The Dry Foam Method: Why It Works & Why It's Better
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Term
ceramic coat
A ceramic coat is a special liquid that you put on a car's paint to protect it. It helps keep the car shiny and safe from things like dirt and scratches.
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Beginning a lot of questions lately about the dry foam method
and what is it, how do you do it, why did you come stumble upon this,
why do you think it's better, what is it? And then I had some people say,
oh, dry foam isn't good. I don't like a dry foam. I like a runny foam.
And I thought, oh, shoot, I need to explain what I'm saying
and what I mean by a dry foam. So in this video, what we're going to try to,
what I'm going to try to explain is what a dry foam method is,
how I kind of stumbled into it in general, and then why I think it's better
and why I appreciate that it doesn't use any buckets.
So like the vast majority of probably everyone who either attempts to wash their car
or has been washing their car for a long time, the traditional method,
as I refer to it as, is you have a steady stream of water.
You rinse a car down and then you would either have your two bucket method
or then you would foam a car, then you would go in for your contact wash.
And so that would be what I would consider like a wet car. You are
pre-rinsing the car down and before you put any soap onto the surface of the car.
But the dry foam method is you don't pre-rince with a steady flow of water.
You are applying foam to a dry car. So you're applying as thick a foam as possible
directly onto a completely dry dirty car before any water touches it, right?
So then as I will refer to it, the traditional method is more of like a rinse,
maybe you foam, maybe use the double bucket and then you rinse again.
The dry foam method is you foam a dirty car, you let it dwell,
then you do your first rinse and then you can foam again and do your contact wash.
So I think this is more of kind of a modern approach to get safer results and kind of
where it came from for me was just sitting and thinking about for my product brand,
I really wanted to develop a car wash soap because everyone uses a car wash soap.
And so it's kind of the first step in the whole detailing process.
And so I wanted to create a soap but I didn't want to just create another soap
that was like the same because to me in my opinion soap is kind of a commodity
and it's kind of a race to the bottom as far as price. A lot of brands use it as kind of a lost
leader in the introduction to their brand but there's really not that much difference
between soaps if you're talking pH neutral traditional car soaps. Sure some people will
have like a super thick soap or some people have more of a runny soap or some people have a soap that
like mega foam soap or the focus is on making it smell really good which I think is cool and the
experience around smell but for me I wanted something that would work better because
I had that thought of like okay how do I make a soap different than every other soap in the
market and then at the same time this other conversation is going on of like well don't
touch your car too much because you scratch it and I found myself personally telling my customers
that I after I would ceramic coat their car and they'd be talking about how to maintain it
especially people with black cars. I found myself personally saying well you know the more
you touch it the more you run the risk of scratching it and and all that and making it
look unsightly and you know going back to everything that I just fixed and then I had the the thought of
like how weird is that like we want to keep our cars clean we want to keep our cars looking good
and in order to do that the traditional way is you have to touch the car
but then I'm telling customers to not touch their car so how are they supposed to not
touch their car and keep their car clean how does that make any sense and that's what started
kind of the the journey down developing a soap that could be as much of a touchless soap as possible
and kind of opened up this whole avenue to me of like whoa could we make a
touchless soap or something that can clean the car really really good without touching it or
touching it less which ultimately ended up being the goal and so that's the route I went down
and then from there I found why are we pre-rinsing the car like is it actually better and I have a
YouTube video where I use a Wash Kim's product where I pre-rince half the car and then I do the dry foam
on the other half and that's really the kind of genesis of me starting this whole idea of this
dry foam method or foaming a dry car is in that video and I started to have to really
rethink the traditional methods that kind of were taught and I found that to be kind of something
that I really enjoyed doing of like hey let's rethink this traditional method of how we do
things that people just kind of always take as gospel but is it actually true and I've
tried to continue that through my whole entire product line personally and even up to the
picture perfect polish which is the latest product that I've developed and I'm
after SEMA as well it's interesting to see that a lot of people are still stuck in that
traditional method of wanting a polish and a compound or not quite a glaze we haven't
gotten full circle there yet but a lot of brands and people think that you still need a dedicated
compound for the heavy cutting and then a polish to finish out the to finish out what the compound
did and then from there maybe even a primer polish before you ceramic coat the car right
that's very much the traditional way of thinking and I found by not thinking the traditional way
and kind of investigating asking a lot of questions finding the right people that you
could actually have a compound and a polish in one and I took it a step further by actually making
it a primer polish as well to where you don't need to IPA white before ceramic coating now that can
get kind of technical and all that but the point is the point that I'm trying to prove is that
sometimes if you just challenge the status quo and investigate a little bit you can actually get
really really great products that are doing things that people either have never thought about or thought
were impossible right the I could do a whole another podcast on compounds and polishes but
it really comes down to abrasives and abrasives are the aluminum oxide inside the compounds or
polish or whatever and that's what the rocks in the formula and the problem that I think most
brands struggle with what I realized is that there are literally thousands thousands of
different types of abrasives from cut to coarseness to every every thing you can imagine there is a
variety of abrasives and so the hardest part is narrowing down what abrasives to use in the
formula and then from their percentage of abrasive in the formula and then how does that abrasive work
with everything else in the formula and so developing a new compound or polish out of the box I know
this is a total tangent but I think it's interesting out of the box is incredibly difficult
because there's just so many options you have so many options and it's you're making a formula
testing it adjusting making a formula testing it and adjusting it and so I think that is why we have
people that just have compounds and then they have a polish because it to blend those two formulas
together to find the right abrasive or abrasive blend that can go together that can both cut
and finish is incredibly difficult and time-consuming like almost where do I even start right
luckily the abrasive manufacturers tell you hey this does this this does that and that they can
help you narrow it down there are also sales guys as well so they want to sell you abrasive they
want to help you create a product and so they will help you narrow it down but again it's like
the chemist and the detailer the chemist knows so much and the detailer knows so much and it
takes both of you working together to create a formula because what works in the lab doesn't
always work in the shop and vice versa and so really what I noticed with a polish and a compound
you really need the triangle to come together which is the abrasive manufacturer and the sales guy
there helping you out and then you need the chemist and then you need the detailer and the
triangle of those three people working together is ultimately how you can create a really solid
formula like we like we did with the picture perfect polish but it's incredibly difficult it
took me I think six months to to nail down that formula of working on it pretty much full time
obviously there's some downtime and waiting for abrasive to ship and then right at the 11th hour
when I thought I had the perfect formula I was I sent out some testers and I was getting some
feedback on A pillars and B pillar plastic that the formula wasn't working great and so
where it was working create everywhere else except for B pillars and so if you guys remember back to
earlier this year that's why there was an extensive delay towards the end is I had to rework that
formula I thought I had it perfect and then realized that it didn't work on B pillars and
A pillars and that soft black plastic piano plastic and I didn't want to release a product
that wouldn't work on that and so I basically had to go back to the drawing board and change
the abrasive and find the correct abrasive that would work on paint and plastic anyway that is
a massive tangent to explain kind of the same theory that I had going into the soap so
here's where I think here's how I think the dry foam method works and why it works so good
so when the car is dry the soap hits the dirt at full strength so I think even with a pH
neutral soap the super soper when diluted down hitting the panel is pH neutral so that's important
because it's not going to break down any waxes sealants it's not going to be damaging to the
ceramic coating other to contrast that other brands are developing like a high and low pH system
which is can be super damaging to your paint protection I guess we'll call it as an umbrella
so and it could be very risky so high pH can dry out your plastics a low pH can create staining because
acidic and so it could be damaging and it could actually etch your glass really bad and so
me personally I'm not a huge fan of like that high low pH washing it is a method and can be
an effective method it was just something that I wanted to see if we can develop something
different to that and we were able to do that the super soper in its most concentrated form
is a higher pH but when diluted down into a foam can into a foam cannon and then as it's diluted
down again shooting out of the foam cannon the active foam that's actually hitting the surface
of the car when measured is pH neutral so the the end solution is pH neutral hitting
the surface of the car so when the car is dry the soap hits at full strength right
water dilutes the active agents before they even have the ability to start working so
if you are pre rinsing the car think about it as like the water is the barrier between
the dirt and then what you're trying to do so you have a little bit of a water barrier that's
diluting the foam if you don't pre rinse you don't have that right also the foam will stick better
and longer to dry surfaces so the longer it can dwell on the surface the more those concentrated
surfactants can actually break the bond between the dirt and the paint which is the biggest
issue so the bond that is formed between the surface of the car and the dirt on the car
is extremely difficult to break that's why those high and low pH systems work so well
because it helps to break that bond the super super does an incredible job breaking that bond
if you have heavy heavy build up or a lot of road film you are it begins to break the bond but
you will still have kind of like a powdery dust left sometimes and that's when a contact
wash comes in and that second foam I've mitigated that a little bit by adding a couple ounces
of pure magic cleaner which is an acid based cleaner to the super super and that seems to
help really break that bond as well while still keeping it right in that pH neutral
but either way the dry foam starts loosening that road film the traffic grime the dust any other
contamination and here's the biggest point is that it gives you less chance of scratching
the car so the more dirt that is removed chemically and the the less physical agitation you know
contact wash is needed the better right so again just like I used to tell my customers
hey the more you touch your car the more you run the risk of scratching it and then we have things
like rinseless washes it's like yes I know rinseless washes are safe and I know that they have
you know the technology is there and I'm a fan of it in certain situations but ultimately the risk
profile that is there because you are touching the car so much is way greater than just foaming
the car right and then not to mention the two bucket method because the two bucket method
really again relies heavily on a contact wash which the more you touch your car the bigger
risk you have scratching it the two bucket method I think assumes that the panel is already mostly
clean by just doing that initial pre-rinse but what I've showed in multiple videos is that it's
actually not the the pre-rinse really does basically nothing to the car so that makes it
a total waste of time and water right and so the dry foam using the modern chemistry you're
reducing the risk of swirl marks and scratches another big thing is it takes a lot less effort
so it you know you are literally pulling up probably ideally waiting for your car to cool down a little
bit um if you're working in the summer day but then you are dry foaming you're foaming a dry
car right you're not having to bend down you're not having to fill up buckets you're not
having to fill up anything other than your foam cannon and this could work with a garden hose
foam cannon as well doesn't just have to be um doesn't just have to be a pressure washer foam
cannon but you're not rolling around on a stool you're not reaching down on the panel a lot of
people reach it reach out to me and they have back problems shoulder problems elbow problems
knee problems all these problems and it's like and you want to do a rinse this wash
sounds terrible what if we could just foam a car let the chemical do the work let it
dwell for three to five minutes rinse it off see where we're at maybe foam it again
maybe then do a contact wash maybe not rinse it and dry it and go right and that's exactly
my dry foam wash process I foam a dry car I apply the super soap directly onto a dry surface
right giving you that max chemical uh concentration it is clean to the dirt it's breaking it down
let it dwell for three to five minutes I rinse it off after that you're getting 70 to 90 percent
of the dirt completely off the car and it took five minutes okay um if you need to foam again
which I personally have started to really like to do I like to foam again this is kind of what I
have you know called my like lubrication layer so because 70 to 90 percent of the dirt maybe 100
percent of the dirt depending on if your car is ceramic coated or not um that really helps
if your car is ceramic coated but I will foam again and then because this is my kind of lubrication
layer um then I will do a contact wash so I use a you know microfiber towel that's what I like my
orange wash microfiber towels light pressure because the panel is already nearly clean you
don't need any pressure you're just kind of gliding over the surface to remove that little bit of
residue that little bit of dirt that still may be kind of stuck on the panel because that bond
of the road film and dirt is so gnarly on the surface of the car and so you're just barely
coming across the surface to remove that and then you do your final rinse and you dry and it's
easy this makes a huge difference on black cars um ceramic coated cars it's so easy
it's way faster than a two bucket method you use way less water less bending over
less setup and you get more consistent results and they're it's great it's great for di wires on
in their driveway it's great for mobile detailers it's great for pros doing volume and fleet cars
there are a few things that you want to avoid and so a lot of people when I first told them
hey let the foam dwell for three to five minutes they weren't letting the foam dwell long enough
and again as long as the foam is on the car you are not going to get water spots if you're using
hard water so let the foam dwell as long as possible um another mistake people do is they will
foam a dry car and then go right in with the contact wash you don't want to do that you still
have all the dirt on the car so foam a dry car let it dwell rinse if you need to touch your car
foam a second time and then do it then um this does work it makes your ph neutral your standard
ph neutral soap work better but it doesn't have the right surfactants in it you really need to use
a soap that is meant for this um but even if you don't even if you're just using a regular
ph neutral soap you will still get better results than doing a two bucket method you will save
more time and be less exhausted than a rinseless wash so I think dry foaming is the future of
safe car washing um and I really enjoy it I think you get a better result I think you get a faster
result I think you get a more enjoyable result I think it's not as time consuming it's not as
labor intensive and you get a better result so that's why I like it so I thought I would summarize
kind of what a dry foam method is hopefully that's helpful of course if you have any questions
you can leave a comment below and I'll get to those but yeah you can check everything out at
jimbosdetailing.com if you want to support the channel you want to support the podcast
I am super grateful for that um yeah I'll see you guys over at jimbosdetailing.com
thanks for watching catch you in the next one see ya
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About this episode
Exploring the innovative dry foam method for car washing, this episode delves into its advantages over traditional techniques. The host explains how applying foam to a dry car enhances cleaning efficiency by allowing the soap to work at full strength without dilution from water. This method reduces the risk of scratches and swirl marks while saving time and effort. Listeners will learn about the chemistry behind effective car wash soaps and the development of a new product designed for this technique, making it a compelling listen for detailing enthusiasts.
Original notes
If you want a safer, faster, and more effective way to wash your car than the old-school two-bucket method, this episode breaks down everything you need to know about the Dry Foam Method. This modern approach lets the soap hit the dirt at full strength, giving you better cleaning power with less risk of scratching.
Instead of pre-rinsing the car and immediately diluting your soap, dry foaming allows the chemical to work at its most concentrated level. It removes more dirt chemically before you ever make physical contact with the paint.
In this episode, you will learn:
-
What the Dry Foam Method is and why it works
-
The scientific reason dry foaming is more effective
-
How dry foam reduces scratches and swirls
-
Why this method outperforms the two-bucket wash
-
A full step-by-step process you can follow
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When dry foaming works best, including black cars, ceramic-coated paint, road film, and heavy buildup
This is the most efficient, modern wash method for both DIYers and professionals.
Products mentioned:
The Super Soaper:
https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/the-super-soaper
Amazon: https://amzn.to/43bHBWC
Orange Wash Microfiber Towel:
https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/orange-wash-microfiber
Massive Drying Towel:
https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/massive-drying-towel
Tough As Shell Ceramic Spray:
https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/hard-as-shell-ceramic-spray
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4iffNaO
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