Hey all,

I washed my car off early this morning and I've driven to work and I was wondering if it's ok if I wax it when I get home tonight, even though it's been driven around and outside during the day. There doesn't appear to be any dirt on it since this morning, so is it still ok for me to just go ahead and apply a layer of wax? (NXT liquid)

 

You probably picked up dust particles and other stuff (pollen, bugs, etc.) that settled on it during the day.

What you need is a California Duster. It's a treated "mop" that you use to remove dust from the car without washing. That would clean the junk off leaving the surface reasonably clean enough to was/polish.

 

I do have one of those... but I haven't touched it since last spring with all of the pollen, so I'm pretty sure it's covered in pollen at this point. Would any of the pollen come off of the duster if I went over my car now? Or is there someway of cleaning the california duster?

 

If you had the car sitting indoors all day and waxed it at night then I would say go ahead with it, but since you have drove it around, then there is surely going to be some type of grit that will get underneath your towel and scratch it up. Try using Meguiars Quick Detail, and then you should be fine. It will clean up the paint and will not cause any damage.

 

I would definently rewash it before waxing. You will trap in all the dirt and particles that your car picked up on the drive. Just spend the 10 minutes rewashing it and you will thank yourself later.

 

Whatever the Cali Duster picks up shouldn't come off. I'll usually give mine a couple good shakes before using to make sure that anything that is loose will fall off and to make sure the strands are not bunched together.

If it gets real dirty (after a couple years of use) then you can wash it. Their website has cleaning instructions:

http://www.calcarduster.com/faq.asp

 

I actually had an old spray bottle of Meguiar's Quick Detailer -- I always thought the car had to be clean to use it, but you sure taught me a lesson! I used that tonight! Thanks!