Washing then wax in the desert

[touringcamry]

I don't have a garage and the only place I can wash my car is at the coin-op car wash in town. If I wash my car, I do it at maybe 6 or 7am because we have very hard water here and the sun will make the water dry and leave spots everywhere or it will make the car wash soap dry up before I can wash it off.

Now I want to wax my car with my PC but I cannot do this at the car wash because I can't get power. I will need to drive about 6 miles back to base where I can have some type of enclosed environment. The problem is that the place doesn't open until about 10am. Another issue is that I live in the desert and as soon as my car is on the road, it will instantly be covered in fine powder sand.

Now when it's time to wax, I want to fill a spray bottle with some distilled water and then spray that on the car and wipe off with a microfiber cloth. Only then will I attempt to wax the car.

Is there a better way to go about this? I guess I could use quick detailer, but the stuff I have tends to leave some type of residue that is difficult to remove.

[eledan]

Dude, I feel your pain. I can never wash without getting water spots unless I do it on a cloudy day (which then rains on my freshly washed car). Waxing is out of the question until a certain time in the evening, when the sun is below the rooflines across the street. And by the time I put the last drying towel away, there is already a fine layer of dust all over my car.

The only way to really get my car clean is to wait until I'm at my boyfriend's place. He gets softer water, has a garage, and there is not nearly as much dust in the air. My advice is to find a friend who has a better car-cleaning situation. Another idea: could you get hold of an air compressor to blow the sand off your car once you are ready to wax?

[touringcamry]

The place I was planning to wax my car has an commercial size air compressor built into the side of the building and has air lines running everywhere.

It's pretty difficult to get out of the dust because there is nothing but sand, I'm 29 palms, around for tens of miles.