How do I safely wash off stone dust?

All of the cars at my house are covered from dust generated by cutting stone pavers. It is a significant coating of dust, and I am trying to figure out how to remove it without causing any marring?

 

Pressure washer+foam lance is a must have!!! Foam it up, let it dwell, rinse it off...You might need to use Optimum Power Clean to help you losen the dirt if the foam itself failes...

 

I have this issue with ag fall out, I foam the car and then pressure wash. sometimes I pre treat it with opti clean..... a light mist helps break up the film and grime.

 

I would foam it with OPC until it is safe to wash.

 

Sounds good. I guess I will have to re-apply power lock after coating it with the foam and APC mix. I don't currently have any Optimum, do you think Einszett W99 would do the trick?

Thank you all for the great input

 

ok........ why would you want to pre treat with an APC? unless you "wanted" to remove the LSP............

Do you want to remove the LSP, or the stone dust? is this a detail, or a maintenance issue?

I am confused.

 

Perhaps I am confused. I was under the impression that Optimum Power Clean was an APC that would remove the LSP, meaning that I would have to re apply it after I was done cleaning the stone dust off.

This is a one time thing which resulted from a construction project that is now concluded. I just want to remove the stone dust in the safest way possible

 

Don't use an APC then, you will strip the LSP off the car, unless you want that. Which is fine, you can always reapply...........
Do you have a foam cannon? or Foam lance? lets start there

 

I have the Home Depot foamer for my pressure washer and some Adams shampoo. I would not mind using the W99 and having to re apply the LSP if it meant that I would decrease the chance of me inducing swirls

 

If you have a good car shampoo, I would foam the car without any APC........ let it dwell a few minutes, maybe foam it twice. then pressure rinse it and see where you are at. Like I said I get allot of the same type of fall out. Stripping the LSP to remove fall out seems to be alot of extra work to remove something a good shampoo should.

rinse car with pressure washer
foam car, rinse, foam again if needed then see where you are at.
If it is still bad then use the W99 and go from there.

 

Thanks for the good advice. I will try that out today and see how it goes

 

What about a pre soak with ONR? Wouldn't that help loosen it up, then pressure wash off.
I'd be afraid going straight to rinsing with a pressure washer could potentially cause marring.

I'd pre soak the car with ONR in a spray bottle/pump sprayer and then leave it for a bit then rinse off. Then foam with car soap and rinse off.

 

I mentioned Opti Clean, but ONR would work too.
either product would encapsulate the dirt and hopefully lift it off the finish.

 

Flood rinse the surface to remove stone debris, and then use ONR or a power-washer (if you use the power-washer without first flood rinsing you will in effect be sand blasting the paint)