Will a clay bar remove hard water stains? My car is black.

 

Depends on how bad they area, but even a good QD spray should take them off.

My Z was black ---- never again ;-)

 

wont know till you try... if that doesnt work, try ScratchX

 

For the future, my sales guy gave me a good tip which sounded kinda weird, but actually works really well. We have really hard water in Houston, and he said wash the car, rinse it off - then take a gallon or two of distilled water and pour that over to do the final rinse. Works surprisingly well

 

If you have hard water stains that are burned into your clearcoat your in
deep ****! You can try cleaner....scratch remover but if it's bad enough
color sanding may be your only choice. My friend that had a detail shop
informed me about this with one of my kids Acuras......black with hard water
stains. We tried everything but color sanding is the only solution for a
perfect job.

 

There are two kinds of water spots, deposits and etchings. Deposits are calcium buildup, you can do a number of things to remove them, the easiest of which is a little vinegar mixed with distilled water as mentioned above. Clay will also remove them, as will a cleaner polish like Klasse AIO (which is what I like to use).

If you have etchings you will need to polish, I would try ScratchX first, and if that doesn't do it move to a machine polish and lastly, wetsand.

95% of the water spots I deal with, even the really, really, REALLY hard ones, are deposits, and will be removed with a chemical cleaner like AIO by machine.

For future reference your best bet is to stop the hard water all together by adding a filter to your water line.

http://www.pwgazette.com/gardenhosefilters.htm

If you get this:
Basic White Garden Hose Filter, without cartridge. Includes mounting bracket and filter wrench (not shown) and comes with hose adapters installed. This housing accepts all standard 9.75" X 2.5" cartridges. $31

And this:
FC024 A water softening cartridge that contains standard softener resin. Its lifespan depends on how hard your water is. But the good news is, you can renew it and reuse it indefinitely. If you’re looking for a cartridge to prevent spotting when you wash your car, this is your most likely choice. $16

It will generally eliminate 90% of your hard water spots. Cheers.

 

Isnt that essentially what this is:
http://www.homemadesimple.com/sites/..._carwash.shtml

 

Er...that thing may actually work, but I'd be somewhat concerned about using a Mr. Clean chemical product on my car. Soap and water (and Zaino ) seem to work just fine.

 

That Mr Clean thing doesnt work for sh** in my one experience ;-) I tried it because I figured hey, maybe it saves me the drying time, but on my black Z it left plenty of spots. Maybe in theory, but not in practice.

Nothing beats the few extra minutes you spend with a good microfiber towel to dry your car. That and a shelf full of Zaino gear!

 

sounds like you guys need to invest in a DI filter!

 

Yes, a claybar will remove hard water spots depending on the severity. However, just to let you know, my wife's black car was parked (for several days) next to a water sprinkler and got sprayed on. It left some major water marks. I used the claybar and got it all off.