Dry water mark on the car

[NSXPR]

Due to tropical weather, it common to get rain in 100degree weather which created water marks I cannot take them off. How can I take them off?

 

[shawn110975]

you can use vinegar on a small cloth after you do this to the whole car you need to put a coat of wax. usually the water marks mean you dont have enough wax on the car. in my experience lots of wax means nice looking car LOL

 

[NSXPR]

you can use vinegar on a small cloth after you do this to the whole car you need to put a coat of wax. usually the water marks mean you dont have enough wax on the car. in my experience lots of wax means nice looking car LOL

Thanks for your advice i will try on small spots and see how it goes.

 

[nsxtasy]

It depends on what you mean by "water marks". If it's from water that simply dried on the car and left a mineral trace behind, then yes, you can try vinegar. However, what commonly happens is that water beads up on the finish, and can magnify the sun so that it etches the outer edge of the beads into the finish. When that happens, there isn't a whole lot you can do, in my experience; you can use abrasives to smooth down the finish, but if the etching is seriously deep, nothing short of repainting is going to remove it. Good luck.

 

[bc777]

It really depends on the water mark. Most of them can be taken off with a porter cable / flex along with a compound such as zanio Z-PC (any polish that cuts) along with a white or orange pad.

I have sprinkler stains that I don't know, that sits on the car for a week or so in 90 plus degrees. It bakes on, and only this method will take it off in my experience.

 

[stevieray122854]

It really depends on the water mark. Most of them can be taken off with a porter cable / flex along with a compound such as zanio Z-PC (any polish that cuts) along with a white or orange pad.

I have sprinkler stains that I don't know, that sits on the car for a week or so in 90 plus degrees. It bakes on, and only this method will take it off in my experience.

+1, that's the best and surest way. I had to get out the PC recently because the water in my town is really shitty (hard) and it left water spots all over my roof and trunk lid before I could get it dried off. I used Megs Mirror Glaze Fine Cut Cleaner with a white LC pad followed with Blackfire Gloss Enhancing Polish & BF Wet Diamond. Definitely a PITA but probably needed to be done anyway. Good luck---

 

[nsxtasy]

+1, that's the best and surest way. I had to get out the PC recently because the water in my town is really shitty (hard) and it left water spots all over my roof and trunk lid before I could get it dried off. I used Megs Mirror Glaze Fine Cut Cleaner with a white LC pad followed with Blackfire Gloss Enhancing Polish & BF Wet Diamond. Definitely a PITA but probably needed to be done anyway. Good luck---

Yup, that's the best you can do if it's etched into the finish, and if it's not etched severely, that will work.

Meguiar's labels their products with a scale from 1 to 10 to denote how abrasive they are. On another forum, I recently posted how to use them in sequence to remove light scratches, and it's the same process for water spots etched onto your car:

If they are only light scratches and do not go deep into the paint, you can use a SLIGHTLY abrasive product to buff them out. The basic rule of thumb is, use the least abrasive product you can, and if the scratch is still there, use a product that is only slightly more abrasive as another try. Once you have removed the scratches, go back over it with a less abrasive product to smooth over the paint. Hope that makes sense - by doing so, you are removing as little of the outer coating of paint as possible in order to smooth down the scratches.

Meguiar's labels their detailing products on a scale to show how abrasive they are, from "light cut" (zero) to "heavy cut" (ten), which you can see on the left side of the products pictured below. When I have very light scratches that I want to remove, I use Meguiar's Mirror Glaze 9 Swirl Remover 2.0, which is a 3 on their scale. It is only a tiny bit abrasive, and is designed to remove swirl marks such as you sometimes see when someone doesn't know how to detail a car properly. Rub it on the scratched area with a non-abrasive towel (all cotton or microfiber) and buff it off. It hardly removes any paint at all, just smooths it down ever so slightly, and leaves the finish shiny and ready to wax. If that works, I'm done and I wax over the spot.

If the Swirl Remover 2.0 doesn't remove the scratches sufficiently, the next step for me is to use Meguiar's Mirror Glaze 2 Fine-Cut Cleaner, which is 5 on Meguiar's scale. This is a little bit more abrasive than the Swirl Remover 2.0, but still is a very fine product that isn't going to cause a whole lot of hazing of the finish. Rub it on, buff it off. If that works, I then re-apply the Swirl Remover 2.0 to smooth off the finish, then wax over the spot. If the Fine Cut Cleaner doesn't work, well, I'm likely to either leave it, or have a body shop deal with it, because the next step involves more abrasive products and I get nervous removing more paint than the Fine Cut Cleaner removes.

Meguiar's makes a lot of other products too (most labeled with their same abrasiveness scale), and other brands also have similar detailing products. But the principle remains the same. Start with a product that is only ever so slightly abrasive, and if that doesn't work, then go to something that is just a little bit more abrasive, and keep going until the problem is fixed or you don't mind leaving it as is or you're willing to take it to a professional.

HTH

 

[kookoo4nsx]

I have water spots on my rear window and nothing will take them off. I tried vinegar, baking soda, clay bar, CLR and finally oxidation remover for a fiberglass boat. They are less noticeable but still present. I guess glass is more porous than paint.

Clay bar easily removes water spots on your paint and then follow it up with one of the cleaners listed above then 2 coats wax. Today was my first time using a clay
bar and it was pretty easy.