Bat Man

I've agreed to help out a friend while he is deployed, where we live on post we get hit with hard water sprinklers.

He has a black truck, and he's coming home soon, i said I'd do it before he got home. Had his wife buy the supplies, clay bar, and 3m rubbing compound.

I went out today to test to make sure I could get it off.

This was the process I used,
1) Spray clay bar lub (car wash/water) and do a quick clean of an area.
2) spray more, and use clay bar
3) let dry
4) got a bit of 3m rubbing compound and started rubbing over where I hit it with the clay
5) rubbed it clean

Now it got alot of the water spots off, but ALOT are still on there.

The area is pretty smooth to touch, but you can tell there is still waterspots.

Any ideas?

Bat Man

I want to say, that when I do his car for real, I will be doing this method
1) wash car
2) clay bar
3) wash car
4) 3m rubbing compound by way of buffer
5) wash car
6) polish

bretfraz

First thing you need to determine is if the spots are above surface or below surface.

Above surface water spots typically come from hard water. What you see are mineral deposits hardened on the paint surface. A compound is one way to remove them. Also try some vinegar (yes, vinegar) to dissolve the deposits. Vinegar is a mild acid (yes, an acid) that reacts with the deposits, releasing their bond with the paint. If that doesn't work, the truck may need more aggressive polishing by machine.

Below surface water spots are actually etchings in the paint caused by acid rain (there's that A word again). If you could see them with a magnifying glass, the paint surface would look like the surface of the moon, with all the craters and such. No amount of hand polishing is going to remove them. You will definitely need a machine polishing.... or more, depending on their severity.

Hopefully all the spots are above surface and with a few products and some elbow grease, they'll come out.

Black04Z06

Good Luck!

James92

The 3m compound with a wool pad should get out most everything. Wipe the spotted areas with white distilled vinegar first, let it sit for a couple minutes if it's warm out you may have to wipe it a couple times, the vinegar can dry before it works sometimes. After the vinegar has removed what it will, the compound should handle the rest. If not, you might want to try a little colorsanding with some 2,000 grit paper, the 3m compound will be able to remove the sanding marks when you're done.

0Killrwheels@Autogeek

water spots vary in degree from recent (often removed with vinegar), to medium ( polishing needed by machine) to etching paint (wetsanding needed). Unfortunately it comes down to minerals in water , environment, and how long they sat on the paint.