I wash my truck with plain old well-water and Blue Coral car-wash soap.

After I wash the truck, and it dries, in the sun, or in the shade, there are water spots all over the flat surface of the hood.

I will re-wash, and rinse and rinse and rinse, and still water spots.

I know a grown man, as old as time, should know how to prevent water spots on a vehicle, but I don't.

What is the trick, preferably an easy trick, to preventing water spots??

Thanks.

 

I have to towel dry anything I don't want water spotted. You may have some build up on it that will need to come off. A little vineger & water maybe?

 

I really think it's the soap your using. I would wipe it down with either a towel or shammie when you get done washing it.I agree with Geico. Also if you do have a build up you can wash it with dishwashing liquid and then dry it off, then apply wax.

 

it could also be ur water. you said u were using well water? does it have a high mineral content? try some sort of water filter. rinse the truck with an open hose so the water sheets over the truck and squeege the water off.

 

What you have is hard water deposits! Water (well) from the earth is riddled with minerals...that is what happens when water is not 'properly' conditioned, nor cleared from painted surfaces.

Your options:
1) towel
2) Chamois
3) Vinegar & Water
4) Use Duckie...find it at marine stores...Does wonders for getting rid of hard water deposits that are VERY difficult to remove!

Tony

 

I got one of those auto drying towels.. helps a ton! Only if the truck were smaller and easier to dry off before the water evaporated..

 

Yes, water, from this area, is full of calcium, iron, and a host of other minerals.

It is good to build strong bones in race-horses and rot out water-heaters.

The water does go through a string-wound filter, but no further treatment.

I will try a big thick towel and see what happens.

It dries almost as fast as the water runs off, so I may have to wash it in the dark.

Thanks.

 

The Mr. Clean carwash works great and is about $18 at Wally world. It attaches to your water hose and filters the water when you spray off the vehicle.

 

BearKiller, I have very hard well water too and I've played with different soaps and nothing really changed. What I do is use an open hose to rinse and in my bucket of soap and water i use either Meguires gold or blue coral, Joy dish soap, and hair conditioner. Don't laugh it really helps cut down on the water spots for me. It also makes the spots easy to wipe off. I was told this by a friend that had the same water spotting problems i was having. I put in 2 or 3 squirts of conditioner in my bucket thats 3 gallons.

 

Thank goodness my house has a water softener, it helps a TON. But I do second the advice on the Mr. Clean carwash thing. I've heard good things about it. But it's deffinately your hard water...

 

Mine has a softener too but the hoses outside are all plumbed in before the softener.

 

Any particular brand of hair conditioner??

You do mean the stuff that women use after shampoo, don't you??

Do I understand right, you mix a little Joy in with the Blue Coral, or McGuires??

Thanks.

 

a chamois is the best $14-20 you can spend. Instead of buying a house filtration system, just get a chamois from wally world, or go to your auto parts store, and get what you need. They have some generic ones that run around $10 that are pretty good also.

A towel, will leave lint everywhere, especially around the windshield wipers, and any thing that has a sharp corner, also on the rubber moulding around windows.

 

If you think it's bad in KY, try living in the Southwest. You definately need to keep it in the shade while washing, or get it in hte shade immediatly after (or wash at night, seriously).
To get off the water spots, use a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water, spray on wipe off, works much better if the paint has a decent wax job. If the douche doesn't take it off, use some fine polishing compound, Meguiars, or 3M. You can do it by hand, but some sort of polisher is better/easier. Remeber if you have dark paint, polishing will show swirl marks, next step, swirl mark remover (finer polish basically).
To keep the spots off, while washing keep the whole vehicle wet, give the whole thing a quick spray when you rinse a panel, and don't ever let the soap water dry on it.. Then use a chamois or bath towel immediately after washing, before the water dries. DO the hood and most visible aeras firstand work towards the lower panels.

 

This works great in the TX sun:

Wash truck from the top down, one section at a time, squeegee off immediately with medical-grade (soft) silicone blade.

When truck is washed and dried, use paper towels and windshield washer (very sparingly) to remove all of the spots - it's fast and easy!