Wicked waterspots

[BOOMER23]

just a little additional tidbit of info, my father talked to a friend of his in the business of cleaning cars and he menitoned in my area there were a lot of cases of the spots especially on auto glass and that it is actually acid rain and is very very hard to get off. Just thought id add this for anyone who comes along and may have the same problem.

[ausie]

If the water you are using (which is the case for everybody) has minerals in it, when the water evaporates, the minerals are left behind. Acidic water spots are actually etched spots in the clear coat which may need to be compounded out. More than likely the rings or spots are just minerals left behind after the water evaporates. I read somewhere that using white vinegar can remove water spots. Vinegar is acidic. Also note acidic water is also known as hard water, if you have soft water (more basic) that can leave spots too. Many well systems have water softeners in them which uses sodium based salts to reduce the acidity in the water. When the water dries, the salts are left behind which actually bonds to the paint. I have city water which has lots of bleach in it. Hence the same problem (white spots on a black car). Usually I can remove the spots with detailer spray before waxing. I recently just bought some meguires synthetic wax, (was looking for zaino, will have to order that on-line since there is no local distributor yet). There are many tricks to remove water spots, I would recommend a clay bar over compounding the paint, unless it has lots of scratches in it. I did notice acidic water spots on my ex-wifes car - waxing will not cure that, in fact the wax did not even stick to it. It looked like the clear coat was missing from the paint surface. That was caused by bird droppings being left on the car in the hot sun. Never park under a mulburry tree! If you see lots of spots under a tree on the pavement, do not park there or your paint will look like the road surface. Good luck in removing the spots, more than likely it is just contaminants left over from the water and can be removed without extensive paint refurbishing.

[Black Horse]

I know it sounds like a fad...but that darn Mr. Clean Autowash system left NO spots on my Black Cobra......and I didn't have to get out of my chair or put down my beer to dry it......

[ausie]

Does the Mr. Clean car wash have amonia in it? If it does, you could probably do the same thing with windex. I have often used combinations of windex and or glass plus with amonia in the wash water to clean my explorer which worked better than tide without leaving water spots or soap spots on the paint. That method was intended to remove any wax build up prior to a complete compound and poslish of the 8 year old paint. The old beater still shines even when it is covered in dirt.

Thanks for the tip on the Mr. Clean. I was curious how it worked. Now you have my interest in the product. Thanks!