[Earl]

When I bought my focus in 11/01 I had it for about a month and decided I was gonig to clay bar and wax it to try to shine it up a bit more (untill that point the paint looked great due to the fact that the car was new) I got done claybaring the car, and it started raining. Ever since then there have been these horrible waterspots all over the car--the hood, trunk, roof are the worst out of the whole car, but especially the hood. Since then I have used a claybar on it, waxed it numerous times and for the life of me, I cannot get the waterspots out, and when I buff out the wax, the shine just doesnt really show through as well as it should, there are still tons of waterspots in the paint. Not to mention I have really bad hard water build up on my windows, and my paint (my glass looks like neglected shower doors) NOw, I have gotten the hard water stains off with I believe it was either CLR or Lime-away and that worked really well, my glass looked great, then the car got hit by sprinklers, so I have to do the glass again. But how can I get the hard water/water spots off of the paint AND the glass? This car is only two years old, if my thunderbird looked as good as it did with 90K at 5 years old. What can I do to get the paint to shine again?

Earl

 

[hockeyfeva]

http://www.meguiars.com

I would do those consumer steps in the product showroom, I would use a polish if it was me.

 

[dalola]

The water spots may have settled into the clear coat, which means you are stuck with them, short of a repaint.

As to your glass, a quality glass polish should take care of that. I recommend Zaino products.
~Dave

 

[Dogma]

You have two choices either get a polish with abrasives like mequires #7 and rub the hell out of it and follow with a good carnuba like mothers( big can ) or get it professionaly buffed at a good bodyshop. I think its the clay bar ,you have to know what you are doing or you can damage the paint. Clay bars are great if used properly.
I clayed my black fsvt and had swirls for weeks until I rubbed them out,I noticed that carnuba hides a lot of imperfections,only after a good polish.

 

[EggYolk]

Another suggestion would be to buy a gallon of vinegar, scrub it on an area of the car, let it sit for 10 seconds or so and rinse off. The acid should remove all things above the clear coat and let you get to the water spots. Afterwards though you have to wax the car since you took off all of the old wax.

 

[focusspelledbackwards]

I'm not the smartest person in the world, but can you all explain to me, if you put vinager on your car, for it's acidic properties, dont you run the risk of it eating through the clearcoat? I'm not saying this to try to sound like an ass, but for the most of us who haven't had the experience of having a car with a good paint job before, I would be leery of putting on acid. I know in the real world we subject our cars to a lot on the road, and in other circumstances. But in all honesty, has anybody done the vinager rinse? how did you do it? and what were the results? Don't let this thread die! Thank you!