Ugh... Water Spots!

JSOrange97

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Yup. Or some of the other more reputable brands. Then clay bar, polish, clean off the residue well (alcohol wipe) and seal it (diy ceramic) or hire someone to do it.
Okay, I'll bite: why would you not feel that Chemical Guys is a reputable brand? I've been using their products for a few years now and have been very happy. I had terrible water spots on the roof of our MME and the HD Water Spot remover followed by Jet Seal really did the trick.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Ugh... Water Spots! IMG_6759


Ford Mustang Mach-E Ugh... Water Spots! IMG_6760
 

Kamuelaflyer

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Okay, I'll bite: why would you not feel that Chemical Guys is a reputable brand?
You misunderstand. I do consider Chemical Guys quite reputable. I was just saying Chemical Guys or another reputable brand (of your choice). Poor choice of words on my part.

We have a hard time getting many of the Chemical Guy products out here as they're often considered Hazardous Materials for transportation purposes. Chemical Guys products are hardly unique in that. We do have ways around that and there are a few companies that will jump through the hoops to ship here, at a cost (of course), such as Griot's Garage.
 

abr

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When I received my MME FE, I didn't notice any water spots, but within a week, I did the whole DIY ceramic / graphene (Ethos) process with clay bar, etc . . .
Now when I wash the car, no water spots because the water just "repels" off, especially just driving it around the block and almost all the water flys off. Just need to do a quick dry off. (Trutoife27 is right about the spot on the rear window under the spoiler - one bad spot).
 

Murse-In-Airy

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Had water spots after first wash. Did DIY Detail and ceramic coat. Washes so easy now and no water spots.
For me
1. Wash with Nanoskin Bubble Bath
2. Wipe down with Adam’s iron-off
3. Clay with Nanoskin clay mitt (it was a package deal)
4. with 6” Buffer, fine foam pad and Griots complete compound
5. Polish with chemical guys V38 polish using 6” buffer and extra fine foam pads TWICE
6. Wipe with 70% isopropyl alcohol
7. Coat with The Last Coat 2 ceramic coat TWICE

Now it’s a race to dry it because the water just falls off. But drying with a microfiber towel leaves no spots at all.
 

GoGoGadgetMachE

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I'm a little obsessed keeping my car showroom clean. It's garage kept. It gets a light wipe down every morning and washed every week or two. It feels good to drive around in a car that is perfectly clean and shiny.
holy cow that's more than I did with my body when I was a kid
 


BMT1071

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Geez. Am I the only one who doesn't care about water spots?
I don't care about small dents and scratches either, every car I owned eventually got those.
What's all that obsession, it will be gone in 3 or so years anyway.
Gotta say I'm mostly with you on this. I like a clean car, but thousands of dollars spent on ceramic coating and PPF just seems insane to me.
 

sockmeister

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Water spots are more likely on a car with a new coat of wax or new smooth clear coat, which has hydrophobic properties... Anything that causes the water to bead up, will lead to water spots if it dries there.

Nothing unusual with this car. It's the same as my last one when it had wax on it.
 

BMT1071

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4 hours of my own labor and $120 in materials. And I work cheap! ;)
That seems reasonable. I've read several posts from owners who have been quoted over $4k for professionally applied coatings and films.
 

Murse-In-Airy

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I went all out and bought all my own stuff including the dual action buffer and foam pads. Total outlay was about $400. And I got to learn something. Some of the professional ceramic coats use a different chemical that claims to do some fancier stuff. And some of the really expensive quotes are for PPF (paint protective film) which is a clear vinyl wrap. So they’ve essentially wrapped the entire car in see through vinyl.
 
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S.B.

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Geez. Am I the only one who doesn't care about water spots?
I don't care about small dents and scratches either, every car I owned eventually got those.
What's all that obsession, it will be gone in 3 or so years anyway.
@RedStallion, I really admire your attitude and wish I could be detached from material objects like that. At this point, however, I’m obsessively cleaning at least once a week too. Griot Garage products are what we use. Love the drying cloth.
 
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Jimrpa

Jimrpa

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Geez. Am I the only one who doesn't care about water spots?
I don't care about small dents and scratches either, every car I owned eventually got those.
What's all that obsession, it will be gone in 3 or so years anyway.
I’ve found that there’s a spectrum of car owners. At one end are people who are so obsessed with keeping their cars pristine that they blow out the seat tracks with compressed air and steam clean the engines weekly. Generally, their cars are CLEANER than they were when they rolled off the assembly line. On the other end of the spectrum are people who literally treat their cars as motorized dumpsters. The last time the car was washed was when the dealer washed it, if they’re taking a passenger, it takes about 5 minutes of rearranging literally garbage to other locations in the vehicle, and usually the check engine light has been on for a few years (unless the bulb burned out).
Personally, beyond an umbrella and a snow scraper /brush (in the winter) I just don’t like a lot of crap in my car. I may keep some napkins in the door pocket and that’s it. I like my car to be clean, because I like the look and because I despise dirty Windows, but I don’t have the patience or attention to detail to do anything more than run it through the car wash every few weeks.
 

KAustin

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I did the ceramic coating my self, then ended up with pollen on the car about a week later. I just tried to rinse it off with the hose and it left a ton of spots. The roof was still a bit wet, so I grabbed my drying towel, went over the entire car and the spots were gone.

I did start a DIY thread for cleaning the car, if anyone wants to check it out.
 

shadowsjc

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I have never used any sort of product on my cars (mostly because before my MME I was driving the same SUV since 2005). But with the MME I wanted to get some sort of product to use in conjunction with a hand wash.

So after a couple of weeks, I took the MME to a local hand wash station. They did a pretty good job overall and dried it well. I drove home and applied some Mothers cmx ceramic spray coating (followed instructions on bottle/youtube). The end product was good I guess - can't really see much difference but hope it helps with rain/future washes. The bottle was only $21 and I have enough left for a couple more uses, so not terribly expensive or time consuming (maybe 20 mins).
 

Mirak

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Maybe I’m not understanding the issue. When I think of water spots, I’m thinking the little water spots that are left on cars, dishes, windows, anything if you allow water to dry on the car. Is that what we’re talking about here?

The solution to that is to wipe/blow down your car after washing it. I’ve done that for years when washing my cars and haven’t had water spots. That’s why you’re supposed to dry your car after washing it. You don’t need a ceramic coating to avoid those water spots - you just need to spend a few minutes with a shammy.

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

I’m spending around a thousand having a 2-coat “10yr” ceramic coat added, but it isn’t just for the water spots. It’s going to make the car a lot easier and faster to clean overall. And I’ve noticed that the grabber blue paint is really unforgiving of even tiny nics and scratches.
Sponsored

 
 




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