Hard Water Stains

[bgandy]

One of my workers has been parking his white company truck where his lawn sprinklers can hit it. Over the course of the last few months it his turned one side of his truck an orange color. Any ideas on how to remove this?

[h_bomm]

Re: Hard Water Stains

One of the guys on the forum has been saying a lot of good things about a product called "trix". It's a tar and iron remover and since his truck is turning orange I'm gonna assume that it is rust in the water. I personally have not used the product but I have seen a demo on it on some tar and it was literally spray on, wait a few seconds, and wipe off, pretty amazing. I guess that's where I would start, hope this helps! Good Luck!

[Murr1525]

Re: Hard Water Stains

Yeah, if it is rust, IronX ir TRIX is a good idea... I used IronX and really liked it.

[Nezil]

Re: Hard Water Stains

If it is rust, then the recommendations above are great, but I wouldn't be so sure... The water where I live in Northern California is very hard, and leaves crazy water spots if you don't dry your car super quickly. It too leaves orange marks after a time, though I'm fairly sure it isn't rust. The bath and shower tray in my house are stained orange from whatever this is, and it's also pretty seriously rough to the touch.

I'd be fairly concerned about polishing this kind of surface contaminant off, and I'd even be worried about claying the vehicle since whatever it is might be highly abrasive itself.

If it were me, I'd probably also (in addition to the IronX and TRIX mentioned above) try something designed for removing water spots. I might even try a solution of vinegar or lemon juice to see how that goes. I'd be wanting to rinse these harsh chemicals off pretty quickly, but the idea would be to melt off the contaminants rather than scrub them off.