Etched in water spots, a job for a rotary?

K

kpagel

New member
I got some nasty water spots on my hood that have etched their way into the clearcoat. I went over them a couple times with #83 and a yellow Meg's polishing pad with a PC but it didn't even put a dent in these things. Am I not working the product enough (I'm pretty new to #83), should I do a few more passes? Or am I wasting my time using a PC and this is a job for a rotary? I think I'm going to go experiment with Menzerna IP with a yellow polishing pad and see if that does anything. Any help is appreciated.
 
Water spots can be tough, especially if they have etched the clear. May even need to be wetsanded. I think at the minimum, they will need to be polished with a rotary.
 
#83 may not be suitable for water spotting.



i'd try a rubbing compound.....3M RC 111 will prolly work..



try by hand with terry cloth, on the isolated spots, as opposed to a whole section of the hood??!
 
Again, always...always try and first DISSOLVE water spots before trying to ABRADE them away with a rotary and compounds.



Try ValuGards ABC system first in the future.



Anthony
 
Two words of advice... be careful.



Water spots are one area that make me REALLY nervous. They can absolutely murder a paint job, but if you go too far in trying to remove them, you could be looking at a new paint job anyways.



Case in point... I had a gorgeous '96 Thunderbird Sport in Moonlight Blue, which I bought new (at night- never again). The next day, I noticed the hood & roof were heavily water spotted. Took it to the dealership & they said the pits were too deep to polish out. On further inspection, they added that the pits were a little too deep for color sanding to be a viable option. They said the only solution was to repaint the car. I was understandably nervous about this prospect, but checked the quality of some of their work in the lot & checked out the paint booth, so let them do it. Was a lot of orange peel at first, but their detailer knew what he was doing & managed to smooth it out without inducing swirls or buffer trails. It actually came out really nice. Unfortunately, the car got broken into at the dealership the night before I was to pick it up, so more paint & bodywork was to follow. Seems someone (at the dealership, I think) was rather fond of the $2k in electronics I had installed 2 weeks earlier.



To this day, I'm not sure if the dealership sold me a bill of goods on the car needing to be re-painted instead of color sanding. They may have just wanted a fat check from Ford... and I bought into it. Was a valuable lesson. Nowadays, I'd do some serious checking into the thickness of the clear coat (& maybe investing in a thickness gauge) before I did anything. And of course, I haven't lived anywhere since that did NOT have a garage. And of course, NEVER park were water from sprinkler heads can get anywhere NEAR my paint. Best of luck tho...
 
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