How do you get hard water stains off your paint?

Posted By: NV69B7RR

How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/18/10 03:11 PM

Our water here really sucks, and it will leave hard water stains where every a drop will dry, even in the shade. Does anybody have any ideas on how to get these off my RR. i tried windex, and wax, neither worked so far. I just don't want to damage the paint, trim, or wheels in the process.

Posted By: OzHemi

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/18/10 03:19 PM

I had got some off in the past with a clay bar..

Posted By: Cudajon

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/18/10 03:48 PM

Now if I could find something to get rid of the spots on Glass and the spider webs that show up on black paint.

Posted By: OzHemi

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/18/10 03:54 PM

Bon Ami' on glass...

(or 0000 fine steel wool

)

Posted By: Curt Hildebrandt

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/18/10 05:29 PM

I use Griot's Garage Speed Shine and there Caly bar....In fact, I do my Whole Ramcharger...Takes thewater spots off paint and glass..

Posted By: Jim_S

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/18/10 08:58 PM

Another thing that works is Vinegar and Distilled water mixed 50/50. Be aware it also strips the wax off too.

Posted By: jbc426

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/18/10 09:30 PM

We have hard water here too, and I just finished the black paint on my 1970. Water spots galore on all my cars until I started doing this.

There are a few things you can do, but the bottom line is to do your final rinse with de-mineralized water. From my experience, the spots dissolve almost immediately in water.

The least expensive way is to buy several gallons of distilled water from the market, and pour it over your car when your finished washing.

Second option, buy a Hudson Sprayer style garden sprayer. Fill it up with the gallon jugs of distilled water and final rinse the car with that. You know, the kind with a plastic tank that you pump up and spray weeds and such with. Use it only for rinseing your car, so it won't get contaminated.

If you don't want to keep lugging home gallon jugs, have a home-use reverse-osmosis system installed in your house or install it yourself. The added benefit is great drinking/cooking water etc. You can buy a good one from Costco.

This last idea is initially the costliest, but one of the best. Hook one of these up to your house/garage.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.asp...&lang=en-US

They say if you plumb the water from your Reverse Osmosis water system into one of these systems, it will last 25 times as long. You will probably need to add a second larger pressure tank to feed it effectively though.

Posted By: Boise Chall

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/19/10 01:47 PM

Meguiars speed glaze # 80 takes it right off I use show car glaze after the #80 and the paint is clean and water spots are gone then a good carnuba wax. I use a towel and the wax on wax off system I don't trust myself with a buffer. Keep it waxed and the water spots won't stick again they just wipe off. On the windows use rubbing compound ( the finest you can find from schucks or autozone) then rain X after the windows are clean to keep the water spots from sticking again. I hate water spots and it took me a long time to figure out a system that works. A tip on using glaze don't let the glaze dry like you would wax wipe it off before it hazes and it make the a lot job easier.

Posted By: RacerGofKGB

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/19/10 02:27 PM

I had an idea once to take one of these...

and fill it with some of this...

i havnt tried it yet, but it is supposed to prevent water spots on your dishes right? so why wouldnt it prevent them on your car?

Posted By: 68red440

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/20/10 04:59 PM

Quote:

Meguiars speed glaze # 80 takes it right off I use show car glaze after the #80 and the paint is clean and water spots are gone then a good carnuba wax. I use a towel and the wax on wax off system I don't trust myself with a buffer. Keep it waxed and the water spots won't stick again they just wipe off. On the windows use rubbing compound ( the finest you can find from schucks or autozone) then rain X after the windows are clean to keep the water spots from sticking again. I hate water spots and it took me a long time to figure out a system that works. A tip on using glaze don't let the glaze dry like you would wax wipe it off before it hazes and it make the a lot job easier.

Last spring #80 easily took off sun-baked contaminants like water spots, sap etchants, bird poop etched in, etc. And it's really easy on the paint.
I tried #7 last weekend. I applied it to the whole car and it dried up - not fun to remove. NXT wax & #7 gave excellent results though.

Posted By: 67dodge67

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/20/10 07:34 PM

Quote:

Meguiars speed glaze # 80 takes it right off I use show car glaze after the #80 and the paint is clean and water spots are gone then a good carnuba wax. I use a towel and the wax on wax off system I don't trust myself with a buffer. Keep it waxed and the water spots won't stick again they just wipe off. On the windows use rubbing compound ( the finest you can find from schucks or autozone) then rain X after the windows are clean to keep the water spots from sticking again. I hate water spots and it took me a long time to figure out a system that works. A tip on using glaze don't let the glaze dry like you would wax wipe it off before it hazes and it make the a lot job easier.

I really like the Meguires product and of all things, turtle wax has a good carnauba cleaner wax too that works well.

Posted By: JonC

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/21/10 12:17 AM

Either use a chamois or as I do a leaf blower to dry it and it won't leave any marks. Also make sure it is cleaned and waxed often.

Posted By: NV69B7RR

Re: How do you get hard water stains off your paint? - 07/21/10 01:53 PM

Thanks for the replies, I'll be putting them to good use shortly!