PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum (http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/)
-   Detailing and Interior (http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/detailing-interior/)
-   -   Water spot plague (http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/detailing-interior/344739-water-spot-plague.html)

sassparilla_kid 10-10-2013 12:01 AM

Water spot plague
 
1 Attachment(s)
Hello all, as some of you may or may not know I recently had my w115 240D painted(midnight/navy blue-ish), and when I finally got it back from the body shop after two and a half months (I was in a rear end collision so they had to fix that, which took a while) the car was amazingly clean! They were even kind enough to give me some mystery spray wax (mystery because it was in an unlabeled bottle) which I used on a fairly regular basis. Despite my efforts to keep the paint immaculate looking, apparently my mom's sprinklers are not the directional kind and spray in all directions, and decided to leave water spots all along the driver's side of the car, and it has slowly gotten spots over the rest of the car as well. I tried to keep them off with with more wax, but it didn't work. I suspect they gave me some kind of spray detailer that didn't really have any wax in it.

Today I thought I would try to maybe get some of the spots off, so I washed the car thoroughly, dried it off, then pulled it in the car to begin work. So far I have tried a clay bar with some Mothers spray stuff (whatever came with the clay), wiping it down with distilled white vinegar diluted down (1:3 vinegar:water), alternating between the two, etc. I am having limited success.

Is there some other trick I should know about, or am I going to just need to bite the bullet and take it to somebody to remove the spots, or use some kind of mild abrasive polish on it myself?:confused: The spots are very bothersome and I'm not sure how much longer I can live with them. (People would flag me down to say how clean the car was right after I bought it, not any more though :()

Here's a picture before spots, I don't really have any after and its too dark out to take any tonight

oldsinner111 10-11-2013 09:03 AM

first how old the paint? If over a year old,I would use Mothers cleaner wax.By the way beautiful ride

rocky raccoon 10-11-2013 10:19 AM

Once you get it clean
 
Go after the cause. Sounds like you need a water softener system on your water supply.

sassparilla_kid 10-11-2013 11:11 AM

Hey the paint is maybe 7 months old, and yeah I plan on changing the sprinklers at some point for some that don't overspray everywhere. I think this is the nicest car anybody I'm related to owns so hopefully I can keep it that way. And I'm gonna look into that cleaner wax later

MBeige 10-11-2013 03:24 PM

I've tried the following on removing water spots (in no particular order)

1. Clay bar
2. Paint cleaner (similar to cleaner wax but more paint cleaner than wax)
3. Meguiar's fine-cut cleaner
4. Meguiar's ScratchX

#3 and 4 are more abrasive than #1 and 2. #2 removes oxidation and on-paint contaminants where #1 removes in-paint (embedded) contaminants

Sprinkler heads can be adjusted or replace with angled units - I had to change mine when they sprayed over the first time I got them to run after buying the house. Then adjusted and fine tuned the spray pattern/s.

Ferdman 10-12-2013 05:14 AM

SK, recommend getting advice from the body shop that repainted your 240D on how to deal with the water spots on the paint. From my experience the water-based paint (without VOC's) used these days is not as durable as the original paint on your vintage automobile. Using a mild abrasive cleaner may be too harsh for 7-month old paint. So proceed cautiously to avoid permanent damage to the paint. The hard water has likely caused a chemical reaction with the paint. A mild polish will likely produce the best results, followed by an application of carnuba wax.

bricktron 10-14-2013 12:23 AM

it also seems to me that a delicate polishing is in order. it would be helpful, though, to know what chemicals were in the (hard) tap water that left the spots.


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:03 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2024 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Peach Parts or Pelican Parts Website