Water spot help!

[Sjbiss]

Hi everyone,

Newbie here and am thankful for all the info posted on this site. I have terrible water spots on my vehicle doors that keep coming back despite using several water spot removers and compounding. Ironically the horizontal surfaces are fine. The water spots are faint and can only be seen in the sun or under my LED garage lights and don’t have the typical white color, they are basically clear. I have read about the 3 types of water spots from other posts but I don’t understand why compounding removes them but then they come back about a week later. I’m thinking about trying the Valugard ABC method but I’m just looking for anything that can permanently get rid of them. The odd thing is I wash with distilled water and ONR and it is winter so there are no sprinklers. I’m not sure if the road salt caused them or how they got there.

thanks for your help.

[Bill D]

I think ABC definitely might be worth a shot. If not, got to keep on trying different water spot removers. I don’t think they are all created the same. I’d hate to suggest wet sanding for something so slight. My dad had it done on his ‘vette and eventually it led to the start of clear coat failure so best to go with the least aggressive method first.

[Sjbiss]

Thanks Bill, appreciate the quick response. Any idea why they go away and come back? Also, any recommendation on a water spot remover that you think works. I’ll try them all if I have to :-).

[Bill D]

I’m only familiar with ABC as I never had to deal with bad waterspotting. Whatever contaminant that was in the water probably lodged itself deep in the clear and the products you’ve used so far don’t go deep enough to purge them. Therefore they just come back. ABC is supposed to purge them. I’m sure others can recommend a good water spot remover. If you have to try all them, I hear you, it might be worth it if you can eliminate the spots for good.

[DetailedByPrecision]

what brand water spot removers have you used? What brand compound, tool, pad are you using? When doing a test spot with the water spot remover, does it help at all?

[Sjbiss]

what brand water spot removers have you used? What brand compound, tool, pad are you using? When doing a test spot with the water spot remover, does it help at all?

I have used Optimum, Meguires and Detail King water spot removers. I have been able to remove the spots with Optimum Compound II and Meguires M110 and a Lake Country orange pad using PC7424xp. They go away after compounding but come back.

[DetailedByPrecision]

All the spots that can come off with the water spot remover were the ones where a wash cant touch it. The remaining water spots are deeper in a sense that it cant be chemically removed. The next step you took is the right approach. You mentioned the spots coming back, is this within 1hr or couple hrs or overnight? When compounding an area try to work in a 12x12 section and not heat up the section too much to mask the defects. No more than speed 5. Clean your pad on the fly or swap pads as well. I have had to resort to wetsanding before to fully remove waterspots. 3k grit is a good starting point.

[Sjbiss]

All the spots that can come off with the water spot remover were the ones where a wash cant touch it. The remaining water spots are deeper in a sense that it cant be chemically removed. The next step you took is the right approach. You mentioned the spots coming back, is this within 1hr or couple hrs or overnight? When compounding an area try to work in a 12x12 section and not heat up the section too much to mask the defects. No more than speed 5. Clean your pad on the fly or swap pads as well. I have had to resort to wetsanding before to fully remove waterspots. 3k grit is a good starting point.

Thank you. The water spots return about a week later. I can tell by the pattern they are the same ones. When I compound/polish I spray with Erasure after to make sure the polishing oils aren’t hiding anything’s. Guess I will have to go after them a bit more, I just don’t know how to tell if I got them for good or if they will come back.

[DetailedByPrecision]

Give it another try. Go straight speed 5 with the orange pad and m110. After you see the compound starting to dry out, stop, wipe off residue, and use eraser to check your work. If it was done right, the defects should be removed permanently.

[Sjbiss]

I’ll give it another go, thanks for your help. Will report back with hopefully good news