Help with washing a car covered in wheat product...

[TREMAiNE]

Strange title, I know.

I work at a flour mill and one of the unfortunate downsides is that a lot of unprocessed and partly processed wheat and flour gets spewed from our ventilation into the air, which absolutely cakes our cars - some days worse than others.

It leaves tiny specs of ground-up wheat and flour on the cars that, to the touch, does feel very coarse.

It's never bothered me before, as I'd always had a shed for work and didn't care about the paint but having recently bought a brand new car, I'm really worried about washing it and potentially scratching the paint if I wipe it with a cloth. It gets stuck on, so it's not a case of just hosing it down first.

My car right now is particularly bad, and I've just given it 2x contactless washes at work with a hot water pressure washer + soap solution in a bid to loosen it and get as much of as I can, which seems to have worked, but the car is still covered.

Are there any methods or techniques or even products that you would recommend to help get this off?
Any do's or don'ts when it comes to washing my car, given there is a likely risk of scratching?

And yes - I do have a half cover (to cover the fabric roof, as its a soft top) but I don't think a full cover is feasible, I'm worried that'll cause damage too as working near a port, it's extremely windy and I wouldn't want it rubbing on the paint etc

[Belle427]

A stronger decon shampoo might help but if a hot pressure washer has failed it may be time to break out the clay.
I would use a clay mitt with the wash solution, garage therapy decon shampoo is very good for this.

[Metric Max]

I used a ceramic wax on our cars which are now much easier to clean and shinier.
Might be worth a go, if nothing else the car will look better when its clean

[dave123456]

I’d go with a couple of coats of decent wax. Topped up every 6 months.

[trickywoo]

TREMAiNE said:

a hot water pressure washer + soap solution

I wouldn’t recommend using an industrial hot pressure washer on a car, especially when it’s stone cold in this weather. Asking for trouble.

Lots of snow foam is probably the second best answer. The first being to park it somewhere to minimise the fallout.

[Shedding]

When my son leaves his Weetabix bowl in his room and it drys out, the stuff is like concrete. Only prolonged soaking works

[Smint]

No filters? really shouldn't be discharging flour dust like that.

The power washer you used at work, presumably its used to wash the tankers? if so i'd not advise using the chemical because the commercial stuff is aggressive.
Worth spending a few quid on a decent pressure washer of your own, one that can apply snow foam or similar in the correct doses which can left on for a few minutes before blasting the worst off, cold water is best to remove the worst of flour overspill, hot water helps it cook on.

[TREMAiNE]

Thanks all for the advice.
Supposedly the solution we're using at work IS car safe, it's not TFR - although I don't often use it just to be safe, only if the car is particularly bad.

Unfortunately missing the fallout is virtually impossible but at least I've got a good starting point to clean the car based on all your feedback.

Shedding said:

When my son leaves his Weetabix bowl in his room and it drys out, the stuff is like concrete. Only prolonged soaking works

That's the perfect description - that is exactly what it is like, annoyingly.

Smint said:

No filters? really shouldn't be discharging flour dust like that.

We do have filters, but unfortunately, they blow quite often and it "snows" for days before being rectified. It doesn't help that a power station next door is continuously burning wood, so sh*t from that is always in the air and when the wind is blowing towards the car park, we can get that on the cars, too. It's the worst part about the job, but despite being full-time, I only work 153 days a year, so it's a fair trade-off.

Smint said:

cold water is best to remove the worst of flour overspill, hot water helps it cook on.

I would never have expected that, thanks for the tip.

[colin79666]

Worth investing in a car cover?

[_Hoppers]

TREMAiNE said:

cakes our cars

Pun intended?

[trickywoo]

colin79666 said:

Worth investing in a car cover?

Do more harm than good if put on a dirty car which presumably it would be after driving it to work.

[BenS94]

Try Bilt Hamber Touch-less

Either 20% in a snow foam canon, or about 2-5% in a pump sprayer. Incredible stuff.