Terrible water spots!

[sixsix]

So I just bought my wife a new car today, a tuxedo black ford expedition, and it is covered in water spots. Not just a little bit either, I'm talking the entire thing. Didn't notice them too bad when we were looking at it but the car was really dirty, but once they brought it around after they cleaned it up I almost fainted when I saw it. They want me to bring it back and let their "detail guy" fix it, but I'm really weary about letting them touch it.

So what I'm wondering is if carpro spottless would take care of the majority of them. I just finished polishing the glass with some mothers water spot remover and I had trouble getting them all out of the glass. Here are a couple of pics. The whole car pretty much looks like this...

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Looks like the truck was parked near a sprinkler system. I'm sure the dealership needs nice green grass...

I would start by reading this Mike Phillips Post first on the 3 types of Water Spots.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...-type-iii.html


You should try to remove them before their "detail guy" makes an attempt, or find a reputable detailer. The idea would be to do a test spot using the techniques outlined in the article before attempting the whole car.

As Mike states in this article: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ter-spots.html
1.) I would first use Pinnacle Paint Cleansing Lotion. I would apply (non machine) with a MF Applicator, as Mike Shows. That should remove these if they're Type I & Type II. See how that looks.

2.) Do a test spot using your favorite polish (for me that's Menz SF4500 or Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish) by machine and make sure it can remove any scratches and swirls. If that doesn't finish out how you like, do another test spot with a more aggressive pad and favorite compound (for me that's Pinnacle Swirl & Scratch Remover, Pinnacle Advanced Compound or Menz FG400). Your test spots will require which product and pad before you end up doing the whole car.

3.) Finish off with your favorite LSP or coating.

For the windows, try Pinnacle Glass Works with Water Spot Remover. This is best applied by machine. If that doesn't get rid of the water spots, you may have to go with CarPro CeriGlass.

Judging by the look of it, I think you'll be just fine with a cleanser followed by a finishing polish.
Please keep us updated.

[sixsix]

I tried Wolfgang finishing glaze by hand on the tailgate just to see if it would do anything and they didn't budge. That's why I was wondering if the carpro spottless would work. I'd rather go around the whole thing with a liquid vrs a compounding step and a polishing step. I do have some pinnacle cleansing lotion so I'll try that but I don't have much faith in it. I am gonna have to polish the whole car any way cause it does have some light swirling.

Also this car has been on the lot for a while so no telling how long these things have been baking into the paint.

[medicscott]

Try some surface cleaning polish with a minimal cut pad. Spotless on an entire car will drive you crazy as you'll have holograms and probably some surface scratches from having to put some muscle into it. The black label stuff is mild with no cut and it's super simple to apply with machine and wipes off easy. Personally I'd stay far away from the cleansing lotion. That stuff is awful IMO.

[KneeDragr]

They look bad, like spend the weekend with a buffer and uber compound.

[GSKR]

I tried Wolfgang finishing glaze by hand on the tailgate just to see if it would do anything and they didn't budge. That's why I was wondering if the carpro spottless would work. I'd rather go around the whole thing with a liquid vrs a compounding step and a polishing step. I do have some pinnacle cleansing lotion so I'll try that but I don't have much faith in it. I am gonna have to polish the whole car any way cause it does have some light swirling.

Also this car has been on the lot for a while so no telling how long these things have been baking into the paint.

chemical will do the job,avoid polishes and glazes that will hide the spots.

[DaveT435]

CarPro Spotless. I've only used it on coated paint, but easily removed the spots and left the coating in tact. This was my daughters car that got hit by a sprinkler system three times a week for months. It was a mess!!!

[mwoolfso]

My daughter's Hyundai Elantra is a water spot magnet. Menzerna SF4000 did the trick and amped up the gloss in a very big way.

A water spot remover wasn't doing the trick at all; maybe 10% benefit. So what I figured was that the paint was so soft the water spots didn't have much of a problem going deep into the paint. My VW is in the same parking area and water spots are not a problem; further validating the perspective I have.

General rule of thumb I follow now is soft paint we go straight to a polish. Hard paint and a water spot remover would be a good start. However, there not being much of a difference between a good water spot remover and a good cleaning polish like Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing lotion.... I'd stick with the latter unless I was a professional and needed the variety of products.

[Paul A.]

I tried a little experiment a few years ago and it actually worked out pretty good. I will admit at the outset, i tried several things and i do mean several things before resorting to what i did.

I had a female customer who had her side of the driveway just pound her passenger side with the sprinkler system...nightly for months, maybe years. It was absolutely the worst case of water spotting i have ever encountered and much worse than your pix, sixsix. In addition to severe water spots the paint underneath was hacked, swirled and downright atrocious needing some serious correction anyway so i broke out my rotary, some microwave warmed white distilled vinegar (in a spray bottle) and a white LC pad. Sprayed the pad, the panels and worked the warm vinegar with my rotary. I also took a WWMF towel, soaked it in the warm vinegar and layed it on the panels to let it work a bit on the spots before trying to cut them off with my rotary.

I will admit too that i was a bit concerned about breaking off some of the calcified deposits and turning, spinning and scarring the paint with the machine but it worked well. I then was able to cut, buff and polish the paint after and it turned out phenomenal.

I was just trying to think outside the box a bit and out of exasperation at their tenacious, super glued resistance!

[David Hayward]

You can try spotless but I usually end up having to go with some type of polish. You may want to try a cleaner wax all in one type deal like meguiars d151.