I have really hard water and every time I wash the car I get water spots. I tried to dry the car fast but nothing helps. I used to bring it to the car wash and use the spot free rinse and it worked great.

My question... is there a soap I can use or a filter I can hook up to the hose? Something that will help?

 

Yes there are sheeting soaps that sheet off and dont bead up causing the spots.

If your on the east coast you can save a 5 gal bucket of rain and throw it on after you rinse to get off most of the lime-calcium **.

Me I use detergent and rinse most of it off, it sheets that way and the well water does not leave spots. THe trick is to towel it off with two clean (fresh washed and not dried in the dryer microfiber towels- they are something special).

Here comes the waxers, no I dont wax I buff out the paint and is stays inside so I dont get plant gunk on it. THe shine is great and washing it this way works for me. Iam not a concours type and dont have a bucket of q tips and special bee ball wax and stuff. TO many cars to try detailing cause they are on the road getting driven even in the rain.

BTW ** the east coast has had some sumbtch rain and were flush with fresh water.

Woody

 

Try Autogeek on line and see if they have a filtering system. I know I have seen one somewhere but its expensive. What I used to do when I had my 2 black PT's was I never washed in direct sunlight, either wash in the shade or after the sun goes down. I waxed/polished the cars once a month and although they still got some spots a damp towel and my detail spray usually took care of them.
Pat

 

We have very hard water here too. Keep the car well waxed and then do the following as a final rinse: Take the nozzle off the hose and turn the water pressure down to about the half way mark. Now hold the end of the hose close to and parallel to the various body panels for a final rinse. On a well waxed car this will sheet 80 - 90% of the water off the surface so you aren't trying to dry those billion little beads of water.

Follow that up with a waffle weave microfiber drying towel and you'll dry the car in no time.

 

Believe it or not, the Mr. Clean auto wash kit worked well for me. It was only like $20 at WalMart. The shame of it is that it is cheaply made and won't survive more than a couple drops to the driveway.

 

Very true about the cheap quality, although it outlasted both my Plasma and blue ray player with drops on the driveway.


I picked up a few of these from woot.com back when they were $5.00 a piece. If anyone needs a starter pack (the $20.00 kit) PM me.

 

I currently use a water deionizer from On the Go. The units are available as a single tank model which has the two different media mixed in a single tank and I have a dual tank model that has each of the two media required to deionize the water in seperate tanks. Processing the water through seperate media increases the efficiency of the process. (For reference, my Total Disolved Solids( this is what makes water spots) at home was 270 ppm and after treatment it was 3ppm.) The dual tank, mixed media unit will produce about 2 1/2 times as much deionized water as the single tank unit per media refill so over time is a better deal. These kits are not cheap, but you can wash the car and walk away...no drying, no spots what so ever! I let my Crossifre drip dry, and it looks better than me drying it with a towel or shami.

 

RV SUPPLY PLACE 20.00 CARTRIDGE YOU PUT RIGHT ON THE HOSE BETWEEN THE HOUSE AND THE HOSE.

Its a water softner in a plastic tube basically.

 

A couple years back I bought an auto squeegee like the dealerships use. It was about $17 at an auto parts store. It has a flexible soft head that does not scratch. I whip off all the standing water quickly and then dry with microfiber towels.

 

Any more info on a single system like this, basically something for a starter 'kit' more or less. I have been looking at these, but the prices vary so greatly that I was unsure what would best suite my needs....

Thanks.

 

I appreciate the feedback from everyone. That kit looks pretty good but it is almost 300 dollars. The price isn't an issue but I was hoping to find a cheaper way. I may try the Mr Clean stuff. I read about it and I will see how it works first on my black car.

 

I bought two (2) regular under the counter water fiter canisters from Lowes, one sediment filter cartidge from Lowes and one water softner cartridge from autogeek.com. The system works great and was alot cheaper than the dual filter setup from autogeek.

Water Softener Filter Cartridge

 

I have microfiber cloths that I used to wipe the car immediately after washing. The product I use that removes the hard water marks is Meguiar's Ultimate Quick Wax, a spray.

Meguiar's Direct Ultimate Quik Wax


I spray it on the cloth, wipe the car to remove the water, then come back with another clean cloth, with spray on it, and dry the car. It puts a protective coat without damage to the clear-coat, and removes the water that contains the minerals that leave the hard water spots.

 

You can go through the old threads and double check, but when I used the Mr. Clean it appeared to remove the wax I had on the car. Anyone confirm this?

 

Thanks for the heads up on this. I like this setup. Does it work well for you? Does it really help reduce the water spots?

 

I was searching on ebay to see what was out there, does anyone have any experience with a setup like this?

Hard Water Softener Spot-Free Spotless Car Wash System:eBay Motors (item 130344356482 end time Dec-13-09 09:37:45 PST)

The ability to rinse the car and never dry it with spot free results is a VERY interesting idea to me

 

Make sure do your homework...there are lots of companies that clam to have a spotless rinse and do not. It was pretty hard letting my car drip dry the first time...a 20 year habit of drying a car so you won't GET SPOTS is a tough one to break. The first time I used my kit I went out to check on the car 50 times as it dried...not a spot!!!

 

Ditto. This is the method I use with great results.