Water Etching from washing another car

[Daddy]

About three weeks ago, I Washed, clayed, Ultra Compounded, and NTX Waxed my Red 2001 Mustang I bought in May

The Mustang was apparently heavily oxidized since it went from an orange looking, flat, red to a deeper glossy red with a slight orange tint on the metal parts. The plastic bumpers went from pink to red. So after basicly 2 applications of UC and a coat of NTX, I was quite happy, but knew it was not perfect. I can see it is not the original color yet, but I was afraid to take too much paint. I figured in the Fall I would work on removing more oxidation - I should be smarter by then..

One area not looking good was the spoiler wing on the trunk. It looked much better after 5-6 applications of UC, but not as good as the rest of the car.

This weekend I decided to wash my inlaws' Crown Vic to be a nice guy. I used Crystal Car Wash. The car was parked near the Mustang and I guess some water splashed on the Mustang. Later that day I noticed lots of water spots on the Mustang trunk and Spoiler.

I figure these would wipe off fairly easy since it had fresh coat of NTX. The trunk did come up easily with some minor water rings left behind that came out with Crystal Car Wash follwed by QD. The spoiler is not so good.

The water spots were white and plentiful. I washed, QD, clayed, and spent two hours and a quater bottle of Ultimate Compound with a DA polisher. The spots are lighter and the color of the spoiler is looking better, but there is a ways to go to perfection.

So, while spending some time working with the polisher, I came up with some questions that I hope can be answered here.

1) What happened? If the surface is protected by NTX, how could the paint be etched? The mustang has been in rain and I also have washed the Mustang since waxing it and have not seen any water spots.

2) Is there something in the Crystal Car Wash that reacted with the NTX to cause this? Do I need to be sure not to wash a car near another car?

3) Why did the trunk lid clean up so easily but the spoiler have this problem? Was this caused by the remaining oxidation?

4) Should I have been using a stronger product? What can I find in the retail stores (consumer line?) without going to a polishing compound (rocks)? The spots are 75% gone, and I do see progress with UC. I figure another hour or so and 10 more applications of UC and I'll be ready for NTX.

5) how many applications of UC were needed to remove the NTX?

6) Is NTX the proper protectorant or will this happen again?

Any help would be apprciated.

[Daddy]

Re: Water Etching from washing another car

It rained Thursday and I got more water spots, big ones this time.

Then we had two days of Sun and now the spots are mostly gone, and so are the original spots.

Whats happening?

[Eddie6th]

Re: Water Etching from washing another car

So, while spending some time working with the polisher, I came up with some questions that I hope can be answered here.

1) What happened? If the surface is protected by NTX, how could the paint be etched? The mustang has been in rain and I also have washed the Mustang since waxing it and have not seen any water spots.

Probably the spots were left unoticed and allowed to dry and left hard deposits.

2) Is there something in the Crystal Car Wash that reacted with the NTX to cause this? Do I need to be sure not to wash a car near another car?

As far as I know,none of the Meguiar's shampoo's have any adverse effects when used while washing over NXT.

3) Why did the trunk lid clean up so easily but the spoiler have this problem? Was this caused by the remaining oxidation?

Can you provide some pics of the rear spoiler? Is the spoiler original? I don't know if there is any difference with the material of the spoiler....plastic,fibreglass?

4) Should I have been using a stronger product? What can I find in the retail stores (consumer line?) without going to a polishing compound (rocks)? The spots are 75% gone, and I do see progress with UC. I figure another hour or so and 10 more applications of UC and I'll be ready for NTX.

Seems you are using an awful lot of UC.I wouldn't look for anything heavier.There was a post a couple of nights ago regarding bad water spot contamination.I'll see if I can find it.

5) how many applications of UC were needed to remove the NTX?

I'm not sure what is meant by this question? I would think going over once would remove it.

6) Is NTX the proper protectorant or will this happen again?

I don't think this is the problem.

Any help would be apprciated.

[Eddie6th]

Re: Water Etching from washing another car

It rained Thursday and I got more water spots, big ones this time.

Then we had two days of Sun and now the spots are mostly gone, and so are the original spots.

Whats happening?

Some pics would help here.

[Eddie6th]

Re: Water Etching from washing another car

Read through this post,and the links posted within.

Does this situation resemble your predicament?

another water spot problem

[Daddy]

Re: Water Etching from washing another car

Thanks for your reply. To respond to your responses:

1) What happened? If the surface is protected by NTX, how could the paint be etched? The mustang has been in rain and I also have washed the Mustang since waxing it and have not seen any water spots.

Probably the spots were left unoticed and allowed to dry and left hard deposits.

I was trying to polish them out about 3 hours after the surface was wet. The original post describes other efforts.


3) Why did the trunk lid clean up so easily but the spoiler have this problem? Was this caused by the remaining oxidation?

Can you provide some pics of the rear spoiler? Is the spoiler original? I don't know if there is any difference with the material of the spoiler....plastic,fibreglass?

I took some pictures after the washing and my try to post them. Like I said, what was remaining of those spots is virtually gone as are the rain spots from Thursday. This was after the car sat in the Sun for a few days. This is why I am really baffled.

I am not sure what material the spoiler is composed of. I assume, however, it is the same paint as the rest of the car.



5) how many applications of UC were needed to remove the NTX?

I'm not sure what is meant by this question? I would think going over once would remove it.

If there is a fresh coat of NTX, how much effort with UC is used to just remove the wax befor one is working on the clear coat?

[Daddy]

Re: Water Etching from washing another car

I washed, then used UC, SwirlX on Monday evening. Then washed, clayed, then SwirlX and Cleaner Wax the spoiler Tuesday evening.

It happened again.
We got rain on Wednesday night. Thursday night (last night) when I got home there were white blotches on the spoiler, none on the car, just the spoiler. Blotches were big like water had coagulated then dried in various spots. No, I didn't get pictures.

I wanted to see if they would disappear again if left alone, so I detailed the inside of the car instead. Sure enough, they were not there this morning when I walked past the car.

I guess this is something I'll have to live with?