Question regarding waterspots

[Andys@Auto-Clean]

Hello all,
Ok i have this issue.hood is resprayed.i washed, clayed , compound and polished(m105, m205) and then seal it with m21 and top it with wax.all the waterspots were removed ,most of the scratches were gone except the really deep ones with the mt320.after a week i had a mainenance topping the mercedes clk200 with wax again.now a month later the customer returns with a car full with water spots and etched bugs e.t.c.my question is since i did all the neccesary procedures to protect the car is it possible the water from sprinkles to passed through all this protection?i am really frustrated since i had a really difficult time getting the scratches and water spots out the first time.i used m105/orange LC pad with m205/white LC pad and hand applied sealant and wax.
Any help would be much appreciated
Thanks,
Andreas

[Top Gear]

Re: Question regarding waterspots

...now a month later the customer returns with a car full with water spots and etched bugs e.t.c

Question is, what happened in that month?? They probably sprayed of the car many times and let the beads air dry, thus allowing water spots to form, didn't get the bugs off the front, etc, etc.

[Andys@Auto-Clean]

Re: Question regarding waterspots

This is what i thought.There is no way it could penetrate that easily.Probably the water also contains too much salt minerals?

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Question regarding waterspots

Some water contains huge amounts of minerals and other deposits that can and will etch paint, sometimes rather quickly. Many municipal sprinkler systems use reclaimed water, which is not drinkable due to the heavy level of contaminants in it - the plants and grass being watered don't mind, but your body would if you drank it, and you car's paint doesn't like it much either if it's allowed to dry on the surface and the resulting deposits then bake in the sun.

That you had recently applied both M21 and a carnauba wax is no guarantee that such nasty deposits in water will not harm the paint. Keep in mind that an application of ANY wax or sealant (even coatings!) is on the order of dozens of nanometers in thickness (thinness, really). This thickness is a fraction of a micron, and factory clear coat is roughly 125 microns thick. So think about this: if the minerals and acids in reclaimed water (or even just the minerals in "hard" water that is commonly found in city drinking water) can actually etch your paint (and they most certainly can), it's not going to be stopped by a wax/sealant/coating that is fractions of a micron thick. Yes, even coatings can and will fail under extreme situations - I saw this several times in my brief visit to Malaysia and China where coatings have been in use for far longer than they have been in the US and Europe.

[Andys@Auto-Clean]

Re: Question regarding waterspots

Wow very informative reply Sir,thank you very much!i already explained to him a few things and now i can be more condifent about my answer.He told me that his father just spritz the car because he thought it was a bit dirty and never wiped it off during noon also.So now i have to think how much to charge him?!