How do you avoid water spots when working outside?

I'm finding it absolutely impossible to avoid creating water spots when washing my car. I do not have the ability to wash my car indoors or in 100% shade.
After washing the car and then rinsing it, the heat always dries the water spots faster than I can blow them away with the leaf blower - so how the heck are you doing it?

I wash it in the evening and use microfiber towels to dry it off.

Multiple ways to minimize chances of water spotting:

• I always try to wash at sunrise or sunset, that helps especially if if your car is black
  
• If your water contains a lot of minerals, you might want to look in to a water softener
  
• Dry/blow only one panel at a time while keeping the others soaked, followed by a quick final wipe with a plush microfiber and some quick detailer or a wipe on/walk away sealant like Optimum Opti-Seal (my personal favorite)
  
• Coat the paint with a ceramic coating (Opti-Coat, CQuartz UK, etc.), and watch water sheet off leaving only small drops to blow or wipe

Note that with a proper sealant or coating, water spots shouldn't embed in the clear coat as much or at all.

Hope this helps!

Switch to a rinseless system. There are several brands out there...I prefer Croftgate products. I haven't used a hose on my black GT in 3 years. It takes me 25 minutes complete with a coffee and smoke break.

I use their Wash & Wax. I've seen demos of this stuff used outdoors on a black car in direct sun and heat and it leaves no spots or streaks.

Simple to use...

1) 1 cap full in a gallon of water (I use distilled)

2) dampen a quality MF cloth and wipe small sections always going in the same direction

3) wipe down with a dry high quality MF towel

4) Follow up with a non-petroleum based detail spray.


https://croftgateusa.com/

I have the same issue as I am in the same situation as you and can't wash inside/in shade. I dry with microfiber towels though and usually have 2 for the whole car, 1 large/cheap, 1 medium/less-cheap. I start with the large one. Then after its gotten a bit damp I find I can use it to sorta buff out the water spots. Then i use my medium/less-cheap one to give it the final wipe over where the remaining bits of water are.

I recently picked up a bottle of Meguiars Ultimate Quik Wax and highly recommend it. It says you can use it in full sun/hot car, etc... and I have twice now on my black car, and only takes me maybe 10 extra minutes on top of my wash. It gives me the clean look I wanted and seems to help eliminate water spots. It also gives the car just a tinyyyyyyy bit more shine. Just that little bump gets it looking showroom fresh IMO. It also definitely helps with water beading, in my experience, for about a week. I say this b/c last time I used it, it rained on and off for the following 5 days and every day I could see the nice water beading effect. Then it rained again about 10 days after I had used it and it was definitely less pronounced. It also seems to help keep my car looking cleaner for longer.

Tom C said:

Switch to a rinseless system. There are several brands out there...I prefer Croftgate products. I haven't used a hose on my black GT in 3 years. It takes me 25 minutes complete with a coffee and smoke break.

I use their Wash & Wax. I've seen demos of this stuff used outdoors on a black car in direct sun and heat and it leaves no spots or streaks.

Simple to use...

1) 1 cap full in a gallon of water (I use distilled)

2) dampen a quality MF cloth and wipe small sections always going in the same direction

3) wipe down with a dry high quality MF towel

4) Follow up with a non-petroleum based detail spray.


https://croftgateusa.com/

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I don't see how this is any different than detailing the car with something like Jet Black AFTER I've already washed it. I have a black GT, if I try to detail it before washing, the pollen and other dust cause swirls. I'm skeptical that this stuff won't do the same...

randotheking said:

I don't see how this is any different than detailing the car with something like Jet Black AFTER I've already washed it. I have a black GT, if I try to detail it before washing, the pollen and other dust cause swirls. I'm skeptical that this stuff won't do the same...

Click to expand...

Why would you detail before washing?

The Croftgate Wash & Wax product is what you clean the car as I described in my post. The product has a property that suspends the dust and pollen so that you're not dragging it back on to the clear coat. In fact I just did my Mustang earlier today with Wash & Wax. The water gets discolored, but all the dust particles and pollen sink to the bottom of the bucket. That's how you know it's working.

If you're getting swirls it sounds like you're wiping in a circular motion. You should be wiping in just one direction.

Tom C said:

If you're getting swirls it sounds like you're wiping in a circular motion. You should be wiping in just one direction.

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That's a common misconception. If you look under magnification "swirls" are actually tiny straight line scratches.

Wash your car early in the morning or late in the evening.
Why are you detailing before washing? The whole point of washing is removing stuff off the paint safely.

CQuartz UK

Just do a Ceramic Coating.......done!!! No water spots, no tree sap, no bugs, no tar....nothing, not even water sticks to your finish! Paint correction first to get rid of all swirls and light scratches then apply. It's easy to do it yourself. For an outside car....that's the ticket, period. :cheers::cheers:

Wash in evening, dry with microfibre drying towel and also use an oz of ONR in the soap bucket.

I also have this issue. I wash my car by hand every week but we have hard water here. So water drops dry quickly and leave spots that are very hard to remove without waxing it. Even on the glass, and windex won't clean it. I had to buy some special cleaner that is like a glass polish.

I do use microfiber towels but that makes no difference in the spots.

Is there anything I can use in my water so it won't leave drops? Or any kind of detail spray I can wipe it down with that will remove it? Or, any other suggestions? I hate the way it looks. Its impossible to dry the entire car fast enough getting every drop up before it dries.

Wash in the evening or morning if you can to avoid direct sun. While washing use a foam gun/foam cannon and any decent quality soap (I like optimum car wash/adams/CG Mr Pink) and spray down the car, the soap will help prevent water spots while washing the car doing the 2 bucket method. If you have a waxed/sealed car once your done washing, take the hose and without the hose nozzle on the hose, sheet the water off the car and that will remove a good portion of the water. Get a good drying towel (I like Griot garage PFM TERRY WEAVE DRYING TOWEL, you only will need one of them to dry the car) and a good detail spray/ spray wax/sealant as a drying aid (I like adams detail spray/h20 guard n gloss/Wolfgang detail spritz/Duragloss aquawax/ONR/mckees n914 in a detail spray dilution etc). Spray the car with the drying aid to help avoid water spotting.

Alternatively you can use a Rinseless/Waterless wash method using something like ONR (Optimum No rinse) or Mckees N-914 in their correct dilution ratios, which will allow you to wash and dry one panel at a time. There is a couple different methods to do it.
There is also water deionizer systems which will stop the water spotting from but can be pricey.

NasaStang said:

Alternatively you can use a Rinseless/Waterless wash method which will allow you to wash and dry one panel at a time.

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This is key when using a rinseless system. If you still want to use the conventional method, washing and drying a section at a time can help control spotting but it's frustrating and very time consuming with all the water overspray. It's akin to herding cats.

Another trick is to not spray water at high volume from the hose during the rinse....rather let the water drip slowly on the lowest setting of the spray nozzle.

You can also try adding a generous amount of vinegar to your wash bucket. It might help depending on the amount of calcium in your water.

randotheking said:

I'm finding it absolutely impossible to avoid creating water spots when washing my car. I do not have the ability to wash my car indoors or in 100% shade.
After washing the car and then rinsing it, the heat always dries the water spots faster than I can blow them away with the leaf blower - so how the heck are you doing it?

Click to expand...

Do a final rinse once the car is completely washed. Then use a drying agent or a detail spray and spray the car section by section and dry using a waffle weave towel. No water spots and a nice shine is the result. I use Adams detail spray and it works wonders