[txusa03]

yes, tint is on inside. I will try to take picture and hopefully ya'll will see how the glass normally look and how it looks right after I wipe a moist tower across the glass surface. At this point, I am not too concern about getting it remove and not too thrill using chemical myself.

[BK]

Originally Posted by picus

One of the best cheap things you can get to mitigate hard water problems is this:

http://www.pwgazette.com/gardenhosefilters.htm

The $34 filter absolutely brilliant, some guys put them back to back but I found one does an awesome job all by itself. To use it you also need to buy the $16 water softener cartridge, which is re-usable. So $50 total.

Thank you! Water spots are my nemesis. We did a water test when we bought the house, and while the water is clean and bacteria and polutant-free, the hardness was completely off the charts. I know that means it also is tough on household appliances (dishwasher, washing machine, etc.) so I've even considered a whole home softener. But in the meantime, this little hose attachment will help with the car washings.

[ICALL]

Thanks for the response and advise Picus.

[oneshare325]

Thank you man for all your great advice!! I am going to have to wait untill christmas to do it...no PC....That will more then likely be the first thing i do! I will use my AIO and try the clr if I am still having problems! Thanks again and I let you know!

P.s I am going to order the water softner too!!

[TEAShea]

Use Griot's glass polish to remove the waterspots from the windows.

Use a clay bar to remove the waterspots from the paint. Polishing with a mild polish will also work, but it more difficult. (a polish is a mild abrasive).

Any acid - like vinigar - will damage the paint slightly.

A detailer will not remove waterspots.


TEAShea
from Nebraska

[ICALL]

Originally Posted by TEAShea

Use a clay bar to remove the waterspots from the paint. Polishing with a mild polish will also work, but it more difficult. (a polish is a mild abrasive).

Any acid - like vinigar - will damage the paint slightly.

A detailer will not remove waterspots.


TEAShea
from Nebraska

Next weekend, I'll wash the car and break out the AIO again. I'll apply as Picus indicated in his response in different stages getting tougher each time. If that doesn't work I'll use the clay bar next cause I purchased it and intended to use it but got lazy. If that doesn't work, I'm leaning towards vinegar.

As for the vinegar damaging the paint. Will it get through the clear coat and damage the paint or by "damage the paint" you mean slightly remove the clearcoat? I ask because from what I understand, that is what polishing does as well. It removes the slightest layer of clearcoat to remove the blemishes. I can live with one, but not the other(damaging the actual paint)

[picus]

Originally Posted by ICALL

Next weekend, I'll wash the car and break out the AIO again. I'll apply as Picus indicated in his response in different stages getting tougher each time. If that doesn't work I'll use the clay bar next cause I purchased it and intended to use it but got lazy. If that doesn't work, I'm leaning towards vinegar.

As for the vinegar damaging the paint. Will it get through the clear coat and damage the paint or by "damage the paint" you mean slightly remove the clearcoat? I ask because from what I understand, that is what polishing does as well. It removes the slightest layer of clearcoat to remove the blemishes. I can live with one, but not the other(damaging the actual paint)

Vinegar will not penetrate the clear coat. If it does cause any damage at all (which I have never heard or experienced), then it would be microscopic damage to the clear coat.

If you have clay you may want to try that first, since it will take care of relatively new waterspots on paint. If not, move to the AIO.

[ICALL]

Was reading up on vinegar and water solution for cleaning spots and appears to be advocated by Advanced Auto Parts. I did find something interesting in the same article on waterspots on windows. I'm pasting it in bold below. I don't know what 000-grade steel wool is, but I figured this would scratch the hell out of the windows, but what do I know.

What if the water spots have gone too far and actually etched the clear coat of your paint or the window glass? More drastic measures are called for. For window glass, try a good dry scrubbing with 000-grade steel wool to remove the spots without damaging the glass. If that doesn't do the job, then the windows will have to be polished with a commercially available glass polish and a power buffer

http://www.advanceautoparts.com/engl...0020801hw.html

[picus]

000 steel wool is commonly used on windows and exhausts to clean them up if they have a lot of grime, contamination, tree sap, etc. It's not the traditional steel wool you think of when you think of washing dishes. You do not use it on paint.

The guys with glass issues could definitely try this, but if the chemical cleaner + PC doesn't do it then it is unlikely steel wool will.

[ICALL]

Found this in the bimmerfest forum:

Do the following:
regular wash, no need to dry,
give your car a vinegar bath, rinse well after each panel,
Dawn wash entire car, high alkaline content will neutralize any vinegar left,
clay your car using car wash solution, rinse well, dry,
now you can polish your paint but use something better than polish in a dark red bottle (step 2 or 3 I guess), like from Meguiar's line Dual Action Cleaner/Polish or at least Swirl Mark Remover 2.0.


The extremist in me is dying to do this cause I'm sure the watermarks are all over the car and I only noticed them on the hood. How bad would an undiluted vinegar bath be to a clear coat? I just don't want to go through a whole wash, AIO scrub on the hood, then vinegar on the hood if AIO doesn't work, then clay then AIO then SG again and notice more water stains on the rear or some other panel.

I guess I could clay that small area and see if they come off, and if so clay the entire car but I'd still be mad frustrated if after all that I see water marks. The dawn wash afterwards "sounds" good if it really neutralizes any residual acid from the vinegar. Does anyone know if this is or if this would work? I read somewhere that the acid in bird sh!t can make a 2 mil whole in the clearcoat (which according to the article is about as think as a piece of paper) I don't know how the strength of acid in the vinegar compares to bird shi!t.

[BK]

FWIW, vinegar is a fairly weak acid and rinses away easily. The white part of bird poop is a concentrated uric acid that does not rinse easily. I don't think putting vinegar on a car would be a big deal at all, as long as you rinse it off well with water.

[claycourter01]

for water spots on glass, I found that the Zaino glass polish works great.

[txusa03]

I wahsed my car this morning. Yes, I mentioned it before, dont wash it in the sun light like I did (it was overcast but in the middle of washing, sunshine came out. Anyway, here is my glad issues. As you can see, my glass is flawless. It beads very nice except for the driver glass. First look at these wonderful beads on the glass surface.

[txusa03]

Now look at the driver's glass. The beads on the surface does not seems to flow continuously down the glass see my yellow circle. Also, look at the same glass that is dried. It is very smooth and no water spot on the surface. Next, I take a damp towel and run it across that same glass and you can see imprints of water streak and water spot. Those imprints disappeared when the moisture dried out. So, my conclusion is it is etched into the glass.

[TEAShea]

Water spots can have two components:

1) deposits of minerals on top of the paint surface

2) etching of the paint caused by acid or chemical reaction with the paint.

In general type one are most common. This is easy to deal with - by clay, polishing or vinegar which I personally do not prefer).

Type two is the real problem. Some water has a ph that is acidic but I don't know if it is by itself enough to etch the paint. The problems with type 2 that I have heard of and seen are the reult of rain drying on the paint. We all have hear of acid rain. Although the rain might have a very small concentration of acid, as the water evaporates, the acid is left behind and the concentration builds - enough to etch the paint. It is actually fairly common in certain places. in such locations, with susstantial air pollution, one is advised to wash and dry a car after it is rained on.

TEAShea
from nebraska

[ICALL]

On Saturday, I ended up washing with Mother's wash(suprising not as sudsy as McGuire's Gold - I used the same amount, maybe I'll use more Mothers next time) then gave a distilled water(50%) and white distilled vinegar(50%) bath to the car with a microfiber towel.

I didn't apply too much pressure. Before I started the vinegar bath, I prepared a bucket of dawn(1/2 bottle of the small size - ultra - not antibacterial). I applied the vinegar and water in sections as I would wash the car normally and rinsed after each section. I then re-washed the car with dawn.

Then I clayed the car with Mother's clay. I was apprehensive about the clay initially, but using DavidN's instructions in the sticky made it extremely easy. I used the entire 80g bar(couldn't see cutting the pieces any smaller). For everyone claiming the mother's is difficult to work with, simply spray it with the quick detailer that comes with the kit.

After that, I used Klasse AIO. I applied alot of pressure by hand(starting with a little pressure, checking the hood for spots and then increasing in intensity) on the hood and trunk as this was where the water spots were. I brought a "bright" floor lamp out to the garage with me to check the hood for spots as I applied the AIO. When I was done, I couldn't see any.

I then sealed with Klasse SG. Wifey says the car looks the same, but when I pointed out the "glassyness" of the car she agreed(though she might have seen that I would have strangled her if she didn't agree)

We went to our corporate christmas party that night and parked in a garage. The garage had excellent lighting. On the front fender, to my horror I saw some really small water spots. I have convinced myself that these spots really don't exist and I will simply not improve the lighting in my garage for 6 months.

Just for the future, what do you pro detailers use to see the imperfections in the cars you are working on? Do you have a portable hologen light or simply use a high powered light (How many watts?)

BTW, thank you to everyone who contributed to this project. The car looks awesome(even though it rained Saturday night on the way down to the party)

[txusa03]

Fwiw, the issues with my driver side glass (see my post above) is fixed when I applied RainX to it. It appears that something in RainX has removed the etchy water spots on the glass's surface. Thought I pass it along

[picus]

Originally Posted by ICALL

Just for the future, what do you pro detailers use to see the imperfections in the cars you are working on? Do you have a portable hologen light or simply use a high powered light (How many watts?)

BTW, thank you to everyone who contributed to this project. The car looks awesome(even though it rained Saturday night on the way down to the party)

Nice work, sounds like it paid off.

To answer this question, I have 2 of these: http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-Shop_To...orklight_83992

And 4 of these:
http://www.epinions.com/Regent_Light...000_Shop_Tools

I only bring one of each when I am mobile, it's really all you need.

Some guys also use these:
http://www.brinkmann.net/Shop/Detail...-2200-0&id=139

That thing is brilliant for finding swirls, but obviously it can't be stationary for when you are working, so it's not really a replacement for the halogens.

[BK]

Hey, good thing this thread came up again. I have the opportunity to say that I got the soft water filter recommended by picus and used it for the first time today. It worked great! My water normally is super hard, so drying the car is a race to get everything before it dries. Inevitably, I get some drips or spots. With the water filter, I had no problems at all. Still had drips I missed, but they all wiped off without leaving any trace behind.

Also, there was a tremendous difference in how many suds I got from the soap. Can't really quantify the "foaminess" of the soap, but I'd say it seemed to be about 2 or 3 times "foamier" with the same amount of soap. One downside is that it seemed to require more water to rinse away the suds than with harder water, but that also may just be a result of having so much more foam.

The website says the filter works for about 90 gallons of water, but it depends on how hard the water is. My water is very hard, so who knows how long it would last. But supposedly you can recharge the filter, at least somewhat, by soaking it in a solution of soft water salt and water between uses. I got a 40lb bag of the soft water salt at Home Depot for less than $5, so I'll give that a try. It worked through the whole wash with no problem.

If anyone else has hard water, I'd encourage you to give it a try.

[txusa03]

Originally Posted by BK

Hey, good thing this thread came up again. I have the opportunity to say that I got the soft water filter recommended by picus and used it for the first time today. It worked great! My water normally is super hard, so drying the car is a race to get everything before it dries. Inevitably, I get some drips or spots. With the water filter, I had no problems at all. Still had drips I missed, but they all wiped off without leaving any trace behind.

Also, there was a tremendous difference in how many suds I got from the soap. Can't really quantify the "foaminess" of the soap, but I'd say it seemed to be about 2 or 3 times "foamier" with the same amount of soap. One downside is that it seemed to require more water to rinse away the suds than with harder water, but that also may just be a result of having so much more foam.

The website says the filter works for about 90 gallons of water, but it depends on how hard the water is. My water is very hard, so who knows how long it would last. But supposedly you can recharge the filter, at least somewhat, by soaking it in a solution of soft water salt and water between uses. I got a 40lb bag of the soft water salt at Home Depot for less than $5, so I'll give that a try. It worked through the whole wash with no problem.

If anyone else has hard water, I'd encourage you to give it a try.

I was thinking if I had the fileter, i would only hook it up and use it to wash the car. Once finished, I remove it. That should help it last a while.

[picus]

Sweet, good news guys. FWIW my filter has lasted over a year just used to wash the car - I've re-charged it twice.