Whats's with it?? My eldest son lives in Stafford Virginia, and he's just bought a new Camaro (Dark Blue) (O.K. ... leave him alone .. it's his choice!!)

He's being plagued with water marks on the paintwork and windows which he can't get off!! He's clay barred the car today with no effect on the marks. The marks can only have come from hose washing the car. Does anyone have any idea if this is something in the water locally, and more importantly does anyone have any idea what might remove them. Any help here would really be appreciated!

Edit:

Sorry folks the marks are now just on the glass!! ???

 

On dark colored cars with the heat and humidity the water spots will show up easily. I live just across the river from your son in Fredericksburg. Here in Virginia the water spots will start to form quickly if you don't dry it off right away or wash your car in the shade. I have clay bared my black truck in the past it has taken three applications to get the water spots off of the top. I hope your son hasn't applied wax over the water spots before trying to clay bar it. If so he will need to try and remove the wax with dish washing detergent and use a precleaner or a good polish to remove the water spots. If that doesn't work then he made need to have it buffed out by a pro. In the future I recommend him to use a detailing spray after he washes his car because it helps remove water spots too.

 

Thanks, that's great. As I understand it, he hasn't waxed the car yet but he has Zymol standing by. He'll appreciate your advice.... I've linked this thread to a BB he uses!

 

I'm the aforementioned "older son" of Cedric with the painful water spot problems. Kinda feels funny "creeping" into a S2K board considering I own a completely different car but hey, you guys hopefully won't key my car, right? LOL

S2K4ever, thanks for the advise you gave and a great deal of it makes sense. I've only had this Camaro for about two months and it's a 2002 model. It's actually my first real dark colored car and I'm sure that makes it 100 times worse - as you said. I do wash the car when the sun's shining - never seems as much fun to wash it when it ain't! LOL I have previously washed and waxed the car several times with Turtle Wax products, ugh, they suck so I went out and bought the Zymol car wash and wax, as well as a claybar kit. Today was a pretty hot day as I'm sure you know being in Fredericksberg and the car became very hot under the sun. I used the Zymol wash and cleaned the car while hosing it off continually, trying to keep the thing as wet as possible. After chamoising it off, I still had the marks on the paint. The rear of the car was in shade and I tried the Zymol wax and it removed the spots from the paint - leaving an awesome shine so I'm not overly concerned about the paint work right now. I also tried it on the glass T Tops where I had some terrible water marks and it failed to remove them! The glass on the car is what concerns me more than anything else and the size of the front and rear screens on the Camaro sure does make for a lot of hard work to try and remove those damn marks! BTW, I also tried the Claybar and to be honest, this really didn't seem to do too much for me at all!

 

You didn't get much help on the Camaro Board then?

 

LOL That figures, the first dig is from my own flesh and blood! Actually, I haven't joined a Camaro board yet though I did join a Jaguar board. But that's REALLY outa place in here so I'll tell you all about that on our board!

 

LOL!! Gaz, I'm hitting the sack, I'm sure these guys will sort you out! There's a member here named Schatten. I seem to remember him posting pics a while back of the most horrendous water marks on his paint and glass after someone turned the sprinkler system on where his car was parked. It was the worst case I've ever seen! Presumably he's got it sorted now. Try dropping him a PM!

 

No Problem. What version of the Zymol did you use? I was thinking about trying the Carbon or Titanium version of Zymol out over top of my Klasse paint sealant for a deeper shine.

 

i recommend the following:

wash the car when the paint is cool and in the shade

immediately after washing the car use either a leafblower or compressed air to dry off the car followed immediately by a synthetic chamois.

chris

 

I washed the car in the blazing heat yesterday (big mistake!) with the intention of doing it all again this morning when it was cool. Well, with the whole neighborhood cutting grass the car's covered in crap again! So, rather than make the same mistake I made yesterday, I'll either wait until tonight when the sun is going down or just forget it until next weekend. The Zymol cleaner wax seems to remove the marks on the paint so I should be okay there but the glass, the marks are almost impossible to get off! I've spent about one and a half hours on just half of the back window trying to get rid of the marks. Glass cleaner wasn't working, white vinegar wasn't working and the only thing that seemed to help at all was a claybar. I used this with a bucket of hot water and a splash of dish detergent instead of the lubricant that came with the claybar. Even so, the marks are still slightly visible after spending this much time on the glass!

Our water comes from a well and I've read that this contains a higher quantity of calcium than city water. I'm thinking seriously about some kind of in-line filter that I can use with the hose to help reduce the calcium content somewhat - if there is such a thing!