Every since I moved to Georgia my car has some new friends, in the form of a disease that encases pretty much every square inch of the car; including the glass. I've tried all that I can and the result has increased swirl marks, so lastly I've read that you can do an Acid wash to loosen the minerals in the hard water so you can wash them away, I'm taking it to a shop tomorrow that says they can do just this...

However, I don't want to pay out the rear... so what is a good price for any knowledgable folks, and will this solve my problem?

 

Acid wash? What the hell is that?

Have you tired washing with Dawn (to strip any wax), then clay bar treatment? The clay should strip water spots. Then wax/polish with a quality product after that.

 

1. Try a claybar.
2. If claybar is not strong enough, use meguire's scratch-x and some elbow grease.

3. Dont hose your car off unless you are washing it and you wont get water spots.

 

For the WINDOWS you can use fine steel wool with lots of windshield cleaner.

For body paint I used claybar followed by good cleaner wax (had good results with Mothers).

For plastics Mothers back-to-black is great to get rid of backed-on dirt/oxidation.

 

Don't forget a synthetic shammy cloth.

 

Ok man i had the same problem as you did with my car and its a 2000 so there were a lot of water spots on my car. First, You need to plan about 8 hours. Acid bath is a joke. All it is is white distilled viniger and i tried it and it didnt work. First wash the car. Second buy meguires polisher and polish the enitre car. Buffer would yeild best results. After you polish the car and let it harden for 15 minutes take the polish off with a micro fiber cloth towel. Next step is to clay bar the entire car. The clay bar will remove any polish that is left on the car and will leave it smooth. Make sure to put a lot of work with the clay bar and the polisher on the water spots. Finally after all that is done then you wax your car with carnubera wax that megurires has or mothers. When i finished it looked like i painted my car and all my water spots and sun spots were gone. Hope that helps. Also to maintain the car, do not leave water on your car. For instance, after it rains dry the car off so the water doesnt leave stains.

 

The first thing you are suppose to do after washing is to clay it not polish it. Claying removes contaminents on the surface of the paint and leaves it smooth for polishing. Now you can polish your car. Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish and Advanced Swirl Remover or any light polish will be perfect with a Porter Cable polisher. Then you can apply a wax of your choice. You can find alot of information on autogeek.net, amazing site with videos and everything you need to know.

 

Hmm.. I use to use Zaino's. I loved it, left my car smooth as silk and looking great. I detailed my car the day before I left for Georgia and then the first week in Georgia it rained for a week straight, no kidding. Then, combined with all the dust/dirt my car started looking like crap, but I didn't have any time to wash it so it stayed that way for almost a week or two. Finally when I washed it, the spots wouldn't come out. I spent half a day, scrubbing with a claybar and using all the various waxes/polishes, everything I had, and nothing worked. I've since then took it to multiple drive-thru carwashes, washed it myself, scrubbed with claybar again... nothing is working, and the result is my car is covered in swirl marks.

I read online about removing water spots, and site after site says you need to use an Acid wash. The acid will help liquidfy the minerals causing the hard water spots, and thus let them be washed away.

 

If you wash then polish, you are just polishing the contaminents that are
still on there that you want the clay bar to remove. I would not polish before
the clay bar as you are putting a polisher on contaminents that still present
on the vehicles surface, Bad idea.
Wash
Clay bar
Dry
Wax
Done

You could try a very diluted solution of [brand name] CLR (Calcium Lime Rust remover).

 

Well, I took it to that place that I was recommended to. It was like a shady little business, but I am not going to judge anyone just by appearance. So the guy looks at it, sprays some water on it and grabs a rag and wipes it off. Says, sure I can get those out.

I'm a very patient person, and my paint is so horrible to me that I'm to the point of "as long as it looks good from 10 feet i'm ok" but these waterspots kill me, and I know I can't do much myself for the swirl marks (I think all those "swirl removers" are pieces of junk, as well as most automotive store products) but the waterspots can be removed; i'm just not experienced enough on the know-how.

So the guy washes it, and I could have sworn I saw him washing around the wheel on the other side, with the same mit he was using to wash my car with... but ok, again... not being picky; as long as it looks good with a wax and doesn't have water spots, again I'm ok with it. Then apparently someone he knows very well, but doesn't "work" with him, comes over and decides he wants to help wash my car, and the guy goes "Oh no, don't do that... it's got acid on it" and when he says acid he looks up at me. The only reason why he even mentioned it was I'm sure because I mentioned that acid washing can take off the water spots. Infact I'm sure it was just a bottle full of vinegar and water.

So then they dry the car off with little shamwoo things and drive the car out into the sun, where they applied a coat of paste wax. Then started removing it with towels, and leaving smears and whatever else.. So he asks what I think, cause I don't trust anyone enough to leave my car there with them. I look at it, and I can see left over wax, still seeing water spots, and all this other stuff. I stated that I wasn't impressed, and apparently for $150 all they were doing was a wash, a "acid wash" and a 1 coat of "wax cleaner"

I told them that I wasn't happy, and that it didn't represent a professional detailing job for the price and I wasn't paying $150. So he said "$100 then, and bring it back and we'll do it again." and I'm like... to myself, I'm not trusting you with my car again. So I said "$50 and we'll call it a day." nevertheless I ended up paying him $80, but plan on reporting him both to the on post (i'm military) services, so they can investigate and bar soldiers from using him, as well as maybe BBB.

I'm sorry, but for that price you expect real results, and real professional work. He even had some 15 year old kid working on my car, but I let them do there thing until I saw the finished product. Remember, $150 for just the outside... that is ridiculous, but I was willing to pay as long as the outside came out looking good. I know it wasn't going to be perfect because of swirl marks and other imperfections, but I've done much better jobs myself; with the minus of the now water spots...