Jeff928S4

I have a 1989 S4 that sat on a car lot for a while. When I got it, it had some bad water spots and some streaks by the window-washer nozzles. These spots would disappear with a good waxing, but would come back when the wax wore off. I never went at them with anything, as they were not THAT bad.

About a week ago, my dad borrowed the car and waxed it late at night and ran out of daylight. He told me he "just wiped off the wax enough that it didn't look it had wax all over it". He didn't buff the wax off. He only had waxed the hood/top of fenders. I forgot all about it.

A couple days ago, we had a massive sun-shower. Rained heavily for about 3 minutes, then the sun came out. My car is now COVERED in water spots....all over the hood and tops of the fenders.

I went out last night and bought a Mothers Clay Bar. I figured this would do the trick. Nothing!! Mind you, the paint is very smooth, but the water spots still remain. I washed the car like four times trying to get the wax off, but the water still beads.

Some questions...

1. Would the dried wax on the car add to the formation of water marks? It's sun-showered before and I've not had marks show up. Did the excess wax play a part in this?

2. Is the Clay Bar not working because of the wax? Would the Clay Bar remove wax or just glide over it? If I take my fingernail and scrape the car, you can see the scrape marks in the water marks - but the Clay Bar won't do anything. Clay Bar worked great on the other parts of the car....removing the "haze" the paint has.

3. What steps should I take to get the paint as bare as possible to allow the Clay Bar to do it's thing?

4. (The big question) - how do I get rid of these damn water spots???

Thanks all ,
Jeff

hacker-pschorr

Wash the car with dawn or some other heavy detergent kitchen soap. Use a ton, major suds. This will eat through and remove any wax on the car, no harm to the paint. I do this every spring to start fresh with my first wax application.

Dry the car good to avoid water spots, then clean the paint with a good paint cleaner. Mcquires makes a good one I like, so does mothers and most other brands. That should make it look new (assuming the paint is in good health) Then a good glaze, cutter, or polish will bring out the color, then finalize with a good carnuba wax.

This is what I do every spring. I use the Mcquires 3 step system.

MikeN

First wash the car with a big dose of Dawn dish washing soap. (very alkaline, cuts right through wax). Then try 3M Imperial Hand Glaze on the spots, followed by wax. If that doesn't get the spots off, then you have a bigger problem.

jayc67

Clay bar is more for contaminants like brake dust, tree sap etc. Water spots are "smooth" the clay bar doesn't really do any good, as you've seen.

Depending on the mineral content of your rain it can do permanent damage to the paint, acutally etching into paint and glass, so time is of the essence here.

First, try 1/2 distilled water and 1/2 distilled white vinegar mix. Put this into a spray bottle and try it when the paint is cool and the car is in the shade. Wipe down with a clean soft cloth.

If that doesn't work then you likely have some etching. In that case it's time for an aggressive polish with an orbital buffer. We're talking about actually removing some paint here so it's pretty nasty.

If the vinegar/water thing works you'll want to keep that around for future "oops". Also keeping a nice coat of wax will help minimize this.

If you can't tell already, I have BTDT on several cars, and it can be VERY nasty.

Good luck!

Jeff928S4

I did wash the car with dish soap....not Dawn though. It was some "Oxygen-Power" stuff.

First wash was with normal car wash, but noticed it said "will not remove wax".
Second wash was with a combo of dish soap and car wash.
Third wash was just dish soap.
Fourth wash was a combo of dish soap/rubbing alcohol/vinegar (can you tell I was getting desperate by this point?)

Water still beads like a sumbyatch on the hood!

3M Imperial Hand Glaze? I'll have to go pick up a bottle of that tonight. What about the Mothers "Paint Cleaner"? Any good?

Should the Clay Bar be able to take these marks out too? (**Edit** - thanks jayc67)

hacker-pschorr

I buy the full size bottle of dawn and pour the whole bottle into my bucket and keep going over the car while adding water the bucket until all the suds are gone. Dawn is some nasty sh*t and should eat through any wax on the car.

P928sfan

I have found that Zymol HD Cleanse prewax cleaner works for those on my car without removing much if any of the paint. This isn't the Zymol you find at pepboys (Turtle wax copy of the original) but the real Zymol.

Jeff928S4

Just went out and sprayed some distilled water/vinegar mix on it and will let that set for a few minutes and see if anything happens............

hacker-pschorr

So your trying to tell me

This:
http://www.zymol.com/onestp2.htm

Is not the same as:
http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/pro...source=froogle

Where do you find this information that the two are not the same?

jayc67

Zymol HD Cleanse and the Zymol One Step sold in retail stores are not the same thing.
The HD Cleanse is only sold on their website and it's a paint cleaner, not a wax. I have had decent luck with the Zymol HD Cleanse, and lots of elbow grease.....

http://www.zymol.com/hd2.htm

If you use this stuff, be sure to get some wax on the car as soon as you can, this leaves the paint totally clean but unprotected.

perrys4

Everything I have read and been told is that the clay bar should remove the wax. Whatever was used is really tough.

hacker-pschorr

I'm switching to Zaino next year anyway, check this out if you have not seen it before:

http://www.nsxsc.com/nsexcitement/waxtest.html

The "wal-mart" zymol actually out performed the "real" stuff.

jayc67

Oh yes, I am on the NSX board and it's a constant argument between the Zymol/Zaino people

I switched to Zaino simply because it was a lot easier to apply and remove the product.

Jeff928S4

I just went out and washed the car again like 15 times with two full bottles of Dawn. Wash - rinse - wash - rinse - wash - rinse.

Finally the water stopped beading! So at least I have exposed paint to work with now. I'm going to Clay Bar the whole car tonight or tomorrow (it needs it) and hit the hood with some cleaner wax or something.

I have noticed that some of the water spots have "faded" as the wax comes off, but the bigger ones are still fully there. It's not just water "spots" (like the size you would expect), but also water "pile" stains. I have one spot that is like 3 inches wide and 4 inches long....all white and crap. All these spots are new too, so it confused me as to why they won't work out easily. Hates it!!!

Garth S

Jeff,
Your 'clay bar' is excellent for picking up particulate matter that is either stuck on or partially embedded in the paint: it is not a wax remover - rather, it will leve a wax finish intact and glass smooth: it does the same for the paint if the wax is removed.
The guys have wisely recommended 'Dawn' as a safe way to get wax, etc. off; however, from your description of the ~3x4" white wash area, there is one other safe thing to try.
Wipe the area with a soft cloth with a splash of methanol on it ( some call it 'methyl hydrate or methyl alcohol). Some Detailing shops use this to wash a car down to bare paint prior to applying their expensive cleaning compounds. Not only does methanol quickly remove wax - it is perhaps the only trick to remove pine tree drippings (pitch). A small spot of pine pitch rubbed about on the paint leaves a white haze that barely yields to your fingernail - sound familiar?
Anyway, try some methanol - from someone who lives in a pine forest: Then, move on to something like Mike's call on 3M Hand Glaze.