crawfish333

Or "Black Vettes and hard water don't mix."

I was finally able to get rid of the hard water spots on the hood of my C5 after a couple of experiments.

1. I started by using a clay bar. This helped a little, but I could still see most of the water spots.
2. Went to Auto Zone to buy some rubbing compound. After reading the label on the stuff, it kind of spooked me. I was concerned it would remove the clear coat.
3. Saw a product called "Meguires Scatch X Fine Scratch and Swirl Remover." Brought it home and applied the stuff and buffed it off, bingo all of the water stains disappear! This stuff brought my hood paint back to as clear as ever. I then applied a coat of Zainos and the hood is beautiful, again.

Anyway, this Scratch X stuff seems to work pretty well.

bugman

yup -- Meguiars Scratch X is perfect for water spots that are reasonably new. And very safe for your clear coat. keep it around.

And definitely keep your C6 in the garage. Once you let those spots really bake in the sun, you can do a bit of damage.

crawfish333

My Vette is a C5. She lives in my garage. I only drive her on weekends and at night, she is not the DD. Now I still don't know what to do about washing the car. The community well water is so hard that the Mr. Clean thing does not work very well. I might have to look into a water sofener or purification system. In the meantime, I guess I'll have to use a touch free car wash.

KLO

Do not forget, that after you use a product like Scratch X you will have to wash that area with Dawn or use some other kind of wax and grease remover like alcohol before you reapply the Zaino as Zaino as always can and will only bond to bare paint.

BTW, Zaino has a new product called ZPC which is a swirl remover and paint cleanser that would have probably taken care of the water spots. And when using ZPC you do not have to reclean the paint with Dawn or alcohol after using ZPC before you go to Z-2 or Z-5.

TOGWT

You could try this-
Water Hose Filtration:
a)Utilizing standard filter cartridges (9.75-inch x 2.5-inch) housed in a clear polyethylene filter cartridge, which allows you to see when the cartridge requires replacement. Filter connections are standard ¾-inch hosepipe fittings; unit is complete with a filter-housing wrench to replace cartridges and a wall-mounting bracket

To provide spot-free vehicle washing and to remove hard water minerals, unit can be fitted with a sodium cartridge, PW-SOF, which uses standard water softening sodium (salt), with a life span of approx. 90-gallons (dependant upon water chemical content)

The sodium resin cartridge can be regenerated indefinitely using readily available water softening sodium (salt). Place the used cartridge in a container with the water softening sodium / water solution and soak for 12-hours or more. The salt will displace the calcium replacing it with sodium. With two filter cartridges you can use one while the other is in the regenerating solution.

Filters available: Sodium (PW-SOF) standard softener resin removes hard water chemicals, Calcite cartridge. (PW-CAL) to neutralize the pH value and a one-micron carbon block (KX-1) for Chorine removal
Garden Hose Filters
JonM

ETM

Back when I bought my first Vette the 80 I lived in an apartment.They used to run the sprinklers on my car all night long.All over the front end about halfway up the hood.Talk about hard water! Those spots were brutal.I found myself buffing off those spots every weekend.I did use Scratch X it was good stuff.It took a couple of months of complaining about it before they adjusted the sprinklers.
It seemed like my Vette was the only one being sprayed

bugman

Hmmm --
if the only water on your car is the water from washing, I can't believe it would be that much of a problem. My water comes from a well, not processed at all, plenty of minerals in it.
But all I have to do is make sure that the car doesn't dry while I'm working on it. Just move around the car quickly, washing and rinsing one panel at a time, but then keep hosing off the entire car every few minutes to be sure no single drop anywhere has a chance to dry. Then when the whole car is clean, do the trick with the open hose:

take the spray nozzle OFF the hose, let the water just cascade down each part of the car. the water will sheet up, and fall off the car leaving few or no droplets at all.

Then you have very little water to dry off. You'll get no spots at all.

50yrzo6

Bugman hit the nail on the head. Same situation here, well water/very hard plus a black car. I had struggled w/ water spots till I tried the sheeting method of rinsing and rinsing that way often. I was shocked the first time I did it at how few water spots I had left after drying.

Gary

crawfish333

During the summer down here in Louisiana , it is 100+ degree during daytime and still 90+ in the evening. The water begins to dry almost as soon as it hits the car. I use the "dry as you go" method. It works during the early spring, winter and fall, but not in the summer. Another problem is overspray when rinsing.