, did you calculate the flow rate of your pressure washer and lance combo at the mixing and fan settings you use to ensure you were reaching the correct 4% panel impact ratio?
If not, user error. If so, find it hard to believe but could have been a bad batch.
If not, user error. If so, find it hard to believe but could have been a bad batch.
To be fair, I can't be arsed to calculate flow rates either, and BH works fine for me.
I stick about an inch in the bottom of the lance bottle, half fill with warm water, set the mixing to max and off I go, and it does a pretty good job.
Man of Honour
Yeah... I'm not calculating flow rates, I'm cleaning my car not doing homework. If the BH foam takes that much effort to make it work right, then I stand by my useless comments
unless you're a pro detailer with time (or the will) to do that kind of calculation. I am however using a snowfoam lance
Soldato
It's not exactly rocket science, and would add about 30seconds (for some incredibly basic math) to your next car wash.
All you have to do is grab one of your wash buckets and spray your lance into it (with the bottle full of water) until the bottle is empty of water. Measure the total amount of water collected in the bucket, and multiply this number by 0.04 (aka 4%). That value is then the amount of AutoFoam you need in your lance bottle, job jobbed.
Perhaps that's a bit complicated if you share an IQ with a vegetable, but if you managed to complete Grade 2 multiplication it's really nothing...
You have to fill your buckets anyway, so the measurement part is no real effort either. If that really is too much effort the other option is to fill a pressure sprayer up at 4% dilution. 4% PIR will give you near as damnit touchless cleaning.
All you have to do is grab one of your wash buckets and spray your lance into it (with the bottle full of water) until the bottle is empty of water. Measure the total amount of water collected in the bucket, and multiply this number by 0.04 (aka 4%). That value is then the amount of AutoFoam you need in your lance bottle, job jobbed.
Perhaps that's a bit complicated if you share an IQ with a vegetable, but if you managed to complete Grade 2 multiplication it's really nothing...
You have to fill your buckets anyway, so the measurement part is no real effort either. If that really is too much effort the other option is to fill a pressure sprayer up at 4% dilution. 4% PIR will give you near as damnit touchless cleaning.
Man of Honour
For those that recommended I tried a fallout remover, kudos! It's took so much of the burnt on iron fillings off my wheels. The orange tinge as been removed.
Am I right in thinking and active wheel cleaner has fallout remover in it? Is bilt hamber the best?
Am I right in thinking and active wheel cleaner has fallout remover in it? Is bilt hamber the best?
Soldato
Yes and yes.
Soldato
Saw the parents car the other day after they took it to a supermarket car park cleaning place and the paint is an absolute mess. Can anyone recommend the number of pads required for a whole car (Vectra). I have my rotary and 2 of each big 3M pad and 2 of each small pad too which has done for me as I've never done that much polishing. However, when the weather gets a bit nicer, I'd like to get their car done in a weekend so guessing I will need more pads.
If you clean / blow out the pad after each section you can do the whole car with one pad (always best to have another one for backup).
I use a pad brush / handheld blower and did my SUV with one 6" microfibre pad (plus a small one for a few smaller sections) no issues at all, the paint work only needed one pass and took around 6 hours.
Soldato
Brilliant thanks. Unfortunately I don't have air but I've got more than enough microfibre towels.
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