Ugh... Water Spots!

[agoldman]

For water spots on the glass roof, I used a bit of glass stove top polish, which seems to work pretty good.

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[generaltso]

Are those the water spots we’re talking about, or is this something worse?

Yes, those are the water spots we're talking about. But for me, it's not new water spots, it's water spots that were on the car when I bought it and won't come off. They're likely baked into the clear coat a bit. I have no doubt that a detailer can get them off, so I'll probably just do that.

 

[Mirak]

Yes, those are the water spots we're talking about. But for me, it's not new water spots, it's water spots that were on the car when I bought it and won't come off. They're likely baked into the clear coat a bit. I have no doubt that a detailer can get them off, so I'll probably just do that.

Ouch. That sucks. Yeah hopefully they’ll polish or claybar off. My one regret in terms of my own ownership actions so far was to not get my PPF and ceramic added earlier.

 

[Ponypower50]

I use a pure yellow wax #26 from Meguiar's. Comes in paste or liquid. I use it on all my cars including my restored 66 Mustang. This is pure wax with no cleaners to scratch the surface. It also takes away swirl marks.

 

[Jimrpa]

As I said, my detailer recognized them and was able to easily get them off, but he used special chemicals and a special process. Whatever - it looks great now ?

 

[Mirak]

I’ve never had water spots on my car that I couldn’t just remove by washing and drying the car. This is an interesting issue to hear about.

My detailer says the QuartzPlus ceramic that will be applied next week is only supposed to go on the paint and rims and plastic - not glass. He has some other glass treatment which is supposed to last around two years. It was only an extra $100 and there is a lot of glass on this car, so I added it. I dunno, we’ll see. My main objective with the ceramic was to make the car much easier and faster to clean - the whole “just spray it off” claim. I hope that ends up being true. If I still have to soap, wash, and shammy the car, the ceramic won’t give me a whole lotta benefit.

 

[generaltso]

I’ve never had water spots on my car that I couldn’t just remove by washing and drying the car. This is an interesting issue to hear about.

I haven't either...until now. It's likely from some acidic rain in Mexico that was left on the car and then baked in the sun for weeks. I'm going to take my car to a detailer later this afternoon.

 

[agoldman]

I also just tried some of the Ceramic Detailing Spray which seemed to work easily on the glass and shiny black areas paint spots, where normal cleaner didn't.

 

[generaltso]

I took my car to a detailer yesterday, and he confirmed that the water spots all over the car were particularly atrocious and not at all normal. He couldn't explain why they were so bad but said that it must have been some seriously hard or corrosive water that was left on the car at some point.

He was able to get them off with a couple different products and power buffing. If he stopped there, it would have been $150. But what he had already done would have been the same prep that would have been included in a ceramic coat, so I had him go ahead and ceramic coat the whole car for an additional $250. The results are astounding. Now the car shines like the Chrysler Building (which is ironic since it's a Ford).

Here's a before and after. The lighting is clearly different since it went from outside to in the garage, but you get the idea. It also shows how different the Infinite Blue looks in different light.

 

[Jimrpa]

I took my car to a detailer yesterday, and he confirmed that the water spots all over the car were particularly atrocious and not at all normal. He couldn't explain why they were so bad but said that it must have been some seriously hard or corrosive water that was left on the car at some point.

He was able to get them off with a couple different products and power buffing. If he stopped there, it would have been $150. But what he had already done would have been the same prep that would have been included in a ceramic coat, so I had him go ahead and ceramic coat the whole car for an additional $250. The results are astounding. Now the car shines like the Chrysler Building (which is ironic since it's a Ford).

Here's a before and after. The lighting is clearly different since it went from outside to in the garage, but you get the idea. It also shows how different the Infinite Blue looks in different light.

Yours look as awful as mine were and your detailer did a fantastic job. Yeah, infinite blue does look very different in different lights. I’m not too crazy about it under fluorescents.

 

[JMSMachE]

I took my car to a detailer yesterday, and he confirmed that the water spots all over the car were particularly atrocious and not at all normal. He couldn't explain why they were so bad but said that it must have been some seriously hard or corrosive water that was left on the car at some point.

He was able to get them off with a couple different products and power buffing. If he stopped there, it would have been $150. But what he had already done would have been the same prep that would have been included in a ceramic coat, so I had him go ahead and ceramic coat the whole car for an additional $250. The results are astounding. Now the car shines like the Chrysler Building (which is ironic since it's a Ford).

Here's a before and after. The lighting is clearly different since it went from outside to in the garage, but you get the idea. It also shows how different the Infinite Blue looks in different light.

Wow, that first picture is atrocious. Great result in the end, though.

 

[Illinibird]

I screwed up on my new car's finish just now. I washed my car and dried it like I usually do. Didn't really look at the finish in reflected light and applied Turtle Wax Ceramic Hybrid Solutions to coat it (mixture of SiO2 and wax polymers) and at first glance everything looked good. Then I looked carefully under the fluorescent lights in my garage and OMG, water spots! I don't think I caused them as I dried the finish with my large micro cloth drying towels quickly but it doesn't really matter at this point as they are there and now I want them off. I'm figuring I need to clay bar the finish and am wondering if the clay bar will take off the coating I just applied along with the water spots. If not, what do I need to remove the Turtle Wax coating? I'm afraid to use a mechanical buffer in fear I'd cause more damage with that as I've never used one before.

I'm not willing to send the car back to my detailer (did the Xpel clear "bra") as I know he wanted a lot of money for a ceramic coating which I am unwilling to spend. I'm hoping that I can do this myself. If that's not possible, I'll leave it as is because the car looks really good as far as the depth of shine goes; it's when you look closely at a particular angle and especially under fluorescent lights that you can see all the water spots.

Any ideas would be appreciated as far as what I can do now to remove the water spots. ?

 

[Nemy]

Thanks for this thread. I thought I had f-ed something up after my first wash or it was the reason they discontinued Infinite Blue. I even tried vinegar/water with elbow grease and managed to clean off a bunch of the bigger water spots but they're still all over the place and I probably added a bunch of micro-scratches. First major disappointment with the car - I thought I was avoiding the fit/finish issues by not buying a Tesla... At least people have managed to get it fixed so I'll be shopping around for a detailer now.

But why does it only show up after the first wash? I definitely didn't notice it when I picked it up. Or were we all blinded by how beautiful they are?

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