I live in Atlanta, and while my car is parked in a parking deck, it's not a fully sealed garage so it's still going to get a good amount of pollen on it now that it's spring time.

Will pollen affect the paint if I don't drive much? Sometimes I can go up to a couple weeks without driving and I don't know whether I should take it somewhere to rinse it off.

Also, would I be good with just taking it to a cheapo DIY car-wash and rinsing it off with cold water, or should I actually wash it? What's the best way to deal with pollen other than a full car wash? Does it matter?

 

All you need is a few good MF towels and Poorboys Spray & Wipe. Because it has lubricants in it, wiping off pollen, dust, light dirt, bird bombs, etc won't harm your paint. You can also use it as a lube when claying. I swear by this stuff and would never be without it.

 

^^^ +1. PBW Spray & Wipe is the bomb-diggity. I'm about to keep a small bottle in my car with a MF towel now that pollen season has arrived in Tennessee.

 

To remove heavy dust (do not use a California Duster as the pollen exine (barbs) will cause surface marring) instead use Optimum No Rinse (ONR) a quick ‘wash’; formulated with surfactants to keep dirt in suspension, avoiding surface contact, it also provides surface lubrication, thereby avoiding surface marring. As soon as is practical, thoroughly rinse the vehicle with a hose and clean water to ensure all the pollen is removed.

 

good advice. dark colors in the south SUCK for pollen. ive always heard to use a quick detailer and you'll be fine.

 

That completely depends on the QD that you use. Some QDs are meant to be used on clean paint surfaces only. For example, you can use Poorboys S&W on a paint surface that is lightly dirty, where as Poorboys S&G should only be used on clean paint surfaces. Make sure you know what type of QD you have before you start using it on a dirty paint surface.

 

What if I just hosed the car off?

 

This pollen is FVCKIN Killing ME!! My nose is about to fall of, damn allergies.


Oh, and about the cars, yeah i just wipe it down with a quick detailer and MF towel.

 

Don't even get me started on all this pollen crap!! All the cars here are coated in it. At least it's raining and washes most of it off but man it's nasty. It feels like I am choking when I walk outside and take a deep breath. It sucks but hopefully it will be gone very soon.

 

Personally, I would use some MF towels and a QD like PB's S&W over hosing it down. The first reason is because if you hose it down you'll still need to dry your paint off to prevent water spots.....so you'll probably spend just as much or more time doing that than using S&W. The second reason is hosing it down won't guarantee that you are removing all of the dust, pollen, etc from your paint, and if you then dry your car off you are pushing the remaining dirt around on your paint and thus scratching it.

 

After looking at the following pictures, you may change your thoughts on wiping down your pollen covered car with any QD.





As Jon said above a QEW or ONR wash is best if you don't want to break out the hose.

Unless you have a CR spotless setup, just rinsing off your car will leave you with water spots.