Here in Los Angeles I have always had a terrible time with water spots. If I didn't wash in the early morning or at dusk I couldn't get a large vehicle (Explorer) dried fast enough to avoid spotting.
So when the Mr Clean Autodry came out I got one. It worked weel enough but it took forever too "wash" all the hose water off the car with the filtered water. And the filters seemed to die after three washes. Pretty expensive just to be able to do a sloppy dry job!
So I ordered this filter assembly : http://www.pwgazette.com/gardenhosefilters.htm
with this cartridge:http://www.pwgazette.com/softeningcartridge.htm
So now that I had them it was time to do a test.
The victim; a friends dark blue 1998 VW Jetta. This poor car had been badly keyed two years ago. At first I thought that the body shop had done a great job. The Paint matched perfectly! But after one year of being parked outside the paint still looked great but you could see horrible sanding marks under the new paint! My friends really didn't care but it drives me crazy! So the least I could do for them was polish it up a bit.
Used the makita rotary with #84, then Porter Cable DA with #83 and finished up with #9 and two coats of NXT. It looked and felt great! The sanding marks under the paint are still visible at some angles but much less noticeable.
On to the test. I taped three sections off on the trunk. The one on the left got filtered water from the SOF filter. The middle was plain hose water. And the right end got water from the Mr Clean Autodry.
I filled three one quart glasses with water from each source. It took three seconds to get that much water out of the SOF filter and about 45 seconds from the Mr Clean Autodry. I used three MF towels to apply the water so I would get an even coating and not get spillover from one sample to the next. The test was done out in the sun and the surface temperature was 147.2 degrees.
I let the water dry for a full 30 min then tried to take picures of the tests. I'll try to post them below. But in case they don't come up I will describe the results. All three samples had lots of water spots! At first glance it looked like both filters failed miserably! But then I started looking at the spots with a magnifier. Both the SOF and Mr Clean Autodry looked 2D while the plain hose water had a 3D look to them.So I got out the quick detail and three more MF towels. Each sample got five squirts and were wiped front to back until the surface was dry. ALL the water spots came off the SOF and MR Clean Autodry samples but the hose water sample had etched looking rings and visible and "feelable" residue left over. It may be that what looked like water spots on the SOF and the MR Clean Autodry was dust that had fallen on them before they had dried out completely. Later I'll try some vinegar to remove them but I can always go back to the DA with 81, 82, or 83.
The first picture is of the scratches under the paint.
So when the Mr Clean Autodry came out I got one. It worked weel enough but it took forever too "wash" all the hose water off the car with the filtered water. And the filters seemed to die after three washes. Pretty expensive just to be able to do a sloppy dry job!
So I ordered this filter assembly : http://www.pwgazette.com/gardenhosefilters.htm
with this cartridge:http://www.pwgazette.com/softeningcartridge.htm
So now that I had them it was time to do a test.
The victim; a friends dark blue 1998 VW Jetta. This poor car had been badly keyed two years ago. At first I thought that the body shop had done a great job. The Paint matched perfectly! But after one year of being parked outside the paint still looked great but you could see horrible sanding marks under the new paint! My friends really didn't care but it drives me crazy! So the least I could do for them was polish it up a bit.
Used the makita rotary with #84, then Porter Cable DA with #83 and finished up with #9 and two coats of NXT. It looked and felt great! The sanding marks under the paint are still visible at some angles but much less noticeable.
On to the test. I taped three sections off on the trunk. The one on the left got filtered water from the SOF filter. The middle was plain hose water. And the right end got water from the Mr Clean Autodry.
I filled three one quart glasses with water from each source. It took three seconds to get that much water out of the SOF filter and about 45 seconds from the Mr Clean Autodry. I used three MF towels to apply the water so I would get an even coating and not get spillover from one sample to the next. The test was done out in the sun and the surface temperature was 147.2 degrees.
I let the water dry for a full 30 min then tried to take picures of the tests. I'll try to post them below. But in case they don't come up I will describe the results. All three samples had lots of water spots! At first glance it looked like both filters failed miserably! But then I started looking at the spots with a magnifier. Both the SOF and Mr Clean Autodry looked 2D while the plain hose water had a 3D look to them.So I got out the quick detail and three more MF towels. Each sample got five squirts and were wiped front to back until the surface was dry. ALL the water spots came off the SOF and MR Clean Autodry samples but the hose water sample had etched looking rings and visible and "feelable" residue left over. It may be that what looked like water spots on the SOF and the MR Clean Autodry was dust that had fallen on them before they had dried out completely. Later I'll try some vinegar to remove them but I can always go back to the DA with 81, 82, or 83.
The first picture is of the scratches under the paint.
