DOCTOR CUTS REMOVING WATER SPOTS
HAVE YOU GOT A STACK OF DETAILING QUESTIONS BURNING A HOLE IN YOUR SOUL, LIKE BIRD SHIT BURNING A HOLE INTO YOUR PAINT? WE TEAM UP WITH WAYNE BRAKE OF DOCTOR CUTS TO ANSWER YOUR COMMONLY ASKED DETAILING QUESTIONS AND SET YOU ON THE RIGHT PATH TO DIY DETAILING GREATNESS. READY? WE ARE!
One question I get asked a lot is: “How do I get the water marks off my car”? This is a universal problem that effects paint, glass, chrome, and sometimes even plastic. I’m going to share some tips and tricks and products that we use in the detailing industry, but I need to start with a warning for the ‘impaired’: if you don’t have the right conditions, equipment, chemicals, or confidence to tackle this stuff, then please don’t. If you mess up some of these techniques or chemical applications, you can do some damage — permanent damage. As always, none of the following should be done in the sun or on a hot vehicle.
What are water spots? Water spots are traces of minerals, salts, acids, or other contamination that have been dissolved in water and deposited on the surface of your car as that water has evaporated and dried naturally. That last sentence is plagiarised from the internet — word for word. I personally couldn’t think of anything other than “shitty water deposits”. When water and chemicals dry on your car, the deposit starts to build up and can have disastrous effects on most of the surfaces, but usually the ones we like to keep shiny.
The best way to deal with them is: Just don’t get them at all, bro. However, it’s often out of our hands — we choose to run the weather gauntlet, or life in general just gets in the way — so I’m not going to be too much of a dick about it. If I didn’t have staff, my car would probably have water spots!
Light water spots on all surfaces are relatively easy to deal with if you catch them soon enough. They are still a deposit, and haven’t etched into the clear coat or the glass. This means less effort to remove them; less effort means less touchy… and we all know what less touchy means: less scratchy!
The best way to deal with these is a light acid product or IPA. We would use a diluted isopropyl 50/50 mix with water to gently remove water spots from surfaces with a ceramic protection. If the ceramic is doing its job, the IPA is tough enough to wipe away the spots without too much effort. On a clear-coat surface or glass and chrome, I recommend Heavy Duty Water Spot Remover from Chemical Guys. We have it in our web store and our retail shop and we use it in the detail shop — lots.
Follow the instructions, but basically use it as if you were applying a wax. Don’t do it in the sun or with warm panels as this will seriously reduce its effectiveness and make your job harder than need be. Massage it in using a rag or microfibre applicator — I would stick to patches of 400mmx400mm. This… will… swirl… your… paint. Touchy = scratchy. Told you not to get them, bro! So, make sure you are aware of how much pressure you are applying. You then need to ‘deactivate’ the acids. We do this by spraying window cleaner over a microfibre cloth and wiping lightly. You can use water or even detail spray if you want. I would always recommend incorporating this task with a decent wash and always re-protect your paint by applying a decent wax. We use a handmade Brazilian Carnauba Wax from Surgical Shine — that’s for sale on our website, too!
Now, if you’ve been a bit slack about it and have some water marks that are becoming an issue, you are going to want to get a little abrasive with the situation.
There are a few different ways to do this but we will look at the processes for glass first. One way we found to work well is to use a ‘magic eraser’ foam. Use this in combination with the Chemical Guys HD Water Spot Remover when the marks are being stubborn. Use a little bit of pressure but be aware it’s basically a mild sandpaper and if you go too hard on soft glass you may cause marring.
This method can be slow if the marks are super heavy, so I would then recommend a product we use and sell called Absolute Water Spot Remover. It appears to be a rudimentary cream-type polish but of all the products we have used this is by far the best. I like to insist in my shop that we first coat the glass with the Chemical Guys gel — it makes the job so much easier. Then, with a small amount on a microfibre cloth, you use circular motions to hand polish a smallish area. I usually divide the glass into quarters and do them one by one. Avoid plastics and rubbers with this as it will stain up like the sock under your computer desk but is harder to clean.
When you have finished that window, give it a good clean with a window cleaner and microfibre. I wouldn’t recommend using the Absolute cream product with a magic eraser unless you don’t mind the chance of micro scratching — certainly not on your windscreen as these scratches will refract the light and blind you. These methods won’t remove scratching in glass; that takes a special compound, rayon pads, expensive machines and serious training.
If you have heavy water marking on your paint, it’s an entirely different kettle of fish sticks. Sorry, Kanye! Mild acid products work fine on mild stains. Makes sense then that heavy-duty acid works on heavy-duty stains. Please, reach out to your dumber mates and make sure they don’t read any further … . We use a hydrofluoric acid that you can buy from an industrial cleaning products supplier — I wouldn’t recommend anything stronger. Always use gloves and a mask — to avoid acid lung, your exemption shouldn’t be used in this situation! I don’t know if acid lung is a thing but it’s better safe than sorry.
Load up a microfibre cloth with acid and coat all your painted or chrome surfaces. Test it on plastic — sometimes it can etch, but not often. Load that rag and spread it on heavily. Don’t stress if you get some on glass — just wipe it off — but do avoid side mirrors. You can leave this on for several hours quite safely as it does its job and softens and eventually loosens the minerals from your paint.
Leave it for at least an hour, and then blast it down and wash it up. You will now either have no watermarks or a much milder version of what was there. What’s left can now be taken care of with a machine cut and polish. Do be aware that eventually these minerals eat their way through your clear coat and into your paint, doing permanent and irreparable damage. This means that it may be too late, and even a wet sand won’t fix it. Time to save up for a respray!
IT WILL STAIN UP LIKE A SOCK UNDER YOUR COMPUTER DESK