*** Car Wash / Valet / Detailing Thread ***

If you already have the pressure washer, I would absolutley get a foam lance. You don't necessarily need to get the most expensive one, but it is worth having.

I have the MJJC Foam Lance (Cannon) Pro (V2), but that is £47 from in2detailing, and you can go cheaper for sure. But I do really like that lance, although it does use a lot of product. In2detailings own one at £25 will probably be close to as good.

The advantage with a foam lance, for me at least, is the simplicity. I pre-wash the car with Bilt Hamber Touchless, which is great, leave it to dwell while I prepare the bucket and stuff for the contact wash, then rinse, then I water it down a bit (in the cannon) and do a second layer of touchless for the contact wash, then I only use one bucket, as the car is pretty clean by this point already. I use Autowash from Bilthamber for the car shampoo personally, or Simplywax suds is decent too. Once that is rinsed off, the car is basically clean. Assuming the protection layer is still working (your wax in this case). I generally use the left over in the bucket to do the wheels, with either Auto Finesse Imperial, or if the brake dust is heavy, I use Korrosol from BH, but their wheel cleaner would probably work a touch better.

I use a noodle mitt I bought in Costco. Can't remember exact cost, but it's like a tenner for two of them or something.
 
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What product are you putting in the foam lance container, is it Bilt Hamber Touchless and if so, how many complete car foaming ups do you get for the £10 price of a bottle of Touchless?

As I have pressurised pump sprayers and non pressurised sprayers would these not do the job of applying the Bilt Hamber Touchless? To me, spending £47 on what is in effect a spray bottle that delivers foam seems a waste of money if I already have other sprayers to hand?
 
Bint Box said:
Thx guys, In2Detailing or Clean & Shiny it is for a few supplies.

I am thinking of going for the car wash method of using a microfibre mitt that is cleaned after each panel by either aggravating in a bucket of water with a grit removal plate in it, or rinsing the mitt clean with a hose. Followed by spraying a diluted car shampoo product on to the mitt for the next panel, rinse and repeat.....
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Always always pre-wash on a dry car with a chemical to loosen the crap off so when you go on with a contact wash your not marring the paint

The SAFEST method is chemical, rinse, chemical, then contact wash
 
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Just checked the Karcher jet wash, it is a K 5.700 model about 10 years old, possibly slightly older. I think my first purchase will be a short trigger spray gun for the Karcher as it will come in handy for other jobs as well as the car.

Would anyone know what fitting I need to have on the inlet of a short trigger spray gun that is suitable for my K 5.700? From a quick google there seems to be a few valve options for the K series, not sure which one I have? An alternative manufacturer spray gun is OK, I am not impressed with the build quality of the Karcher lance, feels like a cheap two bob piece of kit.

Thx
Bintos
 
Bint Box said:
What product are you putting in the foam lance container, is it Bilt Hamber Touchless and if so, how many complete car foaming ups do you get for the £10 price of a bottle of Touchless?

As I have pressurised pump sprayers and non pressurised sprayers would these not do the job of applying the Bilt Hamber Touchless? To me, spending £47 on what is in effect a spray bottle that delivers foam seems a waste of money if I already have other sprayers to hand?
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Yes, Touchless in the foam lance. But I buy the 5L bottles. Around 150-200ml (then topped up with water) in the lance bottle covers my car twice (pre-wash, then extra lubrication for the contact wash).

The foam lance makes a huge difference IMO. The thicker the foam, the longer it dwells on the panel, and so the more effective it is. If you keep on top of it, and have a good protection layer underneath, you can often get away with just a snow foam and rinse. Unlikely to get that with a spray bottle, pressurized or not. My pressurized spray bottle has been reduced to foaming APC for engine bays and stuff like that. It's too much work to spray a whole car with it.

Bint Box said:
Just checked the Karcher jet wash, it is a K 5.700 model about 10 years old, possibly slightly older. I think my first purchase will be a short trigger spray gun for the Karcher as it will come in handy for other jobs as well as the car.

Would anyone know what fitting I need to have on the inlet of a short trigger spray gun that is suitable for my K 5.700? From a quick google there seems to be a few valve options for the K series, not sure which one I have? An alternative manufacturer spray gun is OK, I am not impressed with the build quality of the Karcher lance, feels like a cheap two bob piece of kit.

Thx
Bintos
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I have a K4 Karcher, and went with this option for the stubby trigger gun: https://www.in2detailing.co.uk/prod...ick-release-nozzle-kit?variant=39336908488783

Then you have to select the correct adaptor for the MJJC lance, it tells you in the description. I think the Karcher K7 fitment is different from the K2/3/4/5 but I cannot confirm for sure. That's what it says in in2detailing site though.
 
Thx for all your help and for taking the time to reply.
I had not intended to buy a foam lance but as I am buying a short trigger gun it seems an obvious addition to the order.

Quick question if you can please help?
What made you decide on the Annovi Reverberi as the trigger gun for your Karcher K4 vs the other models available?
 
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Bint Box said:
Thx for all your help and for taking the time to reply.
I had not intended to buy a foam lance but as I am buying a short trigger gun it seems an obvious addition to the order.

Quick question if you can please help?
What made you decide on the Annovi Reverberi as the trigger gun for your Karcher K4 vs the other models available?
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What a great question.

I would usually try to go for the best option available at the time. But it seemed absurdly expensive for some of the "better" ones. This one looked like it was great quality, and not extortionatly priced, so I took a punt. I have had it since Feb 2022 and it has been great. The only "issue" for me is that it doesn't "swivel" too freely, and so with the very stiff Karcher extension hose I use, it can sometimes get a little "wound up" and need some untwisting.

I'll be honest though, I mostly blame the hose here. I hate my Karcher machine (k4 Permium from about 10 years ago), and the extension hose I require, and cannot wait to move onto something else. But me being me, I cannot bring myself to change the pressure washer until it breaks. And to be fair, it hasn't failed me yet despite the amount of times the stupid thing falls over with the slightest tug.

I do have a few other foam lances though, and so with the quick release system it makes it really easy to swap between them. I have one for foam, one for Auto Glym Polar Seal, and the other one I think has APC in there from when I cleaned my wifes cousins car, and it was minging. So I needed to use something proper strong to get the tree sap and general mank off it. It can be useful to have multiple bottles for different products.
 
The amount of Touch-Less you'll use depends on the lance, pressure washer and the setting on the lance.

The new Touch-Less is more concentrated and you only require 2% PIR for dirty vehicles. You can use 1% for maintenance wash.

My setup uses something like 13 litres of water when using my CarScope foam cannon (i.e. to empty 1 litre in the foam cannon, it takes 13 litres of water). So to get a 2% dilution hitting the panel it's 1% of 13 litres, it's 130ml with 870ml water.

I also have the MJJC Pro 2, and like someone else said, it empties quicker. It takes less water to pass the 1ltr through.

But I only need 500ml to do daily cover one car so it's 65ml to 435ml (in the CarScope, and 500ml is playing it safe to ensure I can do the whole car so probably uses less than that)

So that's 15 washes out of a 1 litre bottle or 67p per wash.

Or 76 washes out of a 5 litre bottle at 39p a wash.
 
xs2man said:
Yes, Touchless in the foam lance. But I buy the 5L bottles. Around 150-200ml (then topped up with water) in the lance bottle covers my car twice (pre-wash, then extra lubrication for the contact wash)....
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I notice that In2Detailing have a Bilt Hamber Auto Foam in a 5L container at £19.49p and a Bilt Hamber Touch-Less in 5L bottles at £29.95p.
Which one are you using with your Karcher/Annovi Reverbi/MJJC setup please?

I am guessing the Bilt Hamber Touch-Less is the better product for a pre-wash compared to their Auto Foam based on pricing difference?


Thx for any feedback, hoping to place my order today.
 
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In2Detailing have both Auto Foam (£19.99p) and Touch-Less (£29.99p) available in 5L containers.
Has anyone personal experience in using both products to indicate if the more expensive Touch-Lass performs any better?

Thx
Bintos
 
The touch-less is IIRC designed to be used at 1-2% PIR rather than 1-4%, so that's probably why they've dropped the price of Auto-Foam, in theory, you need to use less Touch-less for the same results.

Edit - just checked

Touch-less is 0.5%-2% PIR
Auto-Foam is 1-4% PIR

So they'd expect you to use half as much Touch-less compared to Auto-foam making it theoretically the cheaper product anyway if it lasts twice as long but doesn't cost twice as much.
 
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Kenai said:
The touch-less is IIRC designed to be used at 1-2% PIR rather than 1-4%, so that's probably why they've dropped the price of Auto-Foam, in theory, you need to use less Touch-less for the same results.

Edit - just checked

Touch-less is 0.5%-2% PIR
Auto-Foam is 1-4% PIR

So they'd expect you to use half as much Touch-less compared to Auto-foam making it theoretically the cheaper product anyway if it lasts twice as long but doesn't cost twice as much.
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Looks like the Bilt Hamber Touch-Less is the cheaper product based on washes to volume, added it to my cart on In2Detailing.

I was thinking of making up some detailing fluid from rinseless wash and distilled water.
Any recommendations for a rinseless wash product please?


Thx
Bintos
 
Bint Box said:
Looks like the Bilt Hamber Touch-Less is the cheaper product based on washes to volume, added it to my cart on In2Detailing.

I was thinking of making up some detailing fluid from rinseless wash and distilled water.
Any recommendations for a rinseless wash product please?


Thx
Bintos
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Funnily enough, Forensic Detailing has just done a group test on these:


To save you the 55 minute video though, the Koch Chemie Rapid Rinseless Wash won the group test... So probably a decent enough place to start.
 
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