There’s many reasons to hate pollen.
As a car owner, there’s one big reason to hate it.
It can cause damage to your paint.
Pollen should be treated in the same way as Tar, Bugs & Tree Sap. The longer you leave it on the surface of your car, the harder it will become to wash it off.
If you’ve gone for a drive in the summer and can see that your paint is covered in pollen, I’d recommend washing it off on the same day.
You’ll know that your car is covered in pollen because your paintwork has a yellow and green tint to it. Pollen is very common during the summer, with the worst of it coming between March and September.
Act Fast To Prevent Long Term Damage
This goes for almost any thing car related. The quicker you fix an issue, the less damage it’s likely to cause.
Whenever your car is covered in stubborn contaminants, the quicker you wash them off, the less likely they are to etch into the paint.
You’ll also find by washing contaminants off quickly, it’s much easier.
If you let the pollen cling to your car for a long time, you’ll have to use stronger products, scrub harder and even polish your car with a cutting compound to remove etching.
As long as you’re washing the car in the same week, all you’ll need to do to remove pollen is a simple 3 step wash as stated below.
Step 1 : Pre Wash – When your car is covered in pollen, the last thing you want to do is touch it.
Pre-washing the car by rinsing, snow foaming or covering it in traffic film remover will allow you to remove the pollen without touching it and getting it stuck in your wash mitt.
Step 2: Hand Wash – While your car may look 90% clean after a good pre-wash, you should still perform a proper contact wash.
This will ensure that your car is as clean as it can be and there is no pollen left behind.
Once you’re satisfied with how your car looks, dry it off with a microfiber towel to avoid water spots.
Step 3: Apply Wax, Sealant or Coatings – It’s always a good idea after you’ve thoroughly washed a car to apply some last stage protection.
Waxes, sealants and ceramic coatings will enhance how your car looks and prevent pollen from clinging to the car in the future.
A car with a well maintained coating is much easier to wash than one without.
What to do when the pollen wont come off your car?
Depending on the type of wash methods you are using, you could always take it up a notch.
Whether it’s using a stronger soap/water dilution or even a stronger product overall, such as degreaser or traffic film remover.
However, the best way to remove pollen and other stubborn contaminants from your car is using clay bar after you’ve performed a thorough wash.
A clay bar is exactly what it sounds like.
It’s a bar of clay that you rub over the surface of your car. As the clay is rubbed over your paintwork, it will pick up any contaminants that are stuck to the surface.
You do need to be careful using clay though, it’s a hard product, so you should make sure that the working area is sufficiently lubricated using clay bar lube.
As long as the working area is sufficiently lubricated and you keep rotating the clay as it gets dirty, you’ll have no problem removing baked on pollen as well as contaminants that you didn’t even know were there.
How To Prevent Pollen In The Future
I like to think that preventing pollen is fairly straightforward.
You should avoid highly-pollinated areas.
In most countries you’ll be able to check the pollen levels each day during the summer. Because hayfever is so common, you can even see it on the news.
Another good idea is to avoid back-roads and farmland as they tend to be surrounded by fields and plants.
Adding wax, sealant or even a ceramic coating to your vehicle will help to prevent pollen from sticking but it wont be the ultimate solution.
You’ll still need to wash your car regularly and rinse the pollen off before it becomes too late. Failure to do this, will ensure that you end up back on this very page.