[ipilcher]

I've seen some good reviews of this product, and I'd like to try it out, but it's only available from Obsessed Garage, and their shipping costs are completely ridiculous.

Is it really all that?

Any good, more economical, alternatives?

[John in VA]

Looks like OG is the US distributor. I haven't used it but found these discussions:
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...often-use.html

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/th...chless.378534/

[spazzz]

Carzilla sells it. A 1 liter to WI would be less than 30, so maybe the same to Texas.

I used it on my UK3/Ti02 coated car late winter as a prewash foam thing. It was applied with a iK foam pro 12. It works, I believe it got rid of a ton of winter salt, etc.,road film before a normal wash.

It is just one of those things you have to try for yourself. It needs a follow up wash to do things right. I bought it for winter when something is better than going to a touchless car wash.

[Autoaddict]

I bought Bilt Hamber from Carzilla.

Regarding Touch-less, I 100% recommend it. It really does work and has helped during washing. It really pulls the dirt off the paint. Note, you will still have to do a contact wash but this helps. I can’t see washing the M3 without the pre-wash.

[ipilcher]

Originally Posted by Autoaddict

I bought Bilt Hamber from Carzilla.

Regarding Touch-less, I 100% recommend it. It really does work and has helped during washing. It really pulls the dirt off the paint. Note, you will still have to do a contact wash but this helps. I can’t see washing the M3 without the pre-wash.

Thanks for letting me know about Carzilla. (So much for OG's claim to be the exclusive North American distributor!)

Pricing with shipping is about the same for 1L, but it's much more reasonable for 5L (same shipping cost in stead of doubling).

[clemsondds]

Originally Posted by ipilcher

Thanks for letting me know about Carzilla. (So much for OG's claim to be the exclusive North American distributor!)

Pricing with shipping is about the same for 1L, but it's much more reasonable for 5L (same shipping cost in stead of doubling).

Yeh, I didn't know about carzilla...not bad prices and shipped fast. thanks

[MaineSport]

Originally Posted by Autoaddict

I bought Bilt Hamber from Carzilla.

Regarding Touch-less, I 100% recommend it. It really does work and has helped during washing. It really pulls the dirt off the paint. Note, you will still have to do a contact wash but this helps. I can’t see washing the M3 without the pre-wash.

This exactly. I wanted to buy from Obsessed also but shipping was crazy. I've gone through the liter size and just received the 5 liter about a week ago. It is great stuff. Perfect at getting all the salt and other crud of the car. Takes a full week to get it shipped but the weather hasn't been great. Carzilla is my go to retailer. Buy enough stuff and shipping is free.

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by ipilcher

I've seen some good reviews of this product, and I'd like to try it out, but it's only available from Obsessed Garage, and their shipping costs are completely ridiculous.

Is it really all that?

Any good, more economical, alternatives?

FWIW, my shipping cost came out to $10.76, which is neither here nor there in terms of ridiculousness.

There is a TON of competition in car care products market, so I would not obsess over any one brand (pun intended).
In fact, I always have at least 2 vendors for every product, and buy whichever one has sale going on when I need something.

For foaming shampoos, I've had extremely good luck with Adam's Mega Foam and DIY Incredible Suds. Or pick any of a dozen or so alternatives from here:
https://www.detailedimage.com/Washin...1/Shampoo-SC4/

HTH,
a

[BlkGS]

Agreed. Very few of these companies are really selling anything truly special. It's largely smoke and mirrors.

Chemical Guys has a bunch of great soaps for foaming, meguiars too. Honestly meguiars gold class does an AWESOME job foaming up in a foam cannon, and it's $10 for 64Oz. Hell, they might have it at Costco or Sam's for even cheaper too

[clemsondds]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

Agreed. Very few of these companies are really selling anything truly special. It's largely smoke and mirrors.

Chemical Guys has a bunch of great soaps for foaming, meguiars too. Honestly meguiars gold class does an AWESOME job foaming up in a foam cannon, and it's $10 for 64Oz. Hell, they might have it at Costco or Sam's for even cheaper too

While I agree somewhat for basic car soaps, there does seem to be a difference with these prewash/touchless products. It has to do with alkalinity/acidity vs oh neutral. I’m going to give Hanber a try, but have heard good things about Stars and Stripes as well. We will see if it gets more crud off without touching than basic Adams soap.

[swagon]

I have been using Bilt Hamber Auto Foam for many years and prefer it to Touchless.

[clemsondds]

Originally Posted by swagon

I have been using Bilt Hamber Auto Foam for many years and prefer it to Touchless.

That's interesting. Mind sharing why?

[swagon]

Originally Posted by clemsondds

That's interesting. Mind sharing why?

Found Auto Foam more effective getting the crud and dead insects off the paintwork via pump sprayer. Not a big difference, mind you, but it did struck me a bit.

I've got both now so can do a test on one car.

[louielouie]

Originally Posted by swagon

Found Auto Foam more effective getting the crud and dead insects off the paintwork via pump sprayer. Not a big difference, mind you, but it did struck me a bit.

I've got both now so can do a test on one car.

Another seasoned Auto Foam user here.

I agree Auto Foam is better on certain road grime. It is more difficult to wash off though. Doesn't matter if you contact wash after but is noticeable when doing a quick touchless rinse.

I have yet to use the updated Touch-Less formula though. My 5L is still the old one.

[swagon]

Originally Posted by louielouie

Another seasoned Auto Foam user here.

I agree Auto Foam is better on certain road grime. It is more difficult to wash off though. Doesn't matter if you contact wash after but is noticeable when doing a quick touchless rinse.

I have yet to use the updated Touch-Less formula though. My 5L is still the old one.

Hmm never noticed that, I usually just spray it on, leave it to dwell and rinse off with a pressure washer at the car wash, then do a contact wash every now and then.

It can leave spots on rubber trim around the windows and such if left on too long, though

[Junkman2008]

You couldn't pay me to purchase any kind of touchless wash system because NONE of them will actually get your car clean. ALL of them will remove big dirt. NONE of them will remove the film that remains behind, which you GRIND INTO YOUR PAINT when you dry your car. You can MAKE YOUR OWN touchless wash system which in reality, requires you to TOUCH YOUR CAR. Everything else is nothing more than something used to knock off the big dirt on your car. Hell, you could use one of these to do that. It is about as worthless as the system you are looking at.

If you REALLY want to knock some dirt off your car, you neeed a PRESSURE WASHER. Keep in mind that it can take some paint off too if you get it too close to the paint.

See this thread for more information on touchless washing.

[clemsondds]

Originally Posted by Junkman2008

You couldn't pay me to purchase any kind of touchless wash system because NONE of them will actually get your car clean. ALL of them will remove big dirt. NONE of them will remove the film that remains behind, which you GRIND INTO YOUR PAINT when you dry your car. You can MAKE YOUR OWN touchless wash system which in reality, requires you to TOUCH YOUR CAR. Everything else is nothing more than something used to knock off the big dirt on your car. Hell, you could use one of these to do that. It is about as worthless as the system you are looking at.

If you REALLY want to knock some dirt off your car, you neeed a PRESSURE WASHER. Keep in mind that it can take some paint off too if you get it too close to the paint.

See this thread for more information on touchless washing.

I use it as a prewash. I have three big vehicles so looking for something I can either do quickly or as a prewash. Yesterday, I prewashed by foaming bh touchless onto the car and trx. Let that dwell for 5-6 min and then pressure washed off. Then applied GSF and on the M3cs, I used a mitt to contact wash the car. and adams w&t on w&t. On the truck I just let it dwell. Pressure washed both off and then final rinse with di water. blow dry and then wiped dry with adams matte (on matte portion) and meg spray wax on cf. I was pretty impressed with everything. No, the bh didn't get everything, but I'll attach a photo of before and after and it was 95% clean. Which for my truck and escalade...most of the time, that will be sufficiant since they are both the daily drivers. And then once a month or two, I'll do a full contact wash on them. But as of right now, I think this system works pretty good for me. I had gotten to the point where I really disliked washing the cars and it took 4+ hrs to wash all three...so I'm trying to find ways to shorten that time. Also, on the wheels I did adams w&t on one side with brushes, and just the touchless on the other...couldn't really tell any difference (though I do have carbon ceramics).
Here are the before/after (the after is just touchless...it was before I did gsf)

[Junkman2008]

Now to your reply and what you do, I will say this. The only part I disagree with is where you dry the car off, because no matter how much you pressure wash it, the car is still dirty. Not the kind of dirty that is easy to see, the kind of dirty that soaking and rinsing a car off ALWAYS leaves behind. The ONLY way to remove ALL of the dirt film that is on a dirty car is to PHYSICALLY remove it with some type of HAND driven agitation.

Now to that statement, I will add this. My statement is ONLY for those who are anal about the condition of their paint, and who are willing to do everything necessary to prevent even the slightest bit of damage. That is NOT everyone. For me, I only care about ONE of my cars. That is my show piece. If the other cars gets washed, it's because they got caught in the rain. So my mindset ONLY pertains to my show car. Being married, if I tried to maintain all of my cars the same way I maintain my show car, I wouldn't still be married. You said that it takes you 4-hours to wash all of your cars. It takes me that long just to do one.

If it wasn't for sex, I probably wouldn't leave the garage. That's about the only thing that will make me leave my cars alone.

[clemsondds]

Originally Posted by Junkman2008

Now to your reply and what you do, I will say this. The only part I disagree with is where you dry the car off, because no matter how much you pressure wash it, the car is still dirty. Not the kind of dirty that is easy to see, the kind of dirty that soaking and rinsing a car off ALWAYS leaves behind. The ONLY way to remove ALL of the dirt film that is on a dirty car is to PHYSICALLY remove it with some type of HAND driven agitation.

Now to that statement, I will add this. My statement is ONLY for those who are anal about the condition of their paint, and who are willing to do everything necessary to prevent even the slightest bit of damage. That is NOT everyone. For me, I only care about ONE of my cars. That is my show piece. If the other cars gets washed, it's because they got caught in the rain. So my mindset ONLY pertains to my show car. Being married, if I tried to maintain all of my cars the same way I maintain my show car, I wouldn't still be married. You said that it takes you 4-hours to wash all of your cars. It takes me that long just to do one.

If it wasn't for sex, I probably wouldn't leave the garage. That's about the only thing that will make me leave my cars alone.

Yes...you've made it very clear how you feel lol. But go back and read my post..." I used a mitt to contact wash the car"
And at the end of the day man...it's a sub $200k car. It has full ppf...so I'm not that worried about it. But my others don't have ppf and I don't worry about those either. Yes I try to be cautious, but I don't obsess about it. I have a great paint guy if something goes terribly wrong. I use to obsess about paint, but realized that all the obsessing...no one really gave a crap when I went to sell it. The one's that were perfect...the 911s that had a few swirls and paint chips...no one cared. So, all that to say, I do agree with you that you need to physically wash it with a mitt if you want to completely wash it, but for 95%, that system wasn't too bad.

[Junkman2008]

I have to agree about the 95% who don't care and can't see what it is we both see. However, I have never been one to sell my cars. The only reason I buy one is because that is the car I've always wanted so the pain that I go through to make one perfect is not for any added value, it is strickly for me. I could care less what anyone else thinks, but I will say this.

I do like the way it sparkles in the eyes of the pretty ladies.

[sbusscher]

Does any of you use the bilt hamber touchless in a manual pump foam spray can?
I'm just wondering if it works as well as in a full on foam gun on a hose.

if so, I might be interested in buying a bottle for this application.

[Junkman2008]

If you are young, the pump version is probably fine but for us old folks, our ball and socket joints would take a beating.