Bad Water Spots

[Sam N.]

So i went out of town for about a week a little over a week ago and when i left i aparently parked my car next to a sprinkler that sprayed all over my car the whole time i was gone. so when i got back i was a little irritated but i didn't think to much of it. figured it would be ok and should wash off pretty easy. well aparently i didn't really think it all the way through because when i tried to wash them off two days ago i realized i was in a bad spot. so i tried clay and some griots machine polish number 3 by hand that i had sitting around. well it didn't do anything. so next i looked around online and saw people saying that letting a vinegar solution soak on it might help. so i tried that and then i tried just straight vinegar. neither did anything.

so where that leaves me is i have a car with the front half covered in bad waterspots and no good way to get them off that i can find because i don't have a rotary or da nor do i have access to one. i'm also going to be moving from tucson, az to fort collins colorado in about a month and really would like to get a good paint sealant on before i have to take the car near the snow and such.

So, anyone have any great solutions for me or at least some helpful advise? Money is a little tight for me right now with the move coming up so i need to stay very money concious in how i do this.

so here are some pictures of it to give you and idea of how bad they are especially considering the fairly short time frame.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/3009062989_afbda0e897.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3293/3009900046_a9ff34b30f.jpg?v=0

thanks in advance for any help

-Sam

[charliehaley]

I think it has etched the paint will probably need to be polished out wit a machine. I know a porter cable could do it but since money is tight it probably isnt in the budget right now. You may have to just seal it and wait till you have the money to buy a PC. You might also see if there are any nice members in your area that would let you borrow their PC or even do it for you for a small charge.

[Sam N.]

yeah i'm pretty sure that it is etched. i've been calling around to see if anyone rents stuff like that but all i've found are true rotaries which i'm still kinda scared of and not sure that i'm ready to make the jump from pc to rotary. btw i've used a pc many times on a few different cars i've just never had to take off anything this significant so i'm wondering if the pc would be up for the job.

[Emile]

Did you try a pre-wax cleaner/polish that is designed to remove water spots? P21S Paintwork Cleansing Lotion or Poorboy's World Professional Polish?

The problem with sprinklers is that many sprinklers use well water as their water supply. Well water is typically very hard and when left to dry up on the paint, becomes very difficult to remove.

[Sam N.]

well to follow up on this i drove up to phoenix to my grandpa's to see if he could help me. so we kinda fumbled our way through it using his rotary and some polishes that we had between the two of us. so ended up using i think it was meguiars diamond cut followed by griots machine polish number 3.

so i found that between the car living the most of its life outside in the arizona sun i'm assuming with no wax and then it having been detailed by a dealer before i bought it that the clear was pretty much non-existant. so i didn't go through the clear but on the front half of the hood i started to get the little marks that i'm pretty sure mean the clearcoat is failing.

so i was able to take most of the water spots off but not all. kinda dissapointed but don't really think there is anything else i can do aside from a respray of clear on the front half of the car. oh well its a 10 year old car i can't really expect perfection i guess. unless someone else has a brilliant idea :)

and so finally i have some pictures of what it looked like after.

btw i went over the whole car after with KAIO and collinite 845

[ScottB]

vinegar --- polishing --- wetsanding

unfortunately the minerals and content of water (alot of sprinklers use well water and contain Calcium, Lime, and Rust). Vinegar removes only recent spots. Polishing with a machine should remove most within a reasonable time. Unfortunately those etched into paint need wetsanding to remove in most cases.

[Sam N.]

i ended up polishing as much of it out as i could. unfortunatly my clear is very thin so i started to see signs of the clear coat failing before i could completely get rid of the water spots.