[Dr. G]

So after using ONR for a long time now I decided I would throw in a traditional wash today with Dodo BTBM.

It was only about 7am and the sun was barely out so I decided I would wash the car. I went ahead slowly taking my time using the two bucket method, took probably an Hour to do so, but by the time I got done washing and it was time to dry... I had MAJOR MAJOR water spotting eeveryyywhere it was disgusting.

Used 2 different detailers with my drying towel but it was too late, now my car looks worse than before I washed.


Should I try drying each panel after hosing it down to prevent water spotting? I thought of doing this since its so s uccessful with ONR in preventing water spots, but wouldn't the panels just keep getting wet all over again with water spraying around?

Thinking of sticking to ONR for now since my car rarely gets very dirty.

[mvillezcas]

you probably got water spots because you used hard, unfiltered water and you took too long. Any water sitting on the car will dry up and leave calcium deposits. I'm not a fan of waterless systems like ONR as the primary form of washing the car. If you're not happy with your results, I'd call a professional detailer.

[Bobble]

Do you have hard water? I do but I rinse and rinse and rinse, get the idea, after most major panel groupings. IE I wash the roof and trunk rinse entire car, wash the hood and front bumper, rinse entire car etc., I always use a QD or spray wax as a drying aide and blow most water off after sheeting. Helps with the spotting a lot. I also add 1/2 cap of ONR to my wash water to help with lubricity and such. I don't do true ONR washes unless it's raining and I just want the gunk off the car for the time being. The actual wash and dry time is like 40 minutes start to finish for me.

[Dr. G]

Yeah the water does seem to be hard. Never had problems in the past with spotting, but I guess it wasn't as hot out and there was barely any sun whenever I washed the car.

I added a full cap of ONR to my wash solution and I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, as I was finishing up the passenger side of the car a lot of the water that splashed onto the hoood and roof ended up leaving some real bad spotting reaaal fast I was taken by surprise.

[Envious Eric]

adding ONR is just wasting product IMO

I have to traditionally wash a Porsche Cayenne weekly at 3pm in direct sun for a client. Here it what I do and it works like a charm.

bucket with soap and water filled first
rinse top and windshield
wash it with soap
rinse roof and windshield

rinse hood and front end
wash front end
rinse front end
re-rinse roof and windshield

rinse side front to back
wash
rinse
rinse previous spots

rinse other side
wash
rinse
rinse the rest

rinse rear
wash
rinse
rinse the rest

rinse back
wash
rinse
rinse the rest

Take the nozzle off the car and use the water sheeting method to remove the most amount of water possible. Get your most absorbant WW towel and grab the rest off the car, starting with the windows in the sun. Then go back over the whole car with a QD and MF towel and freshen it up.

After that, then do each wheel individually.

Thats how I have to combat the direct sun issue with harder water...works for me and more importantly, my client!

[Dr. G]

Hey Eric, thank you for the response! The method you presented is VERY similar to what I was doing. I think my problem may have been I was going WAY TOO SLOW. I wash VERY small areas of the car and then flip the mit and go over them again and then head back to my grit guards pretty quick... maybe I should start to work larger areas since my car rarely has anything except garage dust on it.

- I finished washing my whole front end and began to prerinse, wash and rinse the drivers side of the car.
- After I finished the drivers side, I went to re-rinse the front end again, but my passenger sides front fender already had major spotting and my roof was showing some spotting too
- I was following your exact method pretty much at this point... maybe I need to speed it up? Or maybe my water is just too damn hard... I am going to try to wash right when the sun is going down next time and see if the results change.

I was using the ONR addition due to my areas hard water. Someone on autopia recommended it and I never spent too much time looking into the legitimacy of this recommendation I just thought adding one capfull of ONR would cost a couple pennies so why not.

[AlanL]

I have very hard water at my house so my problem is similar to yours. I use an almost identical sequence to Eric's but then follow the water sheeting step with my leaf blower with an airwand mounted on it. This lets me get over 90% of the water off the car rapidly so I don't have to worry about spotting.

[aarwilli]

One suggestion that I learned recently, is get a ph balanced soap, and just let that sit on your car instead of rinsing over and over and over. Then one rinse at the end and then hit it with a good QD while wet to try to counteract that hard water on the paint, and start drying. I got that from the Adam's how to vids on youtube.

[MuttGrunt]

Super hard water will cause problems no matter what, and if you have a dark colored vehicle that is lightly dirty, it's going to absorb much more heat.

If the sun is a problem in the morning, than make sure to only wash in the evening when it should be on the other side of the drive way / house / yard and not directly on your vehicle. Doing the small things goes a long way to include more frequent rinsings, moving a little faster, and changing the time of day in which you wash.

In addition, you may want to seriously consider two more products in your detailing arsenal due to the conditions in which you know your car is exposed: a water spot remover (they work wonders), and a product like Dodo Juice Time To Dry which is a drying-aid QD meant to fight mineral deposits and temporarily reduce beading (to fight water spots from forming) while you dry.

[aarwilli]

Mutt, What's your take on leaving that ph balanced soap on the paint while washing the rest rather than just hard water? This was counter intuitive to what I always do and I was surprised but it makes sense.

[Dr. G]

@ Muttgrunt - Yup, definitely going to make the small adjustments necessary to prevent this in the future, it was my first time washing the car early in the morning (right before bedtime in my case)... the sun was coming out and I didn't feel like sleeping so I thought I'd try it out .... never again.

Will be getting myself a water spot remover next week.

Originally Posted by aarwilli

Mutt, What's your take on leaving that ph balanced soap on the paint while washing the rest rather than just hard water? This was counter intuitive to what I always do and I was surprised but it makes sense.

Very interested in knowing about this as well, considered it for a bit, but then thought about soap and grit drying back onto the surface and a stream of water not being able to properly rinse it off again.