GR86 Water spotting? after Ceramic coating

[Koshy]

I got my car ceramic coated couple of days ago and today morning I see this fungal type of water condensation all over my car. It disappeared with the morning rain but happy to hear from you all if this is common to all ceramic coated cars? Does it disappear after some time or do you think my car will be forever ugly in the mornings? The detailer told me that he think this is due to static and will reduce with rain and car washes. Sorry I don’t want to give out the name of the detailer until I know something better.

 

[Nick]

My car's ceramic coated, and I've never seen it do that I'm afraid. What brand of coating is it, maybe that is unique to the particular coating?

 

[Sonic]

I don’t think that’s anything to worry about, it’s certainly not fungal just an atmospheric anomaly. On a frosty morning my car can produce similar patterns on the ceramic coated areas or PPF. I think it’s where the ice cold panels have grabbed the moisture before it’s had time to run off. The more you wash it using coating safe products and add to the shine, the less obvious it becomes and the more beading you will see. Don’t sweat it
Edit: Once I’ve got my car back if I get a frosty morning I’ll try get a photo of mine for your reassurance.

 

[Koshy]

I don’t think that’s anything to worry about, it’s certainly not fungal. On a frosty morning my car can produce similar patterns on the ceramic coated areas or PPF. I think it’s where the ice cold panels have grabbed the moisture before it’s had time to run off. The more you wash it using coating safe products and add to the shine, the less obvious it becomes and the more beading you will see. Don’t sweat it

That’s a relief Like Nick I was thinking whether it was coating specific. Thanks for clearing that Sonic.

 

[Sonic]

That’s a relief Like Nick I was thinking whether it was coating specific. Thanks for clearing that Sonic.

Managed to get a photo before the sun peeked around the house and melted it all away. Probably not the best shots as I left it a bit late but, you get the idea. Nowt to fret over, it’s just atmospherics .

 

[ZN8]

I'm sure you can get a cream for that...

 

[Conscript]

Was going to start a dedicated thread, but may as well post it here - I have a ceramic coated car, and always wash with filtered water. But I've been noticing lately that the car had quite a lot of water spots after drying. Not hugely visible, but you could see them with the light in the right spot, and they weren't disappearing even after a rub with the drying towel (see below). Also, the coating was seemingly 'clogged' even after using iron and fallout remover.

Messaged the detailer who applied the coating for advice, but haven't had a response. Even so, I took the plunge and ordered some Gtechniq W9 water spot remover and used it in a wash today, and it seems to have worked well. The instructions said to use it on a dry car, which I did try first, but then I took advice from this video where the guy just sprays it on a wet car, agitates, then rinses it thoroughly. I prefer that anyway - I really try to avoid touching the paintwork with anything while it's dry. So I just washed and rinsed the car, then went around the whole thing panel by panel with the W9, rinsing thoroughly with the pressure washer as I went.



Anyway, the results are pretty good. There is still the occasional water spot visible, but the most visible ones on the roof seem to have disappeared. I think I might go over it again in the same manner at the next wash and keep a closer eye on my drying technique. I still use filtered water, but perhaps I was a bit lazy getting the resin changed once or something, so I shall start using a decent towel again too.

Here's some after shots of the same panel under similar light (although not as magnified)

 

[Sonic]

I took the plunge and ordered some Gtechniq W9 water spot remover and used it in a wash today,

I use it too, it's great stuff that W9. Water spots on the Electric Blue can be infuriating eh!

 

[Conscript]

I use it too, it's great stuff that W9. Water spots on the Electric Blue can be infuriating eh!

Luckily they only stood out under the right light, but once I knew they were there, I couldn#t help looking for them. I can#t imagine what it would be like on a black car.
Do you use it in the same way I did, or on a dry car as per the instructions?

 

[Mick]

I've had the same as you and always use a water filter. On a grey car they were really hard to see, I wondered if they had been there a while and are from the wet/dirty roads and not from when cleaning the car.

I used W9 while the car was wet to remove them.

 

[Sonic]

Do you use it in the same way I did, or on a dry car as per the instructions?

Used as per instructions but, only after I’ve done a full non-contact wash and drying as I can be sure there is no surface dust. Will sometimes use with a damp microfibre to eek out the solution

 

[Conscript]

I've had the same as you and always use a water filter. On a grey car they were really hard to see, I wondered if they had been there a while and are from the wet/dirty roads and not from when cleaning the car.

I used W9 while the car was wet to remove them.

Yeah my car loves outside so I figured it could be from rain and road salt rather than washing.

 

[MarkinStoke]

That's a problem all ceramic coated cars can have especially in a hard water area, you could always use a water filter (race glaze) or use a sacrificial top coat over the ceramic coating like carpro hydr02 lite, lastly you could just use a water spot remover, you do need to periodically remove the spots before they burn into the coating.

 

[Sonic]

… you do need to periodically remove the spots before they burn into the coating.

So true. I find the task less arduous to do it during a thorough maintenance wash, when I’ve got the whole ‘shebang’ out (Citrus APC, Iron Fallout remover, Citrus Snowfoam etc) and of course it has to be overcast and cool. An easy way to pass 3 or so hours for sure.

 

[Sonic]

Here’s another detailing product that’s great for removing water spots, which I had completely forgotten about until I used it again today;
Autoglym Quick Refresh. It’s meant as an in-between washes stuff to restore the car’s shine but, I’ve just used it after my rinse phase and there isn’t a water spot in sight. What’s more, when used with their ‘Instadry’ cloth (a panel at a time) the car is bone dry.
I keep it in my show bag, along with a bucket and 10L of water to use instead of quick detailer at car shows - After all, ‘wetter is better’ as the Bishop once said!

 

[MarkinStoke]

Was going to start a dedicated thread, but may as well post it here - I have a ceramic coated car, and always wash with filtered water. But I've been noticing lately that the car had quite a lot of water spots after drying. Not hugely visible, but you could see them with the light in the right spot, and they weren't disappearing even after a rub with the drying towel (see below). Also, the coating was seemingly 'clogged' even after using iron and fallout remover.

View attachment 25650

Messaged the detailer who applied the coating for advice, but haven't had a response. Even so, I took the plunge and ordered some Gtechniq W9 water spot remover and used it in a wash today, and it seems to have worked well. The instructions said to use it on a dry car, which I did try first, but then I took advice from this video where the guy just sprays it on a wet car, agitates, then rinses it thoroughly. I prefer that anyway - I really try to avoid touching the paintwork with anything while it's dry. So I just washed and rinsed the car, then went around the whole thing panel by panel with the W9, rinsing thoroughly with the pressure washer as I went.



Anyway, the results are pretty good. There is still the occasional water spot visible, but the most visible ones on the roof seem to have disappeared. I think I might go over it again in the same manner at the next wash and keep a closer eye on my drying technique. I still use filtered water, but perhaps I was a bit lazy getting the resin changed once or something, so I shall start using a decent towel again too.

Here's some after shots of the same panel under similar light (although not as magnified)

Ceramic coatings do have an Achilles heal and that is water spotting, you can help this by using a top coat of a polymer type which is good a repelling water spots also your filtered water is it from a on-site filter like the race glaze cylinder type as when the ceramic beads in these start to fail you get reverse osmosis and it makes water spots even worse.

 

[Conscript]

Ceramic coatings do have an Achilles heal and that is water spotting, you can help this by using a top coat of a polymer type which is good a repelling water spots also your filtered water is it from a on-site filter like the race glaze cylinder type as when the ceramic beads in these start to fail you get reverse osmosis and it makes water spots even worse.

Yes, it's a Raceglaze filter. I do have a TDS probe too, which I used to check the water quality coming out of it every so often - as soon as it starts to read more than 0ppm I change out the resin.

 

[ZN8]

Ceramic coatings do have an Achilles heal and that is water spotting, you can help this by using a top coat of a polymer type which is good a repelling water spots also your filtered water is it from a on-site filter like the race glaze cylinder type as when the ceramic beads in these start to fail you get reverse osmosis and it makes water spots even worse.

Water spotting is a problem for any hydrophobic coating that beads, as beading water settles on panels and doesn't move unless the car is moved. Reverse osmosis doesn't cause anything and has nothing to do with ion exchange resin. It's simply a different method of filtering water. RO pushes pressured water through a permeable membrane, basically a super fine filter, you don't 'get' RO water from ion exchange resin, and if you did, it's filtered water which is basically pure.

 

[MarkinStoke]

Water spotting is a problem for any hydrophobic coating that beads, as beading water settles on panels and doesn't move unless the car is moved. Reverse osmosis doesn't cause anything and has nothing to do with ion exchange resin. It's simply a different method of filtering water. RO pushes pressured water through a permeable membrane, basically a super fine filter, you don't 'get' RO water from ion exchange resin, and if you did, it's filtered water which is basically pure.

In that case obviously i got the terminology incorrect but as race glaze say if it starts to water spot more maybe the beads need to be replaced

 

[Diggler]

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting my car ceramic coated but am put off by the water spotting problem. What are views as to just getting the ‘sloping’ bits on the car ceramic coated (so leaving the bonnet and roof for example, where droplets of water would ‘sit’)? Would this be a viable option perhaps?