what do I do?

[asm505]

I live in the mountains and my house is surrounded by trees. I don't have a garage (yet) but I can park under the deck for some protection. My question is, last night it rained and I have some tree debris on my car which I want to get off (it would probably just rinse off) but I don't want to let it air dry incase it would get spotty and I don't want to hand dry it w/ out actually washing it.

Any suggestions? I don't have time to wash my car 2 times a week.

[Murr1525]

Tough call.. just rinsing probably would be best.

Do you have hard water, or just worried about dusty spots?

[asm505]

This is a stupid question, but how do I tell if I have hard water. If I get water spots on my car, I have never had trouble getting them off. I was just concerned because I was reading about water spots getting etched into your paint. Maybe that is not an issue for me?

[Murr1525]

Hard water is basicaly a lot of calcium, or a couple other things, in your water that end up looking like white scale when the water dries.

Do you have any sort of white scale build up on faucets, showers, sprinklers, etc? If you were to just hose the car off when it is clean, do you get any white rings where the water drops were?

You'll notice if you get a drip of water off a concrete overpass for instance, it often leaves a white ring. That is hard water.

Or do you just get dusty rings if any dirt was there on the surface?

A dusty ring will wash off, though I wouldnt let it bake on for weeks and weeks. You dont want those white hard water rings to be there for very long. They will mark.

[asm505]

yesterday there was a little bit of bird poop on my car and I sprayed it off and I don't really see any water spots on my car. Based on what I have been reading, I just assumed it was really bad to NOT dry your car off.

[Mike Phillips]

The best thing to do in a situation like this it to be sure you maintain your wax protection.

You might look into either our Meguiar's Cleaner/Wax, or ColorX and at a minumumm, apply a thin coat to the horizontal surfaces after each regular wash job.

It doesn't take long if all you're waxing is the roof, hood and decklid and by using a cleaner/wax you'll clean the finish and leave beind a protective coating at the same time.