Hard water spots

[Neshkoro]

A couple of months ago I painted the hood of my daily driver. Black urethane single stage. Last week I had it parked near an automatic sprinkler. Long story short, the hood is full of hard water spots! I tried what I have in the garage to remove them with no luck. Wax, rubbing compound, etc. I went to the auto parts store and bought a product from Griot's. Griot's Garage Water Spot Remover. Made just for water spot removal. It didn't do jack nothing for the water spots! I checked online. They recommend vinegar and distilled water. Same result. No luck.
Any of you guys have any luck with anything you've tried?
Thanks,
Bill

 

[Spanky]

Lots of car detailers use detailing clay to remove surface imperfections. Have you tried that?

 

[409T]

Mother's makes polishing compounds that are for removing 1200 and finer scratches, 1500 and finer scratches, etc. They are primarily used for cutting and buffing new paint, but I bet would work fine for you. I have a bunch of them and I would love to give you the stock numbers, just come over here and help me find the bottles among the 300 moving boxes. Seriously, go to an automotive paint store (not the auto parts store) and ask them what to use after spraying new paint. The stuff I use comes in about 1 qt. bottles, is about the consistency of sour cream, and I think the coarsest one had a number 100 on the bottle, next was 105 and then 120 and I think a couple more. You can go through the progression, I use gray foam pads, and you should be able to make your paint into a mirror. Just be sure you have enough paint thickness to work with, I'm going to guess that at least 4 coats would be necessary.

 

[Neshkoro]

Spanky, I haven't tried the clay bar yet.
409T, I tried 3M-05937 rubbing compound and Meguiars #1, #3 and #4 compound with limited success. I tried wet sanding a small section with 2000 grit wet sandpaper and buffing. That remove the water marks. If the clay bar does not work, I'll have to resort to wet sanding and buffing.
Thanks for the ideas!!

 

[Indycars]

I've used this 5000 grit to remove spots from paint. Just depends on how deep the stain goes and how fast you want to proceed.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LIXEWXO

I think I would have several option on hand when I got started, some spots may require a dfferent approach.

3000 Grit
https://www.amazon.com/3M-03064-Trizact-Performance-Sandpaper/dp/B005RNGL9O
.

 

[AusBucket]

Hard water (calcium) spots can be really hard to deal with, unfortunately, especially if your paint is somewhat soft. I'd recommend treating your paint with a Ceramic coating once the spots are dealt with. The Ceramic is quite a bit harder than the paint. I do paint, plastics, wheels and calipers on my cars. The brake dust just washes straight off the wheels and calipers and bird droppings etc have no effect if treated fairly quickly.

 

[Neshkoro]

Thanks AusBucket. I will try that.

 

[Spanky]

Please let us know the outcome, Bill. We can all learn from this!

 

[409T]

Obviously CRS has set in. I said Mother's that should have been Meguiar's Mirror Glaze.

 

[Neshkoro]

I bought the clay bar kit from Meguiar’s.
I tried a small section as the direction said. It really didn’t do much. It’s funny. It smoothed out the paint but you could still see the water marks deep in the paint. I also bought some 3000 grit wet sandpaper. I tried a small area. I wet sanded and buffed with compound. That did the trick. I didn’t want to have to do that but I hated the water spots. Lesson learned. Don’t park near a sprinkler!

 

[Spanky]

I'd recommend treating your paint with a Ceramic coating once the spots are dealt with. The Ceramic is quite a bit harder than the paint. I do paint, plastics, wheels and calipers on my cars. The brake dust just washes straight off the wheels and calipers and bird droppings etc have no effect if treated fairly quickly.

Hey AusBucket . . . do you use the Cerakote which IndyCars uses on his polished metal projects? It seems to be pretty bulletproof, but I wonder how it works as a clear coat over paint . . .

Cerakote Coatings & Cerakote Swatch Samples | Shop All Products

 

[Neshkoro]

I just finished wet sanding the hood with 2000 and then 3000grit wet sandpaper and buffing it with 3M 05937 compound. I then sprayed TurtleWax Ceramic Coating on it. All the water spots are gone. It looks pretty good. Not show finish but good enough for my daily driver. Thanks to all those who offered advice

 

[AusBucket]

G'Day Spanky
I've heard of the Cerakote, always thought it was for exhaust sytems etc. The Ceramic treatment for car paintwork is marketed by lots of companies under various brand names, and is also marketed on InYaFacebook for DIYers.
It raises the surface hardness of the paint. It's amazing how easily dirt etc washes off after treatment, I love it. Brake dust just washes straight off the calipers and wheels. The Company that applied mine reminded me to keep the car clean for paint longevity.

 

[Indycars]

It raises the surface hardness of the paint. It's amazing how easily dirt etc washes off after treatment, I love it. Brake dust just washes straight off the calipers and wheels.

Are you spraying clear over a color, I think that's what Spanky was asking about??? I didn't think it would work. I'm not sure but it seems like I tried it, and it didn't work. But that would have been with MC-5100 for polished aluminum. Maybe the MC-160 would work, I need to test that next time I'm spraying some clear MC-160.

 

[fletcherson]

Bummer! Fresh unprotected paint is so vulnerable to water spots, bird poop, bugs, etc. Wet sanding and buffing is hard, time consuming work. Black is also unforgiving. That was one of the stresses when I did body and restoration work. Getting the vehicle delivered ASAP without such damage. The worse I remember was a cream color Buick that was freshly painted, reassembled, and waiting to be picked up. I parked it behind the shop to avoid any contamination, etc... so I thought. When I went to get it, it had rust circles everywhere on the top surfaces. Apparently some air born iron dust from grinding or something settled on it. Believe it or not, Iron Out removed it, and a complimentary polish. I thought for sure I was respaying it, and it was acrylic enamel. Not favorable to working on fresh.

 

[fletcherson]

Bummer! Fresh unprotected paint is so vulnerable to water spots, bird poop, bugs, etc. Wet sanding and buffing is hard, time consuming work. Black is also unforgiving. That was one of the stresses when I did body and restoration work. Getting the vehicle delivered ASAP without such damage. The worse I remember was a cream color Buick that was freshly painted, reassembled, and waiting to be picked up. I parked it behind the shop to avoid any contamination, etc... so I thought. When I went to get it, it had rust circles everywhere on the top surfaces. Apparently some air born iron dust from grinding or something settled on it. Believe it or not, Iron Out removed it, and a complimentary polish. I thought for sure I was respaying it, and it was acrylic enamel. Not favorable to working on fresh.

This topic got me thinking, just for a giggle, I have to share one of my memories from when my father and uncle owned a body shop in the ‘70’s. They primarily did work for car lots to spruce up the trade in cars and resell. They had painted a Malibu, white... meanwhile my dad picked up a ‘66 coronet and decided to repaint it. Nice car, btw. They even had a paint booth. Anyways, the plumb crazy purple overspray somehow managed to contaminate the fresh white paint and created a pink-ish color. My dad, being the hustler that he was, chose to delay delivery until they had multiple cars to drop off and done it at night. When the salesman, who accepted delivery, noticed the pink hue, pops blamed it on the street lights... and pulled it off. Anyways, glad you got your water spots resolved.

 

[Neshkoro]

Thanks Fletch! It was good upper body exercise ( for this old upper body)! It had been rained on after I painted it but these spots were from an automatic sprinkler. I won’t let that happen again. I had one of those automatic sprinklers on the garden hose that I forgot to shut off.
Dummy