water etching on 2015 Subaru STi

E

excelon

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I took delivery of a 2015 Subaru STi Ice metallic silver a couple days ago. I live in Florida but bought the car from Colorado and had it shipped on an open car hauler over 2000 miles.

All in all the car with delivered 100% condition besides a tiny little scratch on the wing that the dealership already said they would take care of, and yes, the car was dirty as head when it finally arrived. I had the truck driver wait as I cleaned every panel and inspect. After all, this is my new baby!

Second day of ownership I came home from work and used some detailer spray and was wiping the hood and driver side quarter panel and in the right sun light, just as the detailer spray is drying you can see water etching. I've heard all about water etching and how.it's one of the worst paint defects to have. So now what do I do? I have less then 100 miles on the car and already planning to polish it down? ###!?!

I plan I having the front clip protected with Suntek clearbra this weekend because I've heard all about Subaru and their soft paint and it will prolong the rock chips on the front bumper and hood.

Is is a bad thing to clearbra over water eching? Will the etching be brewing the whole time it's umber nether causing more damage once I remove it in a few years?

Help me howard?
 
Congrats on the new ride Howard! I'd remove the water spots before applying clearbra using Carpro Spotless. In addition, even though its a new ride, I would decon with IronX then Claybar...
 
Thanks a lot. And thank you for the reply. I was thinking the same thing. now I have to cancel my appointment for this weekend for tint and the clearbra and now, all of a sudden I have a lot of work to do. Lol

Eric
 
Your welcome Eric, I thought your name was Howard. It's always quite shocking how dirty new cars really are.
 
haha still early in the morning for me :xyxthumbs:

By the way, love those STi's! Defintely fun to drive...
 
Do you think some menzerna sf 4000 would work?
 
I don't have 4500 but 4000 I do have. I have options polish, too. Is there any other chemicals or polishes I should buy to correct this?
 
Congrats on the new ride. As 281 said, give Spotless a try, then clay. If the water spots are still there, first polish with sf4500 then move up to sf4000 if needed.
 
Thank you!

I just got off the phone with the dealership and believe it or not they said to use clay bar and that up in Colorado they get a lot of hard water and are used to that. What do you guys think about using a clay bar to remove hard water stains?
 
excelon said:
I'd hate to use up any clearcoat being that it's so new. :(
Click to expand...

I hear but what can you do. Hopefully Spotless does the trick otherwise, even if you have to polish, it won't remove much cc...
 
I was hoping that the dealer would pick up the tab but them again I don't trust them with the paint. So, I'm on my own!
 
Yeah that sucks, especially considering the amount of money a new car cost nowadays...
 
Let alone a damn STi !!!!!!!!!!! My poor baby.... lol
 
If anything.... classy mods only. 3/4" drop and either wheel spacers of a different wheel with a more aggressive offset. +38 or +40.

I already bought the short shifter from kart boy a few weeks back bc I knew the car was on the way, and I also bought rally armor mud flaps.

I bought the base STi and it came with a junk radio so as soon as the Pioneer avic 8100nex is out I will be installing that along with some different speakers.
 
Clean look is always better imo. Id suggest different wheel vs spacers - especially on vehicle with horsepower. I've been debating updating my audio but I love my exhaust tone lol
 
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