Hard Water Spots

[Bob1956]

Will Iron X remove hard water spots? I have tried Chemical Guys, Meguiars and Mothers and none of them touch the hard water spots on my truck

 

[TrustJesus]

I’m not sure if iron x will remove it.

Maybe the water spots need some polishing or compound. The more the are on the more tough they stick to clear coat.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Because this is your first post,

Welcome to AutogeekOnline! :welcome:

Will Iron X remove hard water spots? I have tried Chemical Guys, Meguiars and Mothers and none of them touch the hard water spots on my truck

No.

For everyone reading this into the future....

When some says or writes,

Hard Water (spots)


Hard Water means MINERALS in the water that WERE dissolved and after the water evaporated the minerals returned to their SOLID form and are now on the car paint.


Most the time when someone says they have Hard Water Spots on their car's paint or anything, it's usually worse than just some crusty minerals ON the surface.

It's usually some kind of actual MARK or ETCHING that is IN the paint not ON the paint and the only way to effectively and functionally remove it is to ABRADE the surface.

This means using,

Compound
Polish
AIO

Something with abrasives.


What everyone wants is something fast as easy. Something you wipe on and then wipe off and Shazam! Water spots be gone.

If it is in fact DRIED MINERALS ON the paint - then a liquid water spot remover will work to break the bond between the minerals and the paint so you can then "wipe them off".

If it's ANYTHING more than this then the liquid spot removes won't work.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Sorry to say, I probably have more articles on "water spots" than any detailer or YouTube influencer breathing air on Planet Earth.

And - having grown up and detailed cars in OREGON - I"m a tick familiar with water spots.


Imprint Rings - A specific type of water spot on car paint by Mike Phillips

3 - Types of Water Spots - Type I, Type II and Type III

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

And this post is the reason I wrote this new article.

What's in the water?

Tough problem.

Can you share a PICTURE?

 

[Bob1956]

It's a white truck and it's difficult to get a good picture. All the photos you have posted is what I have.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

It's a white truck and it's difficult to get a good picture. All the photos you have posted is what I have.

When I deal with the "Water Spot Problem" the first thing I like to find out is,

Do you know what the root cause is?

Is it from water sprinklers? So City Water or Well Water?

Is it from the rain? Your geographical weather? An area of high industrail pollution?

It won't do any good to remove the water spots if they're just going to come back.


Besides that - if you don't see them gone after a thorough washing - the next question is,

Do you own a polisher?


You're going to have to machine polish the paint to remove the spots. You can work by hand, but as thousands of posts on this forum share - working by hand is really in-effective for this type of project.

I'm shooting a LIVE detailing class today and sharing to entry level tools for people that want (or need) to get into machine polishing but don't want to break the bank and also don't want to be come a "detailer".


See the bottom of the forum homepage.

 

[jps832]

Hi Mike,

First, thanks for all you do!

Was wondering if your class will be addressing working on single-stage paint, as I have some water spots on red paint I’d like to address. Not sure of the origin of the water spots, as I just got the car.

Thanks!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Hi Mike,

First, thanks for all you do!

Was wondering if your class will be addressing working on single-stage paint, as I have some water spots on red paint I’d like to address. Not sure of the origin of the water spots, as I just got the car.

Thanks!

You're in luck. My upcoming September class will have an all original single stage 1968 Cadillac.

I shared that in the announcement thread for the class here,

https://www.autogeekonline.net/foru...tailing-classes-planet-earth.html#post1687479


My guess is they look like this?



3 - Types of Water Spots - Type I, Type II and Type III


Type III Water Spots


Type III Water Spots are spots that look faded or dull and are found primarily found on single stage paints after a water source lands on and then pools on the paint and is usually left to dwell on the surface for some measure of time before it evaporates or is wiped-off the surface.

Modern clear coat paints tend to be harder and impermeable, that is non-porous, so liquids don't penetrated easily and thus stain spots tend to be topical, that is only affect the very upper surface and are easier and safer to remove with a compound or polish.

Older single stage paints tend to be soft and permeable, or porous, it's common for liquids to penetrate into the paint and stain the paint below the surface. Removing stains out of single stage paints can be risky because in order to remove the stains you have to abrade the paint and if the stains penetrated deep then you risk removing too much in an effort to try to remove them completely.

Usually the only way to undo the staining is to abrade the paint and if you abrade the paint to much you get to see the primer and then the shiny steel under the primer.

You can try #7 Show Car Glaze, it can "help" or "improve" but not always remove.

See video #3 here,

Complete List of Live Broadcast Videos on YouTube - Yancy Martinez & Mike Phillips

 

[jps832]

The car is a 1998 Mitsubishi 3000GT in Caracas Red.

I tried to get a picture of some of the spots, not sure how well they’ll be seen.

View attachment 70700

It passes the 15 foot test, but the spots are there. Just got a GG G9 and G6, along with some LC ThinPro pads, but FedEx seems to have lost the 5 inch vented backing plate I ordered from GG (who had them in stock), so I have no 5 inch backing plate at this time.

Perhaps #7 show car glaze I is in order, does that have any abrading qualities or is that something that will provide high shine while living with the spots (which I can accept versus primer and steel)?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Perhaps #7 show car glaze I is in order, does that have any abrading qualities or is that something that will provide high shine while living with the spots (which I can accept versus primer and steel)?

The #7 is non-abrasive. So it might work via the pad doing the abrading.

The spots don't look bad in the pictures.


I'd get a good one step cleaner/wax machine apply it.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here's a product I like for all the chrome trim on new cars and trucks....

Might work, might not work, definitely won't hurt anything.


Mothers California Gold All-Chrome Cleaner

 

[jps832]

Sorry, been away for a while. So for using the pad, would a white thin pro pad be too much. The black and red thin pro pads have no cutting from what I understand.

The spots aren’t that bad, but it’s one of those “I know it’s there” issues.

Thanks!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Hi Mike,

First, thanks for all you do!

Was wondering if your class will be addressing working on single-stage paint, as I have some water spots on red paint I’d like to address. Not sure of the origin of the water spots, as I just got the car.

Thanks!

Yes, see the Cadillac here. Might be some other single stage paint cars in the class too...

Training Cars - For the September 2020 Detailing Class

Sorry, been away for a while.

So for using the pad, would a white thin pro pad be too much. The black and red thin pro pads have no cutting from what I understand.

The spots aren’t that bad, but it’s one of those “I know it’s there” issues.

Thanks!

In the Lake Country ThinPro line of pads - the white foam is your basic all-around general purpose foam "polishing" pads.

YES - it would be a great pad to start with and test with. Buff a section with the water spots with this pad and then inspect the results.

If the paint looks great - continue.

If the spots still remain - need to test either a more aggressive pad or product or both.

 

[jps832]

Over the weekend, decided to work on this. When I got the car a month and a half ago, I washed it, clayed it with a mitt, and covered it with Bead Maker just to get something on it until I could get the time to try to do some correction. Washed it weekly since acquisition and hit it with Bead Maker every other wash.Two weeks ago, ordered a GG9 and GG6 along with some ThinPro pads.


After washing and claying to remove Bead Maker (to be honest, only confirmation I had that the Bead Maker was gone was less water beading) I used the GG9 polisher (with 5 inch vented GG plate and 5.5 inch pads) and tried a test spot with the white LC ThinPro Pads. As I saw a recommendation for an AIO since we were dealing with single stage paint (more about that later...) I went with HD Speed. Test spot turned out pretty good, so proceeded cautiously over the rest of the car (1998 3000GT I just acquired a mointh and a half ago).

As I worked my way around the car, it was going well, as the hood came out quite nice. Mover to the doors, and all was well as the HD Speed was easy to work with for this inexperienced polishing person. Since I have shade/sun challenges behind the house, I decided to work on the roof of the car, which rendered more paint than the other areas. It polished/AIO'ed up nice, but seeing that much paint was a bit scary (to be honest, If I had started there, I probably would have stopped for fear of not having 25 white ThinPro pads). Continued with the back of the car, which also rendered more paint than expected but was workable, as I followed Mike's advice in other articles about having a good amount of pads. Had 10 of the 5.5 inch pads to start, and wound up going through 9 of them. Use the GG 6 and 3 inch ThinPro pads for the smaller areas where I could.

I do have an issue with getting the pads clean after using HD Speed, as there appears to be some permanent staining (tried WG Pad Worx, Blackfire Pad Cleaner, BlackFire APC with a pad brush to no avail).

View attachment 70801

Overall, the AIO left some expected imperfections, but considering the inconsistent paint (some areas seemed to behave like single stage, some like clear coat) 33I am happy with how it looks. The water spots are done, save for a couple in different areas of the vehicle. Here are some of the pictures (resized to get them up on the site):

View attachment 70802

View attachment 70804

I do want to thank Mike for his guidance/advice, as it helped remove some of the concern I had on doing this car as my first with the GG9 and ThinPro pads. I know it can probably be better, but I feel like I've done well without removing too much paint (I have no ideas of the paint history of the car, and don't have a paint thickness gauge...yet). If anyone has experience with getting HD Speed staining out of the ThinPro pads, that'd be great. If not, guess I'll have to order more for my other cars, and save these for this car and AIO). Also, thanks to the other forum members who posted questions and advice which made things easier and helped quell some fears I had in doing this.

Thanks!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I used the GG9 polisher (with 5 inch vented GG plate and 5.5 inch pads) and tried a test spot with the white LC ThinPro Pads.

As I saw a recommendation for an AIO since we were dealing with single stage paint (more about that later...) I went with HD Speed.

Test spot turned out pretty good, so proceeded cautiously over the rest of the car (1998 3000GT I just acquired a mointh and a half ago).

Thanks for the follow-up. An AIO is a SAFE route for old single stage paint.

By the way - VERY COOL CAR. I knew a Tech at Hewlett-Packard that bought this same car in red when it came out brand new. Was always impressed by the engineering at the time this car was introduced and the sporty looks.

As I worked my way around the car, it was going well, as the hood came out quite nice. Mover to the doors, and all was well as the HD Speed was easy to work with for this inexperienced polishing person.

3D HD Speed is another amazing AIO. Works great for defect removal, easy wipe-off, zero micro-marring issues. Just a dang nice product.

Since I have shade/sun challenges behind the house, I decided to work on the roof of the car, which rendered more paint than the other areas.

Horizontal panels tend to degrade the most and the fastest and this is probably why it gave up more paint.

It polished/AIO'ed up nice, but seeing that much paint was a bit scary (to be honest, If I had started there, I probably would have stopped for fear of not having 25 white ThinPro pads).

Continued with the back of the car, which also rendered more paint than expected but was workable, as I followed Mike's advice in other articles about having a good amount of pads.

Had 10 of the 5.5 inch pads to start, and wound up going through 9 of them. Use the GG 6 and 3 inch ThinPro pads for the smaller areas where I could.

Thank you for your TRUST. And YES - more pads are better.

I do have an issue with getting the pads clean after using HD Speed, as there appears to be some permanent staining (tried WG Pad Worx, Blackfire Pad Cleaner, BlackFire APC with a pad brush to no avail).

That's normal and you'll never remove the pigment staining. But the GOOD NEWS is it won't affect the performance of the pad.

I have dozens of stained pads in the AG Garage and have ZERO hesitation to use them on anything.

Also - I run all our foam and microfiber pads through the washing and drying machine. I've been here 11 years and there are probably pads in the garage that have been here just as long.

I only wash twisted wool cutting pads and then air dry them.

Overall, the AIO left some expected imperfections, but considering the inconsistent paint (some areas seemed to behave like single stage, some like clear coat) 33I am happy with how it looks.

The water spots are done, save for a couple in different areas of the vehicle.

For original paint on such a cool car I would do just like you did. A thorough machine buffing with an AIO that uses great abrasive technology and appreciate what was removed and learn to live with what's left over.

You don't want to see PRIMER.


I uploaded your pictures to your free gallery here,

jps832 Gallery - AutogeekOnline Gallery

Here are some of the pictures (resized to get them up on the site):

You did an amazing job!

I do want to thank Mike for his guidance/advice, as it helped remove some of the concern I had on doing this car as my first with the GG9 and ThinPro pads.


I know it can probably be better, but I feel like I've done well without removing too much paint (I have no ideas of the paint history of the car, and don't have a paint thickness gauge...yet).

Just take care of her now and maybe once a year do a light polishing with the 3D HD Speed.

If anyone has experience with getting HD Speed staining out of the ThinPro pads, that'd be great. If not, guess I'll have to order more for my other cars, and save these for this car and AIO).

Just keep using them. See my comments above.

Also, thanks to the other forum members who posted questions and advice which made things easier and helped quell some fears I had in doing this.

Thanks!

If I had time I would create your own thread as this started out as some guy named Bob's thread asking questions about water spots in his truck and after I answered his two posts we never seen him again.

Will Iron X remove hard water spots? I have tried Chemical Guys, Meguiars and Mothers and none of them touch the hard water spots on my truck

It's a white truck and it's difficult to get a good picture. All the photos you have posted is what I have.

Thank you for the follow-up and the pictures. So many people get help here, including thousands if not tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of LURKERS and we never hear a peep out of them.

So thank you. And.. nice work.


:dblthumb2: