Whats your favorite water spot removal tips & tricks?

ronmart

New member
While I was working on my black Benz today my kids kept distracting me so I managed to get some nice water spots all over the roof and trunk of the car. :furious: :grrr :aww:



In the past when this has happened my solution has been to break out the orbital and Griots Machine Polish 3 to get rid of it, but now that I'm visiting this forum I thought I'd ask people here for their suggestions.



I tried Klasse AIO today and it helped get rid of about 75% of the spots, but it didn't get rid of them all.



What do you guys do when you have this happen on a dark car? (and yes, I know it is best to avoid this by doing one panel at a time and staying out of the sun... but sometimes **** happens).



Any pearls of wisdom on how to solve this problem (not prevent it) that can keep me from having to fire up the orbital would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,

Ron
 
if you just have waterspots leftover from washing the car, a simple quick detailing session will solve your issues.



it doesn't sound to me like these waterspots are those kind though. Even after AIO'ing the finish, water spots are still present. This leads me to believe that what you're actually seeing aren't waterspots, but instead, etched clearcoat in the shape of a waterspot. The only way to get these out is to use an abrasive polish on the spots until the clearcoat levels out around it.
 
I dont know if this is irrelevant or not.. but I got some water spots on my car just last week.. water was there for about 4 hours after i washed.. (sprinkler). I went right at it with AIO.. that didnt work.. So I went out and grabbed some Vinegar.. didnt work either.. So I put some on some nuba.. then went to sleep an unhappy camper.. (my PC is 400 miles away)..



I park outside, so my car gets dirty quick.. but when I washed my car 4 days later.. The water spots were gone.. dont know how.. Ive had bird etchings go away too.. dont.. know how.. (this is on a bmw steel gray 5 year old paint)



try everything nonabrasive on it.. if it doesnt work, wait a little before you polish it out. Never hurts (much) before your cut. It may just magically disappear..



if im crazy, im sorry.
 
It was driving me crazy, so I decided to use the orbital with Griots Machine Polish 4 which is an extrodinarily mild polish (its basically 40% Griots MP3 plus 60% Best of Show). That did the trick and got it out, but then since I was out there I decided to put a fresh coat of Klasse AIO and High Gloss Sealant as well as a coat of P21s Carnauba Wax. It was looking pretty spiffy before I put the P21s on, so I'm excited to see what it looks like after I pull it off later today.
 
justvisiting said:
i didnt even know there was a machine polish 4, shows what I know. (didja let let the KSG cure for the min. 12 hours? )



Machine Polish 4 (http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?&SKU=11091) just came out in late March. I actually got to see it before it was released when I visited Griots in Tacoma, WA and found out what it really is.



No, I've never heard that it needs to cure for 12 hours. It doesn't mention it on their web site (http://www.klasse-carcare.com/hgsg.html or http://www.klassesg.com/products_high_gloss.html) or on the directions either. I just let it dry and then remove it. Although I did goof and put too much in a couple areas so my arm is about to fall off now! :D



Overall the results are great! It looks like black glass (sadly it is raining outside so I can't take pics today). Here's what I applied:



Roof & Trunk

----------------

- Griots Machine Polish 4

- Klasse All-In-One

- Klasse High Gloss Sealant

- P21s Carnauba Wax



Hood

----------------

- Griots Machine Polish 3 (it had a few swirls in addition to the water spots)

- Klasse All-In-One

- Klasse High Gloss Sealant

- Griots Best of Show applied with a 7-1/2 inch, Constant Pressureâ„¢ German Polishing Pad which was FANTASTIC on hood because it helped with the rolled steel on the left and right sides

- P21s Carnauba Wax
 
Depends on the water spots. I've had them come right off using nothing but a damp chamos, and for others I've had to use a good cleaner polish to remove them. For getting them off the exterior glass, nothing works like Rain-X. It makes your glass look beautiful, and it puts a nice coat of protection on. I use it on all of my exterior glass.
 
grampi said:
Depends on the water spots. I've had them come right off using nothing but a damp chamos, and for others I've had to use a good cleaner polish to remove them. For getting them off the exterior glass, nothing works like Rain-X. It makes your glass look beautiful, and it puts a nice coat of protection on. I use it on all of my exterior glass.



Don't you notice the hazing / clouding that stuff causes afterwards ? I thought it was me or the bottle I purchased but the next bottle of RainX I used caused the very same thing. I applied it exactly as it said on the packaging but it caused clouding and hazing after a couple of days no matter if it rained or not... :mad:
 
Murat said:
Don't you notice the hazing / clouding that stuff causes afterwards ? I thought it was me or the bottle I purchased but the next bottle of RainX I used caused the very same thing. I applied it exactly as it said on the packaging but it caused clouding and hazing after a couple of days no matter if it rained or not... :mad:



Nope, never had any hazing issues with Rain-X. In fact, I've never had anything except beautiful windows using the stuff. I've never even had a problem when applying it in direct sunlight. You may not be wiping the residue completely off after you apply it. It takes a good deal of wiping to remove all the residue.
 
Will using a pure polish work on old water spots? I have a customer with a Holland and Holland edition Range Rover that we have tried a bunch of products and nothing has worked yet.
 
I had some brutal waterspots on a black Caddy SRX (it was really hot and I didn't have much time to dry it properly) so after it sat in the showroom for a while I took vinegar and microfiber and it looked great afterwards. :)
 
S Brake said:
Will using a pure polish work on old water spots? I have a customer with a Holland and Holland edition Range Rover that we have tried a bunch of products and nothing has worked yet.



You can try MrSelfDestruct's suggestion, but I doubt it will work. A last resort would be Klasse All-In-One, but I doubt that will fix your issue. It sounds like etching.



The way you fix it is with a orange foam pad on a random orbital polisher (Griots or Porter Cable are my favorites) with Griots Garage Machine Polish 3 or an equivalent. If they are bad you may have to do down to Machine Polish 2 (and then you still have to do 3 aftewards). It will get rid of them and make it look good as new again.
 
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