How to make car shampoo with your own hands

Almost every car owner has a wide range of various cosmetics and vehicle care products in their arsenal. At the same time, car shampoo can rightly be considered the most in demand and popular.

With the help of high-quality shampoos, you can thoroughly wash your car, give the body additional shine, gloss, and even provide some protection due to the protective additives included in the car shampoo.

But a quality product costs a lot of money. Not everyone wants or can afford to buy branded auto chemicals. Some people are simply interested in trying to make shampoo themselves and check how much the homemade product will differ in effectiveness from the factory sample.

Main features

The use of low-quality auto chemicals can potentially lead to some problems and negative consequences that may affect the condition of the paint layer of the vehicle.

A striking example of the harmful effects of such products is clouding of the coating, stains, dirt residues, greasy stains, etc.

If you are inspired by the idea of how to properly create or make a car shampoo for your car, so that the product you make will last for a long time, and it will perform the assigned tasks efficiently, you need to take a responsible approach to the implementation of your plans.

To begin with, it’s worth clarifying what advantages professional auto chemical products have, and why sometimes you shouldn’t give it up. The main advantages can be considered:

ideally selected proportions of components;
optimal consistency and foam;
compatibility of all ingredients;
high quality cleaning;
no detrimental effect on the body, glass, headlights, etc.;
additional protection;
beautiful shine of washed surfaces.

You can make an analogue of professional car shampoo with your own hands, but here you will need to carefully select the components, mix them correctly and create the optimal consistency. Potential mistakes lead to the opposite effect, when the shampoo simply does not perform its intended tasks, but provokes the formation of new problems on the windows or body of your car.

It is important to understand here that car shampoos are divided into 2 categories. You should determine in advance what kind of remedy you will be making.

Car shampoos used for contactless washing. In addition to the shampoo itself, you will need a device capable of supplying water under high pressure, mixing chemicals with water, which allows you to create a large amount of foam. The automotive market is filled with special devices and attachments designed for do-it-yourself contactless washing.
Products for manual car washing. These are shampoos that are simply diluted in a bucket or other container filled with water in certain proportions. Vigorous shaking produces a large amount of foam, which is then applied using sponges and rags. An option for those who cannot use touchless washing at home.

You need to choose based on specific circumstances. If you do not have direct access to water near the place where you wash your car, then buying or preparing a shampoo designed for contactless washing does not make much sense. Here the best solution would be a composition for contact work with vehicle body and glass surfaces.

In addition to the type of shampoo, it would be a good idea to learn about their varieties depending on their consistency. There are 3 types here:

Powders. Designed for dilution in a sufficiently large amount of water, followed by shaking until a thick foam forms.
Pastas. Thick paste-like mixtures that are highly concentrated. This allows you to add them in small quantities. Moreover, pastes can be applied directly to the surface of the car, and then moistened with wet sponges and rags, or dissolved first in a small amount of water.
Liquids. The most common type of shampoo, which almost all motorists are used to using, who prefer to at least periodically wash their car with their own hands. Liquid shampoos are also diluted in water and can be used for contact and contactless washing. Dilution proportions directly depend on the concentration of auto chemicals.

If we talk about making products at home, then we are mainly talking about liquid shampoos. They are convenient to prepare and subsequently use, which makes them the first choice for the motorist.

Types of funds

On the market or in an auto store you can find products presented in the following form:

Powder. Requires dilution in water.
Paste. Diluted in less water than powder.
Liquid mixture. It is usually used at the rate of 30-50 grams per bucket of water.

All the products that you can buy or make with your own hands can be divided into:

compositions for contactless washing;
means for hand washing.

Car shampoos for manual car washing

If you are going to make shampoo according to a recipe, this involves using it in a domestic environment. After making this mixture, you can wash your car with a bucket of water and a sponge.

You can achieve a large amount of foam by using special attachments for whipping the composition.

Car shampoo for contactless car washing

Car washes vs hand washes

To bring your car back to normal by removing all dirt, streaks and stains, you can choose one of 2 options. Namely:

go to a car wash;
Use auto chemicals to wash your car yourself.

Judging by economic parameters, self-washing is more profitable. You just need to buy a standard set of products, prepare a container with shampoo, and periodically wash all surfaces manually, without spending money on car wash services.

But experienced motorists and car care experts say that the optimal solution is to alternate between self-washing and professional washing. Especially when the car owner himself can only do a hand wash with his own hands without supplying water under high pressure and using ordinary soap solutions.

Professional cosmetics in combination with special equipment designed for contactless washing allow you to efficiently remove literally all contaminants, get rid of dangerous reagents and salts adhering to the body. Additionally, chemistry ensures the application of a protective layer, creating a glossy coating that can last quite a long time.

Alternating professional and self-washing will keep the car clean, maintain protection on the paintwork and prevent the early occurrence of corrosion.

How often to wash the car is up to each owner to decide for himself. Some people wash it once a week at car washes, while others visit car washes once a month, and once a week they do a light wash with their own hands, keeping the body clean and maintaining its shine until the next visit to the car wash. Much depends on the season and weather conditions, as well as the intensity of use of the car.

It is a mistake to believe that the basis of any branded car shampoo consists only of soap with different dyes and flavors. In reality, the composition is quite complex and multi-component. But washing your car with products not intended for such tasks is strictly not recommended.

"Liqui Moly"

It is a spray cleaner. Sold in a 400 ml bottle. According to the instructions, after applying the drug, you need to wait 15-20 minutes and rinse everything off with a stream of clean water. The Liquid Moly product copes with fatty deposits, road dust, reagents and oily stains. According to the manufacturer, the product provides 100% results. In practice, the original tool really coped with the task. But when purchasing, you need to remember that under the Liquid Moly brand, a lot of fakes are offered at a reduced price.

This is already a Russian product, produced in Chelyabinsk. It is a concentrated cleaner for universal use. It has a foam composition containing emulsifiers and solvents. Thanks to this, the product provides maximum effect when cleaning internal combustion engines. Removes oil and other contaminants and prevents corrosion. Sold in a 3-5 liter canister. Unlike previous engine wash products, “Lavr” has slightly different instructions for use:

The concentrate is mixed with water in a ratio of one to three.
The engine warms up to operating temperatures.
The air duct, power supply and other vulnerable elements are closed.
The solution is applied using a sprayer.
After five minutes, the product can be removed with a high-pressure jet.
In case of severe contamination, it is possible to use the concentrate without pre-mixing.

Is Laurel the best engine cleaner? This is a highly controversial issue. This tool is mostly suitable for specialized services rather than for the average car owner. The volume of the solution can reach 15 liters. This is a lot, since half a liter is enough for an ordinary car. Compared to its competitors, the engine cleaner shows good results. The first time it is possible to clear up to 50 percent of deposits. “When cold,” the drug is practically powerless. Apply only to a thoroughly warmed-up engine, since the solution boils at 80 degrees Celsius. It is in this range that its maximum cleaning efficiency is achieved.

The nuances of making it yourself

Sometimes motorists have questions about what they can use to wash their car if they don’t have car shampoo. Here you can go to the store and buy a new one, or make it yourself.

It is quite possible to make homemade products. This will allow you to save a lot on the purchase of branded auto chemicals, and at the same time check how much different professional cosmetics differ from those created with your own hands. But here it is better not to experiment by adding different components, but to follow the instructions and recommendations. You should not use certain components just because they foam great or smell great. Be aware of the potential threat to bodywork and paint from chemicals that are not intended to come into contact with the varnish or paint.

The simplest and in many ways correct solution would be to repeat the factory recipe. These are not secret formulas or patented compositions, so everything you need is written on the packaging. You just need to take a container from an old shampoo that you were happy with.

In this sense, it would be correct to buy good auto chemicals from a trusted manufacturer, use them, and then repeat the recipe based on the composition indicated on the label. To make the product, you need:

carefully study the official composition of the manufacturer;
cross off various chemicals from the list that are practically impossible to find in the public domain on the market;
make a list of components that can actually be found and purchased;
buy the simplest hair shampoo;
add car shampoo ingredients to it.

This is the simplest DIY car shampoo recipe. This way you get an excellent product that is suitable for contact and contactless washing. It is inexpensive and safe, that is, there is no risk of damage to the paint layer with such a recipe. It takes a few minutes to produce auto chemicals, but at the end you get excellent thick foam with excellent cleaning characteristics.

But it is also possible to create a drug from scratch. Here the approach will be more thorough, since it will be necessary to collect a larger number of ingredients and understand the composition in more detail.

There are 5 basic categories of ingredients. Each of them has a certain choice. This allows you to select the optimal composition from those products that will be at hand or will be extremely easy to find.

The basis. To start, choose a natural base. You can use vegetable oils, wax, fish or animal fat as it. A basic component that, when adding other ingredients, allows you to get a good and easy-to-use shampoo.
Synthetic element. Here they usually choose between ethylene, paraffins and propylene.
Components necessary to reduce water hardness and increase the fluidity of the finished product.
Educators. They help make the foam better and richer, as well as speed up the destruction and subsequent removal of contaminants.
Anti-corrosion additives.

If you want to bring your homemade shampoo as close as possible to factory standards, in addition to the specified substances, you will also need to add components with polishing and flavoring effects.

It is difficult to name the ideal proportions and ratio of components. Here you need to build on the specific ingredients chosen, try different combinations, sometimes make mistakes and change the recipe.

But in the end, you should get an excellent car shampoo, in no way inferior to factory-made analogues, which are sold for considerable money.

Objectively, making car shampoo based on regular hair shampoo is much simpler and easier. But for some, recreating a factory recipe is of increased interest. A person is curious whether he can replicate a composition with his own hands that will resemble branded cosmetics and not be inferior to it in terms of cleaning and protective characteristics. If you manage to find all the components and choose the optimal proportions, the result will definitely not disappoint.

Ready-made homemade car shampoos are equally suitable for contact and contactless washing. In the first case, you will need to apply the prepared foam with soft brushes or sponges, and in the second, a certain amount of the product is poured into a foam generator, connected to a water supply and applied to body surfaces.

It is worth noting that when washing car windows, it is better not to use car body shampoos, but to use special products designed specifically for working with glass and mirror surfaces. Otherwise, shampoos can leave streaks and stains that will interfere with the view through the windshield or simply spoil the overall appearance of the car.

How to prepare washing foam for a car

I bought foam for contactless car washing.

Now how do you stir it up to get foam from the liquid and spray it on the car? :)) IMHO - you wash it yourself - so mine should be, there are plenty of products that help to quickly wash away dirt and do not harm the car. 1.special nozzle for a high-pressure mini washer 2.

A certain pressure in the mini-wash itself, i.e. the weakest ones can’t cope; the foam generator is charged for several washes at once; it’s better to use it a few days in advance, otherwise it will go rotten 4. How to connect the foam generator to a high-pressure washer?

5. What is the resource and frequency of maintenance of the foam generator? With care and proper care, foam generators last more than a year even with intensive use.

How to make a foam generator without welding: video - discarding all complex chemical elements that are difficult to obtain; — we create a list of items that can be bought at a regular household chemicals store; - find the simplest hair shampoo; — add the missing elements to the shampoo and get automotive chemicals.

MFC what is it and what does it do where to complain about it

Regarding the deadline for filing an appeal, valid reasons for absence

What case materials does the victim’s lawyer have access to?

Knowing that I wouldn’t get the cleaning abilities that I had set for the factory, I thought about what to do with it, and then, like my car before the inspection, it dawned on me - I should try to push it like car shampoo. the product was very thick (I didn’t thicken it, just solid concentrations), according to your money, it cost 20 rubles, cost price. I took it with me into the car and gave it to the car wash. After 2 days they called me and said - yes, it’s bad. How much does it cost, I say, well, no matter, in my final version it costs about 100 rubles for the factory. They say no, we’ll take it for 40. I say, well, then take it for 40. They took it. I got drunk 2 times. And you say that a good remedy is at least 70 rubles / kg... There, if there are 50 percent of peahens, then the gain is 100 percent... That’s it, that’s why I’m asking you for your opinion as experts, and you tell me, drink soda, that’s all it will be awesome...

Manufacturing safety rules

When a motorist thinks about how best to make car shampoo for a car with his own hands, he sometimes forgets about basic safety rules.

Here it is worth understanding that we are talking about working with some chemicals that cannot be considered completely safe.

To eliminate any risks, follow a few simple rules:

Before mixing, prepare a container that will have a reserve volume based on the amount of the prepared composition. You should not allow the shampoo to reach the edges and overflow, as this excess can get on your skin, mucous membranes, etc. Additionally, make sure that the container is intact and has no damage through which the product could leak out.
It is highly recommended to use protective rubber gloves when mixing ingredients. Cloth ones are not suitable, since various liquids easily leak through them.
If the finished car shampoo or one of its components gets on your skin or other parts of the body, rinse immediately with warm water. If irritation or redness occurs, it is better to consult a doctor.
Close containers with all ingredients tightly after use.
Provide in advance a suitable container for storing shampoo that does not spill and closes tightly.
Do not try to wash your hands or remove dirt with car shampoo, even if you used regular hair shampoo as a base.
Do not rub your eyes while preparing the composition, otherwise the components may get on the mucous membrane, which will lead to at least very unpleasant sensations.
After completing work, remove gloves and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water.

Attractive product

The preparation of autofoam is a technologically simple process that does not require any special equipment. Foams are usually prepared by simply mixing the ingredients without heating, emulsifying, etc. Recipes, as a rule, are also simple, and the car cosmetics market looks very attractive - the number of cars per capita is increasing, and they need to be washed with something. In addition, prices for foreign brands are quite high, which allows domestic manufacturers to create competitive products in the middle price range. Basic formulations are offered by every supplier of raw materials for detergents, including Croda, Akzo Nobel, Kao, BASF, Stepan, etc. True, despite the apparent simplicity, not everything is so smooth, since the question immediately arises of adapting these recipes to Russian reality. Therefore, before you start doing anything, you need to determine a number of basic points for yourself. First of all, it is necessary to determine the required cost of raw materials, taking into account the selling price for an average car wash. You should also set such parameters of the desired formulation as the expected degree of dilution of the autofoam when used, the intensity of foaming, alkalinity, organoleptic properties (smell, color, viscosity), washing ability. But all this, unfortunately, is based on cost.

Using homemade car shampoo

If you managed to prepare a good car shampoo for your car with your own hands, it’s time to try it out.

The rules for using homemade products are not much different from how to use the capabilities of factory-made car shampoo. It would be a good idea to study the instructions from the manufacturers and adhere to approximately the same rules when working with a homemade composition. If a motorist regularly uses auto chemicals, but he decided to replace the factory product with a homemade one, here is what you can advise him in the process of applying and washing the car:

Depending on the concentration of the resulting composition, it must be diluted with water in certain proportions.
Do not add too much product, as it will be difficult to wash off the remaining foam and traces of auto chemicals.
If you are using a contact washer, mix shampoo and water in a bucket or other suitable container.
Mix the mixture thoroughly by hand or with an improvised tool to obtain high-quality and voluminous foam.
It is recommended to first rinse the car with plain water to remove all major contaminants and dissolve or soak away any stuck-on dirt. It is better to do this by supplying water from a hose. But if this is not possible, take ordinary water and a washcloth.
Take a soft sponge or lint-free rag, soak it in a solution of car shampoo, and apply to the surface of the body.
The resulting layer of foam on the surface should react, so you should wait a few minutes.
It is not recommended to wash the car in direct sunlight, as the chemical will quickly dry out and evaporate, which will significantly complicate further removal of foam.
Using a water hose or simple sponges, rinse off the shampoo with clean water.
Do not forget to periodically change the water in the bucket so as not to re-apply soapy water with previously washed away dirt.
Having removed all traces of foam, you need to wipe the body dry with a dry microfiber so that no drops or water remain.

If you have polishes, after the body has completely dried, you can walk over the surfaces with a protective agent, as required by the chemical manufacturer.

It is much more convenient to work using the contactless washing method. Here it is enough to pour the shampoo into the foam generator and turn on the foaming agent. With its help, foam is applied to the body, time is waited for it to react, after which the pressure of plain tap water removes all shampoo residues.

Dangerous abrasive

Do not wash your car in a river with muddy sandy water or old sponges with ingrained dirt. This is an iron rule that cannot be deviated from under any circumstances. The fact is that any dirt and even the finest dust is an abrasive. If you start rubbing the paintwork with dirt or even with a dry, dusty rag, you will get a lot of scratches on the paintwork. This is why the color fades, and in bright sunshine a whitish cobweb is visible on a washed car.

Even if you start polishing the body after a careless wash somewhere in the country or on the shore of a reservoir, sand and dust will fly in instantly. And thorough rubbing with a sponge or rag will be similar in result to treatment with fine sandpaper.

The correct way is to wash the car in a couple of steps with car shampoo.

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Car washing accessories

The car owner has to keep his vehicle clean regardless of his desire or mood. Experienced drivers know that a freshly washed car has improved aerodynamic parameters. Air resistance weakens, and fuel consumption per unit distance decreases.

This does not mean that the car should be “bathed” every other day or every day. It is advisable to clearly define the conditions and time when you need to use your own car shampoo. It is important to wash your car according to the rules, so that the negative consequences are minimal or completely absent.

On the shelf, next to the shampoo canister, it is advisable to have the following accessories:

Hard and soft brush;
Microfiber cloths;
Cotton towels.

The above list can be expanded. The main thing when washing a car is to complete the procedure correctly. Otherwise, all your efforts and car shampoo will be wasted. Carefully wipe the surface of the body and glass so that no streaks remain.

It is imperative to check whether water has entered the interior. Often, a little moisture accumulates under the carpet in the driver's seat. Over time, a corrosion center will inevitably form in this place. You can leave the car with the doors open for half an hour to ventilate the interior.

Video about what happens if you wash a Fairy car:

Consequences of improper use of auto chemicals

You already know what you can use to replace factory car shampoo at home. But the preparation of auto chemicals should be approached very responsibly, choosing the appropriate ingredients and observing certain proportions when combining them.

Practice shows that quite often, in pursuit of a desire to save money, motorists buy very cheap chemicals of dubious quality and origin, or wash their cars with compounds that are not intended for this purpose. Some of them can cope with their tasks without harming the car. But this is always a potential risk that is important to remember.

If we talk about the possible consequences of such decisions, then we can highlight the following:

improper use can lead to difficult removal of chemicals from surfaces;
stains and stains may remain after washing;
the products react with the paintwork, worsening its condition;
constant use of harmful chemicals leads to the destruction of the paint layer;
such washing methods can cause corrosion;
If you wash your car incorrectly, a large amount of moisture often remains, which is harmful.
electrical wiring and accelerates the formation of rust.

The main threat lies precisely in the deterioration of the coating on the car, which will then have to be restored and repainted. The worst-case scenario is the destruction of the varnish and paint layer, followed by the formation of rust. Moreover, this can happen in hard-to-reach and barely noticeable places, from which it was not possible to fully remove the remnants of shampoo, whose components have reacted.

High-quality auto chemicals fully justify the investment in them. Modern preparations are not at all a simple soap solution, which is needed solely to remove contaminants. Indeed, in theory, you can get rid of them with ordinary warm water. These are car shampoos with a multi-component composition that efficiently remove dirt, protect the body, maintain the paint layer in perfect condition, maintaining shine and density.

Polishing and old stains

It's easy to check the cleanliness of the body. If you run your finger over the varnish, you should hear a “squeaking” sound, like running across a clean mirror. Even the windshield wipers will move with a squeak on clean glass. It is difficult to achieve such an effect with a contactless car wash. In general, hand washing should be carried out before each polishing.

After the water has dried, you can begin polishing the body and applying a protective wax coating. You need to do polishing in the garage, but you can also do it outside if there is no strong wind and you are not on a sandy beach.

However, when inspecting the body after washing, you often come across small dots and stains that the car shampoo did not remove. These are traces from buds, insects and resins that often dry out on the roof, from bitumen and much more. You cannot wipe them off with rags because of the risk of damaging the varnish with the resulting abrasive. Here it is better to stock up on a special cleaning spray, which you can buy at an auto chemical store. It does not damage the varnish, and removes dirt much more effectively than shampoo.

Why do you need to wash?

Washing a car engine is not only an aesthetic moment. This procedure must be performed for a number of other reasons:

Road dust and dirt that accumulates on the surface of the motor impairs its heat transfer. As a result, the engine does not operate in its normal mode. This increases the wear of its parts and affects the resource as a whole.
In the case of oil drips (they can form both under the valve cover and at the junction of the block with the cylinder head), dirt will stick at an incredible speed. As a result, both the engine and its attachments will be covered with a thick black coating. This makes it very difficult to visually inspect the parts. Also, when oil comes into contact with hot engine parts (exhaust manifold), it begins to burn. This provokes a sharp and unpleasant odor that penetrates the interior.

To avoid such problems, you should choose the best car engine cleaner. Below we will pay closer attention to this issue.

Recipe 4 - using improvised means

Domestic cars, like our tanks, are not afraid of dirt. However, vigilant traffic police officers will not miss the opportunity to talk with the owner of the “dirty one.”

Road users also look disapprovingly at an unwashed car.

Given these and similar circumstances, it is advisable for the driver to have a suitable detergent in the glove compartment or trunk.

. Some car owners use ordinary hair shampoo to quickly wash their car. They choose and buy a cheap product that brings quite acceptable results. The main thing is that there is no need to add any additional ingredients to the shampoo, as “sophisticated specialists” advise.

Another ready-made product that is used instead of car shampoo, even in commercial car washes, is liquid laundry soap.

With its help, even bitumen stains on the paintwork of a vehicle are removed. For Lada, a 500 ml bottle is enough for two washes. Soap is diluted with water in the same proportions as shampoo from the store. Retail chains offer to buy a 5-liter canister, and then there will be enough soap for the entire warm season.