HARD water...what is the cure

[sd_boxster]

944 has the answer - wash your car at dusk or in the shade. Otherwise, especially on a dark car, you'll never get the water off in time. My wife's Jeep is black, and if I try to wash it during the day, it looks like absolute crap. I can't wash it fast enough to keep the water from drying on the part I do first.

[CaptainObvious]

You should be able to dry it quickly if you rinse properly. You have to take the sprayer off of the hose and then rinse with the hose close to the car. This causes a sheeting action. Then a small towel will dry the entire car.

[eightsandaces]

Griots garage makes an insanely expensive filtering car wash system. The Mr. Clean unit that came out a couple years ago works on a similar principle for a bout a third of the cost, you might want to google it and see what peeps are saying.

[schnellman]

I put in a whole house water softener for obvious reasons. I then had the plumber hook up two outdoor faucets. One has untreated water for the lawn, garden, etc. The other goes through the softener to provide water for car washing. I washed the Box yesterday and in addition to using the leaf blower to dry the wheels, I also blew the excess water off the entire body before drying with microfiber towels.

[Frodo]

Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

You should be able to dry it quickly if you rinse properly. You have to take the sprayer off of the hose and then rinse with the hose close to the car. This causes a sheeting action. Then a small towel will dry the entire car.

Yeah, I've read about using that technique. I tend to do the opposite: As I progress with the car washing/rinsing, I keep wetting down the areas that I've already rinsed, so that it doesn't dry. When I'm done, I use a chamois---a technique that some advocate and some (including our resident expert in the area of detailing, Perfectlap) condemn. As long as it's a quality chamois (and replaced from time to time), I've used them year after year with (far as I can tell) no adverse effects on the finish. I don't seem to have water spot problems. Two things that might come into play in my case: (1) I live in Ohio, and it's obviously not as hot and dry as it is in southern California; and (2) while our water is moderately hard, it may be less so than yours.

Though there's clearly more work involved, I would also think that you could do the following after washing: Take a quality microfiber towel, spray it with a quick detail product (I use Optimum No Rinse) to the point of being moist, and quickly wipe down the finish. I would think that would remove spots as long as they hadn't baked in the sun for too long.

Also, regarding claying. There's a clay made by Sonus (don't remember the name of it, but it's light green in color) that is soft/gentle enough not to adversely affect the wax. Ie, one that would remove the spots without removing the wax.

[blue2000s]

CLR and Limeaway will remove hard water spots. You might try a final wipe with some of the product.

[mptoledo]

Just google "hard water car wash". I found thousands of responses. Here is one.

"I went down to Home Depot and picked up a 3-gallon commercial spray bottle. I filled it with distilled water, and I used the distilled water as a final rinse after rinsing the car with tap water. I used about 1 1/2 gallons (about $1.50 worth of water) and there was not one water spot on the whole car!"



http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6928

[Lobo1186]

Thanks all for the advice there is definitely some good stuff in this thread. As far as water softeners I'm not sure I can afford some complex system but the distilled water idea may be a good. Route along with someclr to remove spots alread there

[Perfectlap]

try washing with optimum no rinse instead of a hose wash. You'll unfortunately need to go down to wal-mart and get some of that cheap water they sell to you where you fill up your own container. I guess you'll need to be a little more economical with the amount of water you use. Generally two ounces of No Rinse solutions is used with one gallon of water. That's plenty to wiped down the car.

as far as rain, that could be tricky but I recommend the following:
after claying the car use an acrylic paste wax. I use FK1 1000P. It dries like cement. I use at least two coats for max coverage. Once it dries use a polymer spray like FK1 #425 frequently. It provides a very slippery surface that might be tricky for droplets to bond to.

here's another Optimum product

LINK

[SeanZ4]

Use a diluted amount of CLR on your spots and problem areas. Spray it on and just rinse it off. I don't know if you have that product in your area. It's common here. We have high levels of lime in our water. I use it for lots of different applications. I found out that it rinses off hard water spots 10 years ago. If anyone else has used this with success, chime in!

Sean