BAD water spot removal

[RP350Z]

This is my brothers 2002 Rav4. Aweful I know. His hood is the worst part of the car.

This is a before shot after I washed it and clayed it.


Ok, here was my process to remove these aweful spots. First I tried polishing. I tried OC and OHC with very little luck. I used the orange propel pad. Then I remembered I had some Mothers pre-wax cleaner. I used this with the grey propel pad over and over and over and over, possibly 5 - 10 times on one area gradually getting better till it stopped showing any more results so I did the entire hood this way. However the results didn`t thrill me. I tried Meguiars Color-X also and that didn`t work as well as the mothers pre-wax cleaner.

Here is an after shot polishied and used Duragloss TPP.


It`s a little hard to tell but those spots you see there are riddled throughout the upper hood. The lower section of the hood looks nice.

What can I do to fix this? Products I can use or anything I might have passed up! Maybe wetsanding would help, I`m not sure.

[Brenton]

Wetsanding would help, but that`s probably not necessary. And it is time consuming, since on black you might get buffing marks bringing it back.

I`m sorry I don`t know your product line. I`ve never had a problem getting waterspots out with a rotary and at a maximum, a medium grit product (Ardex, Farecla G10, PB`s SSR2.5). KAIO by hand usually works for me.

Are you using a PC? Nice pics btw.

[Jngrbrdman]

I don`t know if you have wetsanded before, but it isn`t a task for amatures. Especially on a black car. You could really cause some serious damage if you don`t know what you are doing. You are going to need tools like a rotary and some really heavy polishes. If you have those products then you should be able to remove some waterspots without wetsanding anyway.

These are either really persistent calcium deposits or they are etchings in the paint. You can eliminate the calcium deposits if you lay a vinegar soaked rag over an area and let it sit for a few minutes. The vinegar will break up the calcium and allow you to wipe the spots off. I know it doesn`t make a whole lot of sense, but I have polished paint to death and not been able to get waterspots out, but after a little vinegar soaks on them for awhile they wipe right off. Why polishes won`t take it off but vinegar will is a mystery to me. If you have a good fallout remover then that helps too. Those are typically commercial products that you aren`t going to find at AutoZone though.

If you have etching then you should still be able to polish them off with a good polish and a machine. Not some Craftsman buffer either. You are going to need either a Porter Cable 7424 type machine or a high speed rotary. Those $50 waxing buffers aren`t going to do anything for clear coat etching or the hazing that wetsanding can cause. If you are going to use professional methods to repair damage then you are going to need to make sure you have professional tools handy.

[Stealth Racer]

I`ve worked with Ardex`s Fall Out Remover and had a good deal of luck removing water spots.

[runnerbl]

Try MX7 for auto finishes..You can get it at wal-mart...Just make sure you wash car very good after the fact..