Water spots and was my car REALLY detailed fully?

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tk123

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First post, sorry it's such a long one!

I had some pretty ugly water spots. Entirely my fault. My sprinkler hit my car for an hour and a half every morning, and the car was not dried, for the last 3 months. Each morning the sun came up and shined brightly on it. Add to that, I haven't waxed it in at least a year.

So, I have neither the time nor the patience or the know how to detail a car myself and I have no good place to do it even if I were so inclined. My driveway is in the sun all day until it goes down. I brought it to a local car wash/detailer that I have brought my cars to for years (never a detail, just washes) with good results, so I figured I would give it a shot. They state they do the following... Clay magic, compound and polish, caruba paste wax/teflon and hand glaze. When I look closely, I can still see the water spots which would lead me to believe that once the wax starts to thin the spots will be more visible.

My question is, based on all the info here, do you think if they really did all they claim, would I still see water spots? I also see some light swirl marks and I NEVER use a circular motion when I wash and dry so I know I didn't cause that. Should I bring it back and complain?
 
Sounds like you had some water etching especially if you're water is reclaimed. Their process doesnt make too much sense becasue glazing after polishing and waxing makes no sense, unfortunately I think they maybe gave you some smoke and mirrors and didn't spend anywhere near enough time or quality work on it. Give it some time for the glaze to come off and the wax to degrade and it's likely it'll look the same as before.

I don't think giving them a second chance would lead to any better work, likely need to take it to a different detailer that has experience using quality products and knows paint correction.
 
Thanks for your reply. To be honest, I'm not sure of the order of their process. I just listed what was listed on their site. I imagine they would follow the order correctly. But yes, I suspected water etching. So my original question is, IF they did do ALL that correctly, should it have worked or would only something along the lines of wet sanding do the job?
 
tk123 said:
Thanks for your reply. To be honest, I'm not sure of the order of their process. I just listed what was listed on their site. I imagine they would follow the order correctly. But yes, I suspected water etching. So my original question is, IF they did do ALL that correctly, should it have worked or would only something along the lines of wet sanding do the job?
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If you wash, clay, compound, polish, wax you should be able to remove water etching. There are possible severe cases that may require more but it's rare.
 
It is completely unacceptable. I rarely ever compound a car because I normally just do daily drivers. However any reputable shop wouldn't let a car leave that way without addressing it with you/the customer. Some rids are too deep to be removed and on some cars, and some cars have lost too much clear coat to remove all imperfections, but in either case this should have been explained to you, preferably before but definitely after the detail. I hate to say it, but I think you should look for another detailer. I only do it part time, but I've recently had a job to fix a car a detailer hacked up and it's just frustrating to see a customer pay for something and not recieve what was promised.
 
af90 said:
If you wash, clay, compound, polish, wax you should be able to remove water etching. There are possible severe cases that may require more but it's rare.
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Well that's the thing... It was pretty bad. As I said it literally got sprinkled on EVERY day for 3+ months and the car sat in the sun while it dried.
 
top189h said:
It is completely unacceptable. I rarely ever compound a car because I normally just do daily drivers. However any reputable shop wouldn't let a car leave that way without addressing it with you/the customer. Some rids are too deep to be removed and on some cars, and some cars have lost too much clear coat to remove all imperfections, but in either case this should have been explained to you, preferably before but definitely after the detail. I hate to say it, but I think you should look for another detailer. I only do it part time, but I've recently had a job to fix a car a detailer hacked up and it's just frustrating to see a customer pay for something and not recieve what was promised.
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Yeah... I had the detailing manager do a walk around with me so I could verify that there was 0 damage to the vehicle, and he remarked on the water spots and that I shouldn't park under the sprinkler but he never mentioned how difficult they may be to removed.
 
Water spots, especially if left untreated, will etch deep into the paint. Severely etched spots may go so deep into the clear coat that they cannot be completely removed by polishing.

Assuming the shop you took your vehicle to is performing REAL paint correction (not filling/hiding imperfections with glaze/wax) they should be able to explain how much material (paint) was removed from polishing and why not all defects were removed. Perhaps there is not enough film build to completely restore the finish... or perhaps they are not performing true paint correction.

Sent from my N9810 using AG Online
 
Honest question needs to be asked, where are you located and what did you pay for this service?

Kinda need to know before determining if you are in your rights to complain. The glaze part of the equation leads me to believe this was a cheap detail from a volume production shop and the high quality work you were expecting did not match the price.


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tk123 said:
Well that's the thing... It was pretty bad. As I said it literally got sprinkled on EVERY day for 3+ months and the car sat in the sun while it dried.
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Do you have any pictures by chance? I've seen water etching so deep it required chemicals to break down. But I've also taken care of water etching from sprinklers with just polishing in a similar situation.
 
I should clarify... I did not have "high expectations" going in, because I did not know anything was wrong. I thought the water spots were just from the fact that the car hadn't been properly polished and waxed in a long time. It wasn't until I came home and looked closely that I realized they hadn't disappeared completely and so I started to research why. This is indeed a high volume car wash, though it is one of the nicer ones I have seen.

It was only $109 (I'm in Long Island, NY) for the exterior only detail so I'm not overly concerned with the money. I'm just trying to ascertain if they actually did do all they advertise. "Paint correction" was never mentioned. If they did what they say they do and it didn't correct the issue, then I'm not blaming them. If they did not do what was advertised, then I have an issue. regardless of what I paid.
 
af90 said:
Do you have any pictures by chance? I've seen water etching so deep it required chemicals to break down. But I've also taken care of water etching from sprinklers with just polishing in a similar situation.
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Unfortunately I did not take any recent before pictures and the after pictures I don't believe will show the issue because I really had to get the proper viewing angle to see them. I'll check my pics and post if anything can be seen.
 
af90 said:
If you wash, clay, compound, polish, wax you should be able to remove water etching. There are possible severe cases that may require more but it's rare.
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I did a 370Z a couple weeks ago that I couldn't get the water spots out with compounding with a rotary and M101... def needed to be wetsanded. Customer didn't want to pay the extra $ so the water spots stayed. It looked significantly better but not perfect by any means.
 
Mach1USMC said:
I did a 370Z a couple weeks ago that I couldn't get the water spots out with compounding with a rotary and M101... def needed to be wetsanded. Customer didn't want to pay the extra $ so the water spots stayed. It looked significantly better but not perfect by any means.
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Yep there are those few random cases that require wetsanding, I've also heard of chemically removing water etching but very extreme cases.
 
af90 said:
Yep there are those few random cases that require wetsanding, I've also heard of chemically removing water etching but very extreme cases.
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Without pics it's hard to say for sure but I bet he's got pretty severe etching based on what he's said so far.
 
The similar places around my town do production style detailing and use production style products. Its not bad, its just what you pay for - Rotary compounding with a wool pad or foam cutting pad and finishing it down with glaze/wax/finish polish all in one via foam pad on a rotary. For a lot of people, that is acceptable. Expect to spend atleast $200 for a CHEAP detailer in your area capable of removing waterspots while leaving minimal rotary buffer marks

The wording of their services is just filler to make it seem like youre getting a good deal. And for 109, they did what they could. They probably offer a car wash with a triple foam polish and hyper spray wax with real carnauba protection for like $29.99 right?
 
tk123 said:
You're so right... I should probably go back and delete every post where I complained. Done. Funny... I didn't have to delete anything. Weird.
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He was trying to point out that you shouldn't expect much for $109. I would charge $240 + for that.
 
tk123 said:
You're so right... I should probably go back and delete every post where I complained. Done. Funny... I didn't have to delete anything. Weird.
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real detailing takes time.. a lot of it, and it costs quite a bit due to the time. which is pretty much what you pay for until you get into permanent coatings.

if you don't want all kinds of advice and answers then don't bother with forums, it's a place where people speak their minds, so expect anything.


the last reply was right though, 240 seems close to what it would normally cost. when you take your car to a place that tells you they can do a "full detail" for close to a hundred. you are basically getting a tunnel wash, some guy drying the car halfway before another goes full speed with a rotary. and then they cover up all of the holograms with a glaze/wax, give it a month and your car will probably look worse than before.


although here is the real question here. what are you doing about your driveway and current conditions of the car? if you plan to keep leaving it in the sprinklers and collecting water spots every morning, you should just save your money, because improper maintenance will destroy the best detail in just one wash.

if you do end up wanting to pay good money for a good detail, ie, enough correction (probably 2 or 3 step) to get rid of those water spots, and then add a very durable and long lasting sealant or coating. you are going to need to pony up a little over 300 or so if you find the right person. and then you'll also need to tackle the task of finding out what to do about the reason why your car go the water spots in the first place. it's just throwing money away the same as having someone do a full detail of your cars interior, and then taking a kids soccer team to the local dairy queen for chocolate ice cream cones in the summer heat with no AC.... improper maintenance spells disaster.
 
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