water marks on paint

[ethel]

When it rains and the water stays on the flat surfaces like the bonnet and boot lid, I get light coloured blotches (I suppose where individual blobs of water were sitting). It's almost as if drops of a solution had been spread over the car and the water has evapourated leaving a residue - it's not Icelandic dust, this isn't the first time it's happened.
I don't know what type of paint was used when the car was last resprayed, but I'm wondering if it could be missing a top clear coat of laquer, it's pimento red.
The marks polish out with a bit of elbow grease, but it's a bit of a pain having to do that every time it gets caught in the rain!
Thanks for any suggestions,
John.

[AlanD]

i think this has been on the forum before, have you tried a search? also a good quality wax should help i think, i'm sure others will point you in the right direction

[Giles]

My father had this on his A35. following advice on here he has regularly polished with good quality polish. Not completely stopped it but has reduced the problem quite a bit. I think red is one of the worst colours for this i am afraid.

[nib]

Also I would like to add,due to me forever polishing my car with mer,I think it helped my cause when a silly cow opened a door into my stag door(see be careful thread) and I was able to polish the mark out.
Mark

[Gresley]

Hi John
Mine does exactly this if it rains and then the sun shines on it. As the car is brown it turns into Bambi! I find that if I regularly polish it (I use Meguiar's) the marks do disappear but unfortunately return again. T Cut gets them off easily, but I would not want to be doing that very often. Mine was resprayed in 1988 with solid colour two pack and it could be that the paint is now tired.

Brian

[stagmuffin]

i had a realy bad episode of this a thing i refer to as bleaching ,my car was outside stored under an expensive cover for a couple of months and water /moisture got under the cover and caused huge bleached areas of paint on bonnet tops of wings and boot .it took a day of polishing with g4 cutting compound and then waxing.if it happens again ill have no paint .all the advice taken would suggest that it is the paint reacting and it needs goood wax protection.it would seem it only happens to cellulose paint.mine is inca yellow
steve.................

[MandM]

i had a realy bad episode of this a thing i refer to as bleaching ,my car was outside stored under an expensive cover for a couple of months and water /moisture got under the cover and caused huge bleached areas of paint on bonnet tops of wings and boot .it took a day of polishing with g4 cutting compound and then waxing.if it happens again ill have no paint .all the advice taken would suggest that it is the paint reacting and it needs goood wax protection.it would seem it only happens to cellulose paint.mine is inca yellow
steve.................

hi when i worked in a garage in the late 70,s/early eighties the car cleaner use to polish all the dark colours with burnish polish, then seal the paint with bees wax which was very hard work but gave a very very deep shine and kept the cars top surfaces clean on the car sales front for a long time, this seemed to stop the water marks, thecar would all have had cellulose paint, ford cortinas, dollies, p6 rovers etc,etc, hope this may help someone (but is hard work)

cheers

[martin]

When it rains and the water stays on the flat surfaces like the bonnet and boot lid, I get light coloured blotches (I suppose where individual blobs of water were sitting). It's almost as if drops of a solution had been spread over the car and the water has evapourated leaving a residue - it's not Icelandic dust, this isn't the first time it's happened.
I don't know what type of paint was used when the car was last resprayed, but I'm wondering if it could be missing a top clear coat of laquer, it's pimento red.
The marks polish out with a bit of elbow grease, but it's a bit of a pain having to do that every time it gets caught in the rain!
Thanks for any suggestions,
John.

Hi John, the effect is caused by individual drops acting like magnifying glasses and slightly burning the surface. It can be an ongoing problem with water based paints, Peugeot/Citroen/Renault had an aweful problem with it a few years ago, it can also be caused by so-called acid rain. When you polish, does any colour come off on the cloth ? If not, it could be 2 pack incorrectly applied and can be cured with a coat of clear lacquer, if colour does come off, it's celli and good quality polish will help. It's very unlikely the problem will last long, and no - I don't know why, but it does seem to be an intermittent thing, mine (cellulose) did it a couple of years ago but no more. Martin.

[singapore stag]

I agree with "MandM", After a good wash and polish I used a top quality sealer ( about 3-4 light coats ) hard work but well worth it. Any rain or water just falls off the paintwork like "water off a Ducks back".
You don't have to wash your car with carwash nor polish it for a long long time after sealing it, I just wash with clean water and leather off.
Sukh.

[jleyton]

My neighbour has got a massive sycamore tree that deposits vast amounts of sap, especially at this time of year.

It was so bad the other day that my passenger window on my daily car was effectively glued shut - the window motor is pretty powerful normally but couldn't overcome the adhesion of the sap. So, I got out my pressure washer to clear the sap off and although it removed some, it certainly didn't remove all.

So, why am I recounting this story in this thread ? Well, the next day the sap was, once again, covering my car but I didn't have time to clean it off. That night it rained and the next morning there wasn't a trace of any sap left whatsoever. The rain was far more effective even than a power wash - I dread to think what's in it

Cheers

Julian

[ethel]

Thanks for the replies, I normally use autoglym supeer resin polish (and this usually removes some paint), I was thinking of trying their gloss protection polish:

http://www.autoglym.com/enGB/product-proddetail.asp?v06VQ=FH&Range=1

to see if that makes more of a barrier between the rain and paint. Is that a similar thing to what Sukh and MandM were using?
John.

[StagManiac]

From what they wrote, it sounds as though MandM was using a wax ("beeswax") and Sukh was using a sealant, such as the Autoglym Ultra Gloss Protection that you mention. I am just surmising.

A wax is the more traditional approach and leaves a residue of waxy molecules attached to the paintwork. A sealant is a more modern concept and replaces the wax, which can be laborious to apply, with a chemical combination that achieves a similar effect. In either case, multiple coats will pay dividends.

Paul

[elvimto]

Not that we get a lot of rain in Southern California but I use a Mothers clay bar kit it is good for the whole car or just to remove spots like this it does not cut into the paint also Meguires make a a quick clean and wax that works quite well. If you can get the clay bar it runs about 20$ US but worth it.

Stuart

[singapore stag]

This stuff is super,...not cheap but very effective.

Smartsealantproduct.gif

[Road Rage]

can you not suregard it? most new cars have this coating before they leave the show room and it lasts for 3 years

sean