Best way to clean up dust covered car body?

We recently moved to a new house and in the process of doing so my project car picked up quite the piling of dust all over the car's body.

Hosing it off is not an option (weatherstripping is not on, etc, etc)...

So what has worked for you guys as far as removing the dust and avoiding putting scratches/swirl marks into the paint?

I was thinking of blowing some of it off...but my compressor is not hooked up yet. Spray bottle with lots of cloth changes comes to mind next...I've seen a body shop once clean up an absolutely filthy car this way...body was black, not a single scratch after...but I'm not sure if he used some special detailing mix?

Thanks!

I have a "california car duster" from one of those gimmicky car show booths....but it works decent enough that I don't notice any swirls after use. I'm fairly picky too.

Same thing has been happening to mine from general dust collection, and I have it in the garage.

As far as swirl marks go, I'm going to have to have it final polished and waxed once it's completely back together to get rid of the swirl marks, hand marks and such that I am invariably getting on it from working on it and to some degree from washing it. Once it's done i'll be keeping it covered with a dust cover and keeping it dusted off with a California duster between washings.

I just wash the whole car with no glass, no weather strips, nada...inside and out. My interior is out, or I would just be more careful with the water. I final rinse with reverse osmosis filtered water. Then, I use a gas powered leaf blower to get most of the water off then towel dry it. I leave it out in the sun to evaporate the rest of the remaining water.

I've been using the air compressor first, then using the California car duster. It works good. Just remember that a new duster will leave some oil residue on the paint the first few times you use it. The more dust that gets on the duster the better.

I washed my CA Duster and it was useless afterwords. Had to throw it away.

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I washed my CA Duster and it was useless afterwords. Had to throw it away.

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You washed out the treatment of the duster that makes it work. They are not washable.
Blow it off, dust with California duster. Windex and several micro fiber cloths. Then put a car cover on it and no more dust.