Can one PREVENT water spots?

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AdamIsAdam

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I've combed over the forums and don't really see if this has been addressed: Is there a way to PREVENT water spots from happening in the first place? Let me elaborate:

1) My weekend-only toy is fully PPF covered and I have a home-level ceramic coating over the film, which I routinely top with a good detail spray after each drive. Once the car got caught in a sprinkler soaking and the water spots were a BEAR to get rid of! Why wouldn't they come off more easily with all this protection? How can I better prevent this sort of thing from happening again?

2) Same question but swap in rain instead of sprinkler water.
 
AdamIsAdam said:
I've combed over the forums and don't really see if this has been addressed: Is there a way to PREVENT water spots from happening in the first place? Let me elaborate:

1) My weekend-only toy is fully PPF covered and I have a home-level ceramic coating over the film, which I routinely top with a good detail spray after each drive. Once the car got caught in a sprinkler soaking and the water spots were a BEAR to get rid of! Why wouldn't they come off more easily with all this protection? How can I better prevent this sort of thing from happening again?

2) Same question but swap in rain instead of sprinkler water.
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Yes.

Keep it in an airtight bubble and never take it out. ;)

But seriously, the only way to avoid water spots is to use a good LSP, and keep on top of it.

That goes for wax, sealants, hybrids, or coatings.
 
That's it? But the sprinkler water and sun ate right through it.
 
Don’t park near a sprinkler. The hard water will spot any form of protection.
 
AdamIsAdam said:
That's it? But the sprinkler water and sun ate right through it.
Click to expand...

Sprinkler water/sun (and bird bombs) are the 3 worst things you could ever want on your paint.

If not removed almost immediately, then yes.
 
During the summer months the front of my car gets hit with the sprinkler around 3 or 4 in the morning, and the water is still on the car when the sun comes out.

I had put Optimum Car Wax on it, and they wiped off easily. Later on the season I did some testing with CarPro Gliss, which is a really nice coating. The water spots were a bit harder to remove than the Optimum Car Wax. I actually had to use Optimum MDR and a polish to remove them completely.

In general it seems most coatings don't deal well with water spots. Even the pro level coatings (Caramic Pro, Xpel Fusion Plus) we use at the shop have this issue to a degree.

The only exception seems to be Optimum Gloss Coat - from what I've used.

CarPro came out with a coating called "SIC" which refers to part of the protection components in the formula that resist water spotting. SIC and Sio2 are both found in Optimum Gloss Coat.

Keep in mind that your water might be way word off than what we have here at my gf's condo. My house has super hard well water - the ultimate test! I'll test there next summer.
 
Sprinklers can be brutal. Tap water in many areas is just as bad. The only real prevention that I know of is to dry the car before the water dries. Tap/sprinkler water leaves behind dissolved minerals as the water evaporates. Those minerals can be very hard to remove and in extreme cases actually etch the paint.

Rain water... Typically not as bad as tap water. Water spots from rain are usually the result of small dirt particles left behind as the water evaporates and can usually be removed during a normal wash.
 
Don't forget acid rain: I've seen it cause disasters in paint :(
 
Nothing will stop chemical reactions between minerals in the water and any LSP. Really hard water from sprinklers is horrible.

If a vehicle is parked outside 24/7, there will be some spotting from rain. Acid rain, dust/pollen in the air which sits on the surface, dust/dirt IN the rain (I've seen it rain mud before) all will create spots on the paint. In the case of rain, I've found a good beading/sheeting coating makes all the difference in how hard those spots are to remove, if it leave any behind at all. My coated daily drivers almost never have spots from rain.

The best water spotting protection for a weekend toy would be to park it in a garage, or at least a carport away from the sprinklers. That will keep the water off it and leaving some form of spots when it dries.

What detail spray are you using for the wipe-downs? It might actually be countering the characteristics of the coating and making the problem worse, rather than better.
 
This car is always parked in the garage and under a cover! Only driven on nice days locally. But...

It got hit twice by sprinklers. Once when it was parked WAAAAY in the back of a parking lot, ya know, to be safe! For some bizzare reason, the parking lot's sprinklers came on mid-day when I was in the store. DOH!
The other time (and really damaging one) was when my car was in my driveway and my 17 year old son wanted to play slip-n-slide with his girlfriend in the back yard so he turned on the sprinklers mid-day (ah, young love!). I had no idea he did that! Came to the car to find the nose already spotted up.


I use Griot's Best In Show detailer spray mostly, sometimes their Speed Shine. The car has PPF and Wolfgang Ceramic which is 3 years old (but again, not a daily driver and not even washed that often, mostly wiped down).

I'm reading about how Optimum Gloss Coat is very tough and good at resisting water spots.
 
Gloss Coat is not that tough based on my experience and it will still spot. CarPro SiC will also still spot.
 
Like I've said before..we can send a man to the moon, but we can't stop water spotting.
 
This is about the only way to prevent it.

best-car-umbrella.jpg
 
ok, so I'm going to put a new ceramic on. What are your go-to methods of removing and prepping a 3 year old ceramic coated PPF covered car? AND GO!
 
Kind of an old thread, but I think the answer might be what someone else here mentioned - wax. Imagine that - back to old school. A spray on wax, or maybe a new wax like the Gyeon Q2 Wax.
 
PaulMys said:
Sprinkler water/sun (and bird bombs) are the 3 worst things you could ever want on your paint.

If not removed almost immediately, then yes.
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how about bugs? what is the worst to least worst sprinklers with sun, bird poop, bugs, and rain.
 
2black1s said:
Sprinklers can be brutal. Tap water in many areas is just as bad. The only real prevention that I know of is to dry the car before the water dries. Tap/sprinkler water leaves behind dissolved minerals as the water evaporates. Those minerals can be very hard to remove and in extreme cases actually etch the paint.

Rain water... Typically not as bad as tap water. Water spots from rain are usually the result of small dirt particles left behind as the water evaporates and can usually be removed during a normal wash.
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do you recommend washing car after every rain?
 
tim500 said:
do you recommend washing car after every rain?
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Not necessarily. Rain water will not typically damage the paint like tap/sprinkler water can. The only time I'd really be concerned with rain water is if the sun comes out immediately after the rain and before the water beads have been blown away or otherwise dried.

When a car sits in the sun with water beads on the surface there is a magnifying glass effect that occurs. The water beads, depending on their shape, can focus and intensify the sunlight... That can cause some damage, primarily, discoloration/fading.
 
tim500 said:
how about bugs? what is the worst to least worst sprinklers with sun, bird poop, bugs, and rain.
Click to expand...

Your wording is a little garbled, but none of them are good for paint if not addressed in short order.
 
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