[1969GTO]

my car is RED, it's a base coat clear coat.
I washed it with car soap,out of the sun in the shade.
I guess I have hard water?
Now the car has water spots all over it.
I did towel dry the car,but the spots are there.
What's the best way to rid the car of water spots?

[webfoot]

Welcome to my world. Next time you wash, get one of those california waterblades and squeege the water off immediately, then towel dry panel by panel as you go.

I have had good success removing the spots with meguiars ultimate compound. It takes quite a bit of elbow grease to get the spots out.

[Sirrotica]

White vinegar will remove most all trace minerals, wet a rag with it and wipe over the spots and then wipe the vinegar off. It should get rid of the spots, I have the same trouble where I live and it spots the car terribly along with the window glass.

The Mr. Clean car wash system that was real popular a few years ago has a cartridge in it that removes minerals from the water for the final rinse, problem is finding the cartridges anymore.

One other solution to this problem I have thought about but not yet tried is catching water in a rain barrel because it contains no minerals and rinsing the car with that. Some places in the US give you rebates for the plastic rain barrels to keep the rain out of the sewer system so they're not overloaded after a rain storm. The rain barrels are pretty pricey, nothing one of those industrial blue plastic barrels or a garbage can couldn't be used for too. The real rain barrels have a faucet to connect a hose to, nothing that couldn't be done with a few parts from HD.

[Verdoro 68]

Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I'd be hesitant to put vinegar on my paint even if it's diluted.

Like Jeremy mentioned, a Meguiar's polish can get rid of the spots but it will take a lot of elbow grease if you are doing it by hand.

This might be overkill, but my recommendation would be to invest in a multispeed Porter Cable orbital polisher, a few good foam pads and some polishing compounds. I originally bought the polisher for my '04 GTO, but I use it on all our cars. It's turned out to be a great investment for easily keeping things looking great.

I've been using Adam's polishes lately, just because it's easy to keep the compounds and pads straight the color of the compound goes with the same color pad. Their swirl and haze remover should do the trick with the water spots if they aren't too bad. I usually start with that, then do a pass with machine polish and finally their Americana wax. A good wax or sealant should keep the water spots from returning.

I've heard Menzerna intensive polish is also very good. I've used a few 3M and Chemical Guys products in the past with good results. If you have a body shop supply place locally, you can show them the spots on your car and they can hook you up with a compound that will get rid of them.

[jetdoc]

I have a black car and I live in the desert on a community well which has very hard water around 1260 PPM, I bought a system from Spotless system that works great, I can wash it in the sun and just let it dry without touching it. Little pricey but worth every penny. Mark

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by Verdoro 68

Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I'd be hesitant to put vinegar on my paint even if it's diluted.

Like Jeremy mentioned, a Meguiar's polish can get rid of the spots but it will take a lot of elbow grease if you are doing it by hand.

This might be overkill, but my recommendation would be to invest in a multispeed Porter Cable orbital polisher, a few good foam pads and some polishing compounds. I originally bought the polisher for my '04 GTO, but I use it on all our cars. It's turned out to be a great investment for easily keeping things looking great.

I've been using Adam's polishes lately, just because it's easy to keep the compounds and pads straight the color of the compound goes with the same color pad. Their swirl and haze remover should do the trick with the water spots if they aren't too bad. I usually start with that, then do a pass with machine polish and finally their Americana wax. A good wax or sealant should keep the water spots from returning.

I've heard Menzerna intensive polish is also very good. I've used a few 3M and Chemical Guys products in the past with good results. If you have a body shop supply place locally, you can show them the spots on your car and they can hook you up with a compound that will get rid of them.

A discussion from the board Autotopia, about using full strength vinegar to remove water spots on paint. I've used it on my own car, but I know that that wouldn't be good enough to prove the point that it's perfectly safe to use on paint. They discuss other means also, point being is full strength vinegar will not hurt paint.

Link to topic; http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-det...gar-clean.html

[Verdoro 68]

How about that. I've heard of using it to get spots off of glass but never would have thought it could be ok on paint.

[1969GTO]

found that Mr. Clean car wash kit online.
Gonna give that a try,rewash and use the[ionizer filter] to rince.

[Mr_GTO]

Www.autogeek.net. forums. Search for water spots. You're welcome.

[Sirrotica]

Vinegar is a lot cheaper than anything they're selling at auto geek, and can be bought at any grocery store probably works better too. Your car, your money, your decision.

The Mr. Clean car wash works well for me, the only shortcoming is the filters don't last very long and can be a little hard to find.

[1969GTO]

so with the vinegar,I guess you could make a salid and clean your car?
I am thinking with the Mr. Clean lasting,as often as I was my GTO [not very] it should last a couple of years.
I mostly dust the car off with a duster and the car is a fair weather car and garge kept.

[Sirrotica]

Filters might last 5 washes, just figure from that how long they'll last your situation.

[1969GTO]

Looking forward to it, system is coming from Cali.

[carcrazy]

As previously noted, Porter Cable 7424 orbital buffer with the right pads. Menzerna intensive polish is outstanding.

[Half-Inch Stud]

I " discovered" that my cheap bottle of window cleaner ( blue liquid) clears hard-water spots WHILE spray& wiping in the hot sun.

The black paint comes up clean, glossy & so slippery that the spray bottle won't stay on any of the surfaces.

[Birdguy]

One idea that comes to mind is to use an Ortho hose-end sprayer. Fill the bottle with water-softener crystals, top it off with water, set the dial on whatever seems to work best and spray away.

I haven't tried it because we don't have hard water problems here, but it sure seems like it would work like a charm. If it doesn't, you're only out $15 or so.

[4GTOSplus]

Water soften crystals are salt, not a good idea unless you want your car to look like it came from the northeast.

[Birdguy]

You are right. I guess I was thinking of those units that use other types of salt that don't cause corrosion. They use potassium chlorite instead. Looking around I saw where they are available from Costo among others.

Good catch!

[PontGuy]

The Mr. Clean rinse system works great. No spots. And the special soap that comes with the kit isn't needed. I just hand wash as usual and do the final rinse with the filtered water. Our water here is not very hard so the refill cartridges last a lot longer than 5 washes. Been milking the last cartridge I installed for a few years now, and went ahead and invested in a couple more since they are out of production. The Lemans is the only car that gets the special treatment so I should be good for at least for a few more years. If there is nothing similar on the market by the time my last cartridge is used up then I'll probably invest in one of the more expensive filtration systems.

[webfoot]

I haven't tried the vinegar thing yet but am going to use it on the wifes car. She parks next to the underground sprinklers and the one side of her car is nothing but a big water spot.

Between the wind and the hard water, the sprinkler water gets spots on everything around here.