Foam staing vehicles

[sudsurfer]

Had two recent claims that our colored foam was staining their vehicle. First a 1975 Ford pickup that had just been restored and the brand new grill was stained with no damage anywhere else. Then, a white sedan had foam residue blow out of cracks and stain trunk lid. Could not get off. Any ideas?

 

[MEP001]

What chemical?

 

[sudsurfer]

Triple foam products.

 

[washnvac]

Spray bottle with 1/2 bleach, 1/2 water. Spray and let sit til color disappears, then good rinse.

 

[sudsurfer]

Spray bottle with 1/2 bleach, 1/2 water. Spray and let sit til color disappears, then good rinse.

Thanks, will try this. I think it's worse this time of year. If foam does not get rinsed off, it dries on surface.

 

[washnvac]

Forgot to mention---I would dump that product and get something else. I used a cheap FB/tri-foam product way back that did this. Boy was I sorry. It was only the red, but I got rid of them all and changed to another supplier.

 

[Jeff_L]

Check to make sure you're applying it with hot water. While troubleshooting something on my automatic this weekend, I ran my white vehicle through with the hot water off. After the wash I noticed color streaks down the sides from the triple foam and/or rain-x. Ran it back through with the hot water on and it washed off w/o issue.

 

[robert roman]

If foam is drying on cars, then you have at least two problems - rinsing and stains.

If you use household bleach on vehicle paint, you will have another problem.

Bleach is highly corrosive. It will permeate the clearcoat and pigment layer and cause color to fade and paint to peel.

Have the damage repaired by an auto body professional or detailer that is “trained” in factory paint repair.

Staining problem can be solved by moving the tri-foam arch from the middle of tunnel to the beginning and placing it immediately after the pre-soak arch.

This helps prevent the dye from coming in direct contact and lingering on the surfaces.

Moreover, foam is now contained in one area of tunnel instead of being reinforced prior to rinsing.

 

[sudsurfer]

Thanks for all the info. I have a lot to try. I think this time of year, if foam does not get rinsed off, it can stain the body surface.

 

[MEP001]

Triple foam products.

I meant what brand and type. We were using Warsaw CCP, and it was staining. Between that and getting gouged by the only distributor in the area, we went to something else.

 

[Greg Pack]

UV light will usually kill it. I had a problem with one product in the distant past when it got too strong. But by the time I could see the customer the next day it was often gone. Older white vehicles with oxidized paint were the worst

 

[robert roman]

I would not recommend using UV to eliminate the dye stains in vehicle paint.

UV light intense enough to destroy dye (hydrocarbon) is intense enough to destroy some of clearcoat surface which leads to pre-mature oxidation.

 

[sudsurfer]

Turns out, one of the claims is an aluminum grill with no clear coat or protection. Cannot convince customer that any wash or chemicals will tarnish aluminum. Customer does not understand the need to be polished on a regular basis.

 

[MEP001]

UV light intense enough to destroy dye (hydrocarbon) is intense enough to destroy some of clearcoat surface which leads to pre-mature oxidation.

If you re-read and understand cfcw's post, you might realize that he didn't bleach the stains with UV light. Normal sunlight did it. I saw the same thing when we had staining issues - when I'd meet the customer the next day, it was already almost gone.