Lesson learnt (I hope)

[Flynn]

It all very well reading about avoiding a particular problem but it`s not until you experience it that you really learn your lesson.



I usually clean my cars at night. It may be dark and cold but that`s when I get time to do it. Yesterday morning I managed to grab a couple ofdaylight hours to clean my Land Cruiser. So I start my usual cleaning routine and I very soon realise that "Rule 1 - Do not clean your car in direct sunlight" really is worth worrying about.



You see I live in a hard-water area and washing the car in the sun meant that water spots were appearing in a matter on seconds. I couldn`t keep enough water on the car to avoid them whilst I cleaned the rest of the car.



It was hugely frustrating knowing that I was getting the dirt off but the finish was going to be awful because of all these water spots.



I usually complain about having to clean the car at night but perhaps it`s for the best. OK, I can`t see as well as in the day but I get a much better finish than doing it in the daylight and getting horrible water spots everywhere.

[Big Leegr]

A thought just popped into my head. (Yes, it hurt. ;) ) If you were to use a water softener in the dispenser of a power washer (Thoroughly dissolved), and spray through that when rinsing, would that lessen the hard water spots?

Just wondering. (On topic, I feel your pain. :( )

[Flynn]

That`s not a bad plan. We have a water softener for the house and my pressure washer has a feed for adding in soap and stuff. I`m sure a water softening solution would work.

[Suasexed]

I`m going to try that Flash car wash thingy and use the `Auto Dry` function to make sure i don`t get water spots, it basically de-ionizes (?!!) the water leaving a lovely spot free finish! :D

[White95Max]

My neighbor was rinsing his new black F150 in the direct sun 2 days ago. He had one of those hose filters hooked up to it. I`ve never actually seen him wash the truck, just spray it down with the hose. :nixweiss

[Bill D]

I have a deionizing filter, seems to do OK, but I now always wash and dry the car in sections, Takes a little getting used to and sometimes a little overspray on the area I just finished is unavoidable, but it sure seems to help me keep any spotting at bay.

[joerockt]

I have this same problem when washing...However, using a quick detailer while drying works for me...

[kompressornsc]

Are you rinsing while you`re washing? If so, don`t. I have very hard water and the only solution I`ve found (until I get an outside faucet hooked to my softener) is to let the soap and water dry until you`re ready for a final rinse. The soap seems to keep the water from spotting so badly. I had always rinsed a few times while washing, but found this trick by accident one day when I didn`t.

[Mikeyc]

Maybe you could try some kind of in line water softener like this:



http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?L1=L1_1000&L2=L2_1001&SKU=37244



This one is from Griot`s Garage, but usually I can find products they sell on other websites for a bit cheaper.

[Flynn]

Are you rinsing while you`re washing? If so, don`t. I have very hard water and the only solution I`ve found (until I get an outside faucet hooked to my softener) is to let the soap and water dry until you`re ready for a final rinse. The soap seems to keep the water from spotting so badly. I had always rinsed a few times while washing, but found this trick by accident one day when I didn`t.



That`s not a bad idea. The soap softens the water anyway and that`ll help reduce the water spots.



I actually probably made the problem worse as I tried to keep the area wet and put so much water over it.

[White95Max]

Soap doesn`t soften water. Hard water refers to dissolved minerals in the water. A soap can`t magically make the minerals dissapear from the water. It will slightly lessen the concentration of minerals in the entire solution (water and soap), but you still have hard water.