Alfa Romeo Giulietta (Etna Black) - washing cars in hard water areas

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Mon 8 Jun 2015 19:28
Alfa Romeo Giulietta (Etna Black) - washing cars in hard water areas - guygamps

Oh dear,

I washed my car yesterday, our water is SO hard that even a new kettle gets crummy in 1 day (no exaggeration). After washing with hot water and Meguires Gold car shampoo and rinsing off with hose, the dried water made the car look dirtier than before I started. The streaking and limescale was HORRENDOUS (the sun didn't help since it dried rather fast)

I tried a wax polish and a PTFE polish, and although it was nice to polish the car, neither fully removed the limescale marks I can still where all the water "puddles" dried. Two questions

1) remedial., how on earth do I remove the limescale residue from the pearlescent paintwork? Claybar?

2) how do I prevent it from happening again? can I put a water softening tablet in my bucket before shampooing the car?

Hoping you guys wmight have some answers.

Guy

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Mon 8 Jun 2015 20:07
Alfa Romeo Giulietta (Etna Black) - washing cars in hard water areas - Manatee

I don't know the best way to remove the marks when you've polished over them, though I suspect a slightly more abrasive polish might do it - Meguiars?

As to avoiding the streaks...don't do it in the sund, and dry it off with a leather. Inevitably of course the sun comes out in the middle of this and bits dry before you get to them. My next move (we have hard water too) was to start rinsing with rain water from the butt. It's a bit of a pain fetching watering cans of the stuff from the back garden but I can do it with about 3 cans now.

The professionals must have atechnique for this!

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Mon 8 Jun 2015 20:26
Alfa Romeo Giulietta (Etna Black) - washing cars in hard water areas - Galaxy

A friend of mine collects the water from the various dehumidifiers he has located around his property. They produce distilled water, which he uses for the final wash when cleaning his vehicles.

Tells me he doesn't even have to leather afterwards.

There's a self car cleaning estsblishment quite near to me where deionised water is also used for the final part of the cleaning procedure. Once again, no use of a leather afterwards is required.

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Mon 8 Jun 2015 21:01
Alfa Romeo Giulietta (Etna Black) - washing cars in hard water areas - Manatee

That makes sense. I don't need to leather when I use rainwater, which must be reasonably pure. Given it's come of the roof it collects grit but that sits in the bottom of the butt.

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