Two weeks after s100 - water spots on hood...

M

MnRiverman

New member
I just noticed this yesterday when I gave the BMW its weekly washing....



Looking on the hood under a high powered spot light, you can clearly see the water ringlets left after a rain. I went and got some vingear and tried this - it didn't work. I then tried some s100 sepc- helped a bit but didn't remove them. Even tried some HD-Cleanse (after using sepc this stuff is hard as hell to remove) and didn't do anything. I went over the hood about twice with some pressure and a PC with the SEPC, and I mangaged to really hide then, but you can still see the ringlets under certain light.



So what should I try? It's odd that this happened right after I switched from zymol to s100. Does the s100 not protect as well because it doesn't have as much carnuaba in it? I had used zymol for almost three years without any water spots on any of my cars. I followed up the SEPC with some 3M SCPW and it looks amazing. I almost like the shine with the 3M wax over the s100 wax, and the 3M wax is supposed to be very durable (from what I have read).



I had just done SMR with a polishing pad two weeks ago, so I didn't want to go at the hood with it again so soon. Will I need to use something more abrasive than SMR to remove these? FI-II?



I also am wondering if using SMR and other abrasives makes the paint more subseptable to water spots and such because we are just removing part of the protection for the paint (the clear). Does that make any sense or does it not matter?



Thanks in advance....



- Anthony
 
Oh and onto my second question..... would a polymer sealant protect the paint from water spots? IF so, I'll buy some of this and then throw a coat of wax on above the polymer.
 
Well, it's hard to say. But my klasse coats, 9 in all I think, from last year have held up quite well to the elements. After numerous rainstorms and occasional sprinkler parking, water spots have yet to take hold on my paint. I topped with p21s but i'm sure it's long gone.



going to give it the full spring treatment soon :)
 
Sounds to me like it was acid rain - which, if that's the case, there are very few (if any) products that will protect against acid rain. Especially if it's left to sit on the surface for any amount of time...



I think you're looking at having to buff and reapply S100.
 
I've seen this from acid rain, like Steve suggests, and also from an unfortunate encounter with the wrong sprinklers. Once again, if you have a black car you will "spot" the effects more easily. You usually need really good light to see the real problem after washing removes the non-adhered portion.



My theory: sprinklers (seems particularly prevalent on institutional or commercial land) are sometimes run with grey water (recovered from drains, "treated") which can have very high mineral content and/or chemical content - from fertilizer runoff and other forms of pollution. I am not sure whether this etches the paint or lays down a mineral deposit on top of it as the droplets evaporate, or both - all I know is that NOTHING seems to prevent it from occurring if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've seen it happen on Zaino'd cars, carnaubna'd cars and Klasse'd cars.



It takes a lot of work - at least SMR - to get it out.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. I figure I'll wait till spring is over to get these out, because with all the showers now it is very possible that it will happen again - so I'll just wait a bit.



I'm just happy there isn't pitting in the clear. The car is a medium blue, and unless you look for them you can't see them.



- Anthony
 
IME, it doesn't take much to etch the hood of a car like a BMW or a Porsche or any car that has a tendency for its hood to stay warm for so long after driving. After driving the car in a light drizzle or heavy rain, if I don't wipe down the hood and front fenders after driving and parking the car in the garage, there will always be a few water-droplets that remain. Since the hood of the car stays pretty warm for a couple hours, those water-droplets will dry quickly and etch into the clear, with pretty much every kind of protection I've tried (Klasse, Zaino, Blackfire, P21S). I haven't tried any of the waxes with a high carnauba content though (Griots, Zymol).



I'm surprised you didn't see any problems when using Zymol. If you had to guess, would you attribute your problem to P21S's level of protection? Hmmmm, maybe carnuaba content DOES in fact play a role in the level of protection.
 
Not sure if carnuaba plays a roll in protection. Maybe this is why s100 is made for motorcycles and p21s is made for cars? Motorcycles don't sit out in the rain, so theoretically they don't need the durability against water spotting like a normal car wax would. Has anyone thought of that? :confused:



Maybe why I didn't have problems with the Zymol was because it dissipated the water in no time flat. You drive for 10 seconds and the water just runs off the hood and is left perfectly dry. Although I have a feeling that this happened when the car was parked.



If carnuaba in it's natural state is harder than concrete, then one would assume a higher carnuaba based wax would protect better? Does it work that way?
 
I don't think it has anything to do with the wax that you're using. I have few coats of Klasse Sealant Glaze on my car and still could see slight water spots under certain light. Putting a coat of P21S on top of Klasse only amplified those spots. With all the bad winter weather they are impossible to avoid.

I'm just going to deal with it during my spring detail. As long as you don't have etching you should be able to remove them with SMR.
 
This is one of the reasons I like Blitz so much.



I have never found any water spots on my car

when I have it on. When I compare other

brands I find water spots.



My 2.
 
if its acid rain spots, i doubt any wax, even Blitz, would be able to prevent the spots. My apartment's sprinklers are terrible with this, everytime my car gets sprayed, it'll stay at least a month or until I smr it :mad:
 
Hey! Carguy's back!!!



As for acid raid and bird poop, I've yet to encounter a product that can protect against those 2 elements if left on the surface for too long and dried... Fresh contaminants are easy to shield out, but once it settles in and starts etching.... not much you can do...
 
I highly doubt that this occured because you switched from zymol to s100. I used to use zymol and have found that p21s/s100 is more durable. Zymol is known for having less than satisfactory durability.
 
Yep. Sounds like acid rain or sprinklers. Even if sprinklers come on in the rain, if it doesn't rain hard enough to displace the hard water that comes out of the sprinklers, you can get spotting.



I've been using S100 for about 7-8 months now and after a rain, my car look spotless on top-unless there has been a lot of dust or pollen in the air.
 
adg44,



I'm in NoVa too. Like you, I put S100 on my car two weeks ago and got hit with the same rain as you did (last Thursday?). I do not see any water spots on my black car. Just a data point.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top