Stubborn Water Spots

[FTStang08]

Hello all, I just recently purchased a black '08 Mustang with 23k. The paint is in excellent condition, but as we all know taking care of a black car can be rough.

I take excellent care of my vehicles and have been washing it atleast once a week. In the past four weeks since i've had it i've already waxed it twice... i know, overkill haha. But I've got a bigger problem now.

I washed my car on Tuesday, but it ended up raining on Thursday morning. Then by the afternoon it was covered in pollen. I was extremely busy that evening after work and didn't have a minute to wash it. Then yesterday, Friday, was very warm and sunny.

So this afternoon I washed my car and dried it. However, while I was drying it I realized that my entire car was covered in water spots. When it dried completely, the spots disappeared, but when I went to Quik Detail the car they came back when the paint was moist.

My guess is that the sun baked the wet pollen water beads into the paint.

I used a claybar and even this won't take the spots off.
Does anyone have any suggestions to take care of this?

[Maserati Mario]

Re: Stubborn Water Spots

Your going to need to remove a little paint/Clear Coat
DO A TEST SPOT FIRST!
I would use your hand to remove a few spots.
If you have the car to do, I would use a rotory or a DA-G110 or the like
Here's a scale of products to start you off

Aggressiveness Order for New Consumer Products
Since we introduced these 3 new swirl and scratch removers in our Consumer Line and our new M205 Ultra Finishing Polish in our Professional line, many people have asked how aggressive these new products are as compared to some of our existing products that our forum members are already familiar with to help them understand the cleaning and/or abrading ability of these new products I've listed them in order of most aggressive to least aggressive reading from left to right.

(Apologies ahead of time if you have to horizontal scroll)

Most aggressive to least aggressive -->

[Nappers]

Re: Stubborn Water Spots

Check this out: Older thread but the process hasn't changed and substitute ScratchX 2.0 or the above products Mario showed you and like he said, do a test spot

How To Remove Water Spots

[FTStang08]

Re: Stubborn Water Spots

Thanks guys, i'm going to try that today. I don't have an orbital (still nervous about burning paint, don't know which machine to buy/what products to use), so i'll have to apply/remove by hand.

Any suggestions to keep them from coming back? I've already applied two coats of wax in the last four weeks that i've owned the car (Mothers Carnauba and NXT) so I know it's not from neglect. I always see you guys refering to product numbers like M121...etc. What do the numbers refer to? My local car parts/care store only carries one or two types of Meguiars Wax. Where would I be able to find the rest of the products?

[Backcountry]

Re: Stubborn Water Spots

Thanks guys, i'm going to try that today. I don't have an orbital (still nervous about burning paint, don't know which machine to buy/what products to use), so i'll have to apply/remove by hand.

If you can burn the paint with a random orbital polisher, you should probably stop detailing cars altogether.

Seriously, though, the Meguiar's dual-action polisher is a great product if you don't want to go agonize over specs at the hardware store. Nearly any random orbital will do if you wan to shop around, but Meg's does a good job offering an appropriately-sized one that's easy to use and offers a number of useful speeds. (I used to borrow my dad's Craftman orbital once in a while to speed things up, but its enormous diameter and lack of speed control settings makes things interesting. Great for his huge, flat Ford truck, bad for anything else.)


To keep the spots from coming back, your best bet is going to be wiping them off with some quick detailer when you see them. Wax will buy you some time, but left alone they will eventually migrate.

For the full (or a fuller) line of Meguiar's products, check out How to Locate a PBE Store in your Hometown.

[ClearlyCoated]

Re: Stubborn Water Spots

If the pollen/water spots disappear when the paint is dry and only reappear when the paint is damp, then it sounds like you have very shallow defects. You might even be able to get them out by hand, but it will be a lot of work and you'll be wishing for a DA polisher by the end of the day.

Machine Photos - DA Polishers - Rotary Buffers - Traditional Orbital Buffers

I think you can use a very light cleaner and get rid of the problem. I would start off with SwirlX and bump up your game to Ultimate Compound if SwirlX fails to make a dent in the problem. Don't forget to follow up your cleaner with a sealant like NXT 2.0. All of these consumer products can be found in most major chain stores like WalMart or Target

[FTStang08]

Re: Stubborn Water Spots

Thanks, ClearlyCoated. I actually used that exact method. The only thing I did differently was I clayed first then followed up with the swirl-x and NXT 2.0. Looks great!

And Backcountry, i've just had bad experiences with orbitals haha. I've never personally used one, but when I had my Blazer in the shop a few years ago after some jerk hit and ran me in a parking lot (still bitter, can you tell? haha) they used an orbital on it and put some swirls in the hood. Then with this new car I just bought I can tell the guy before used one on the hood because the paint is a little burnt on the creases in the hood. I just figure if I do it by hand, although it's more work, I don't have to worry about it.

[Nappers]

Re: Stubborn Water Spots

I stole this: You can burn the paint with an orbital if you soak the pad in lighter fluid and light it as you use it.....

The oribital is good for spreading wax and thats about it.....

It's just not powerful enough to do correction work, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try! A good bonnet and some Ultimate Compound and/or SwirlX may yield good results....Never know until you try!

The burns you talk about in the creases.....was it an oribital? or a rotary? Rotary is forced rotation and in the wrong hands can do damage to your paint.....

Unless you had a wool bonnet and a strong compound and held in one place a long time, the oribital has potential to do damage, but you wouldn't do that.

I do my cars by hand at times, just nice to take your time and not haul all of the stuff out.....

[FTStang08]

Re: Stubborn Water Spots

Nappers, I would have to guess it was probably a rotary then. You can see the paint is just kind of dull where the creases in the hood are. Whoever did it probably thought that if you put a ton of pressure on the buffer that it would be a good end result... even I know that's wrong and I have zero experience with buffers. Especially on brand new paint. Why would you need to?

So i'm probably going to start looking into a good compound and my buddy who is a professional detailer is going to teach me how to buff correctly. Guess it's time for me to jump out of the 50's and learn hahaha.