Anybody got experience with getting California hard water spots off your paint? Woke up at the hotel in Weed and found the sprinklers have trashed my trophy-winning Zaino job!

 

OK, I guess I'll descibe the fixes that don't work, and the one that finally did: First try, Dawn detergent, no affect at all, she still looked like a leopard. Second try, Coca-Cola, cut half n half with water, no effect at all (drank the rest ) Third try, straight Coke, rubbing a lot, no effect, so much for carbolic acid... Fourth try, dilute white vinegar, same thing, no effect...(no, I didn't drink the rest ) Fifth try, pure vinegar, lots of frustrated rubbing with almost no spot removal....

So I gave up and used 3M Swirl Remover for dark colours. Got rid of the spots, but I lost about a $100 bucks worth of Zaino coats too!

I'll start putting the Z back on now...
PS Thanks for the loan of the 3M Patrick!

 

Glad to help. Only trouble is, your car looked so good afterward, I felt bad about the finish on mine! However, it does have 5 times the mileage, and gets driven every day, regardless of the weather. I'll have to think long and hard re a new paint job before next spring (or at the very least, getting a few very select areas repainted, like the hood!)

 

Damn. So the sprinkler water was an issue. What a royal pain. I wonder what they do when washing cars dowwn there. I guess they have to towel dry every time.

 

I had the same problem in osoyoos.......ended up useing bottled water

 

In Arizona the commercial car wash outfits blow the water off before it dries using a wand type device. The only water they are allowed to use is "recovered" water, meaning it has already been used for irrigation or other commercial use before it get used on your car

That experience gave me the idea of using a leaf blower to dry my car whenever I wash it at home. I highly recommend it. Nothing touches the paint/polish except cool air

 

yep best way to dry your car is with a leaf blower

 

Sorry to hear about your problem with the paint, glad you finally got it removed. I guess we'll keep the hawks away from California.

 

Oh I don't think the problem is restricted to California. Any place that has 'hard' water can cause the problem. I first learned about waterspots while visiting Moosejaw! ('71, 750 Honda)

 

Langley is really bad for hard water spots. I have never been able to fully remove some of them. Actually, ones that came with the car during shipping are still there, if you look hard enough.

I dry my car with an imitation chamois called the Absorder. Works excellent and I have not a problem anymore.

 

Chris, where did you buy the Absorber? I'd like to pick a couple of those up.

Thanks, Patrick

 

I'm hoping if you remove the hard water spots immediately with your shammy, absorber or the leaf blowers that we use that the spots will disappear.

 

The spots will only appear if the water dries, so remove the water quickly and there's no problem. In my case, the sprinklers came on at night (very warm night) so by the time I saw the car, the damage was done. Just remove ALL the water...

 

Good advice Larry, I found a little scratch on my paint under the passenger door. Looks a little too deep for swirl remover so the hawk will hit the paint shop for some touching up. I also have that stress crease on the left rear quarter panel and a couple of nicks on the edge of the passenger door and a couple of more small rock chips on the front end. Hopefully I can visit you soon Larry, let me know. The paint shop will be my last mod (repair) this year, then my garage queen will hybernate under the firehawk car-cover till spring. The big bad bear needs rest over the winter.

 

Check your PMs