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Water Spots On Ceramic - Help!

wade001

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so, as others have said, you'll want to wash in the shade, on cool body panels/glass, if you just moved your car from the sun to shade to wash, rinse with water for a while to help cool the panels down before applying soaps and such.

after you're done washing, while still in the shade, i get the leaf blower out, and start from the top down.. at stubborn areas like trim, mirrors, emblems, grill, front bumper, rear bumper.. very quickly hit these areas with leaf blower to get majority of water out from behind them. im only hitting the areas that constantly drip or have lots of standing water with leaf blower, i then use a nice LARGE microfiber drying towel to actually dry the car. literally lay it on the surface and drag it over the panels. car is dry in no time.

ive also found a product made by carpro called "spotless" that works really well for light to medium water spotting. heavy spotting, that has been on the surface for a long time, will require multiple applications or even buffing/polishing out. this can actually remove the ceramic coating as well, depending on how deep the spotting actually is, so always try the least abrasive method first, then get more and more aggressive
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newmoon

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Just use regular quality car wax. End of problem.
 

09cs

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I'm dealing with water spots on my stripes, that for the life of me, I can't get out! Any suggestions? I've tried, Griots correcting cream, and polish on a DA
 

UXXR

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I'm dealing with water spots on my stripes, that for the life of me, I can't get out! Any suggestions? I've tried, Griots correcting cream, and polish on a DA
vinyl etches very easily. Before coating my car, I polished the whole thing including vinyl. Polish cleaned up the vinyl nicely, but my previous owner's left over etching marks persisted. Nothing to do about that, so I'm living with it.
 

09cs

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vinyl etches very easily. Before coating my car, I polished the whole thing including vinyl. Polish cleaned up the vinyl nicely, but my previous owner's left over etching marks persisted. Nothing to do about that, so I'm living with it.
I had a coat of wax over it, but that first dirty rain got it..
 

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UXXR

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I had a coat of wax over it, but that first dirty rain got it..
sorry to hear that. I don't have experience with wax over vinyl, not sure how well a wax would bond with plastic/vinyl. When you get it as good as it can get, you might want to try something stronger, synthetic sealants, ceramic coating, or even clear bra?

love/admire your yellow calipers on magnetic gray by the way, I might do the same in the future : )
 

09cs

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sorry to hear that. I don't have experience with wax over vinyl, not sure how well a wax would bond with plastic/vinyl. When you get it as good as it can get, you might want to try something stronger, synthetic sealants, ceramic coating, or even clear bra?

love/admire your yellow calipers on magnetic gray by the way, I might do the same in the future : )
Won't help me now, if I can't get them out lol

And thanks! I absolutely love it!
 

Lorne34

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Water Quality and attentive washing/drying seem to be the key. If you have hard water, the filters might be the best investment. When I had my other 2 mustangs ceramic coated I gave up on 2-bucket traditional washes and went to waterless/rinseless unless that car was incredibly dirty. It eliminated the rush factor, but I was paranoid about scratches and swirls so it took me FOREVER to wash the car.
Just purchased a power washer, Foam Cannon from Griots and the Griots foam car wash. Will see how this works.. Auto Fanatic seems to like the results...

 

torque124

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Water Quality and attentive washing/drying seem to be the key. If you have hard water, the filters might be the best investment. When I had my other 2 mustangs ceramic coated I gave up on 2-bucket traditional washes and went to waterless/rinseless unless that car was incredibly dirty. It eliminated the rush factor, but I was paranoid about scratches and swirls so it took me FOREVER to wash the car.
Just purchased a power washer, Foam Cannon from Griots and the Griots foam car wash. Will see how this works.. Auto Fanatic seems to like the results...

I tried the foam cannon method with Chemical Guys honeydew soap... the car was not that dirty. Bottom line is that you still need to rub a with a brush to get the dirt off. Let's not talk about the wheels, it never works on the wheels... It's a waste of time and money. Bucket and soap works best... If you have ceramic coating on the car it will not scratch. I don't like waterless wash, that DOES scratch. I used to have a detailing business, I have seen a lot of customers destroying the clear coat with the waterless wash, then bring it for detailing/swirl removal. Thing is, the clear coat is only so thick, so you can only do so much detailing/sanding on it.
 

Lorne34

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I tried the foam cannon method with Chemical Guys honeydew soap... the car was not that dirty. Bottom line is that you still need to rub a with a brush to get the dirt off. Let's not talk about the wheels, it never works on the wheels... It's a waste of time and money. Bucket and soap works best... If you have ceramic coating on the car it will not scratch. I don't like waterless wash, that DOES scratch. I used to have a detailing business, I have seen a lot of customers destroying the clear coat with the waterless wash, then bring it for detailing/swirl removal. Thing is, the clear coat is only so thick, so you can only do so much detailing/sanding on it.
I think for quick washes to maintain the foam cannon is fine. I think in one of the video's I watched they mentioned you might have to do a bucket wash on a few areas that might not come totally clean (front grill, bugs etc..). The wheels will need to be agitated. I don't like the idea of using a bug cleaning sponge or anything to aggressively rub the paint. I'm personally looking into autoflex right now as an alternative to PPF and Ceramic. It will provide a base layer of protection that is similar to a wrap but sprayed on. Then I don't have to worry about clear coat or buffing a ceramic.
There is no clear cut winner here, everyone's opinion and experience is different. It depends upon your OCD level and how much time, money and energy you want to devote to keeping your ride clean. This is my 3rd Mustang and I've relaxed ALOT about the car getting dirty and having to be showroom clean.
 

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Mustang_Lou

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I wash it it with bucket and soft brush, never sponge (never ever use a sponge to wash your car),
Totally agree with this … you want as little material on the paint as possible when you're scrubbing and a soft brush does the trick better than a mitt or sponge going round-and-round. Another thing is to make sure you get that layer of fine dust off before doing any movement to the paint (mitt or brush) as those'll swirl mark your paint quick. Rinse and rinse again first.
 

09cs

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Water Quality and attentive washing/drying seem to be the key. If you have hard water, the filters might be the best investment. When I had my other 2 mustangs ceramic coated I gave up on 2-bucket traditional washes and went to waterless/rinseless unless that car was incredibly dirty. It eliminated the rush factor, but I was paranoid about scratches and swirls so it took me FOREVER to wash the car.
Just purchased a power washer, Foam Cannon from Griots and the Griots foam car wash. Will see how this works.. Auto Fanatic seems to like the results...

I love that stuff. For me, especially during lock down, i'm able to get away with just foaming the car, and rinsing off since it's mostly dust. Anything else, you'll need a wash mit still
 

Demonic

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This is just some simple chemistry, and not a problem with ceramic coatings or any coating in particular. The coating is hydrophobic, so the surface tension of the water creates more of a bead since the water can't self-level. So as the water dries, any minerals in the water droplet are drying over a smaller area, thus increasing the mineral density in one spot and creating the look of a water spot. To elaborate, imagine after you've washed an un-coated car, there's a water droplet or puddle 2 inches in diameter on the paint. As it dries, let's say it contracts to 1 inch before completely evaporating. The minerals from that 1 inch spot may not be dense enough to be visible. Now lets imagine the same 2 inch diameter puddle on a ceramic coated car. The same amount of water will have contracted to a tighter area because of the change in surface tension. So it may contract down to saw a 1/2" or small bead before it evaporates. You know have the same amount of minerals, but drying into a smaller area, creating a more noticeable spot.

So, you could get a car wash water softener, which may not be cheap depending on which you choose. You could try to completely towel the car dry to minimize it. Personally, I use Chemical Guys V7 Hybrid quick detail sealant as I'm toweling the car dry. So after I get the bulk of the water off, I lightly mist the area I'm going to towel dry. An important thing is some quick detail sprays can replace your water spotting with streaking. The streaking is again because the change in surface tension prevents the quick detail spray from self-leveling, therefore contracting in on itself as it dries and leaving a streak. So you'll want to use a quick detailer that's meant for hydrophobic car coatings.
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