Contrary to what a lot of car product companies tout, pollen is not 'highly acidic" and will not aggressively eat holes through the metal of your car's body. Pollen is classified as environmental fallout by the EPA. This has a lot less to do with how pollen affects your car than how pollen affects people. So, even if the Ph. of pollen is low, that does not mean that pollen is harmless to your car's finish.
If you look at pollen particles under a microscope they look like fiendish little microbes right out of a nightmarish sci-fi movie. Yes, some pollen is spiky. This is one of the two major detriments that pollen has on your cars finish. It is a likely significant contributor to those spider web looking scratches in your car's finish. The second is that all pollen is sticky and that stickiness keeps it stuck to your cars finish and this is where the damage starts to occur.
Pollen sticking to your car's finish will eventually act like splattered bugs and bird droppings do. The longer it's there, the harder it is to effectively remove and the potential for damaging your car's finish increases.
So what can you do? Well, there is no simple answer. In fact the only acceptable answer is to wash and wax your car.
These tips on keeping your car looking springtime fresh should help.
- NEVER wipe pollen off of your car dry! It will scratch the finish.
- DON'T WAIT! Even though pollen blows around like a dust storm, mother nature will do more to keep it stuck to your cars finish that assisting with the removal via the wind and rain.
- WAX ON! Yes, the number one thing you can do to protect your cars finish against the natural onslaught it gets hit with daily is a good coat of wax.
- DO wash your car often during pollen season. We're not saying that you need to maintain that car show shine throughout pollen season. Simply wash it off. Either with the hose at home or at a touchless automated car wash.
