How to Kill Off Stubborn Water Spots for Good

I cannot stress this enough. If the panels are hot, you're wasting your time and potentially damaging the paint. Work in a garage or under a carport in the cool of the morning.

Give the car a thorough wash using the two-bucket method. You want to remove all the loose dirt, red dust, and grit so you aren't rubbing it into the paint later.

Use an iron remover (like Gtechniq W6) if you haven't done it in a while. This gets rid of the metallic fallout from brakes that likes to sit inside water spots.

Run a clay bar over the spotted areas. Often, the minerals sit 'on' the surface. If the paint feels like sandpaper, the clay will shave those minerals off. If it's still visible after claying, it's etched.

Use a dedicated drying towel or a leaf blower. Don't let it air dry, or you'll just be back at square one.

Truth be told, you always want to start with the weakest chemical. Spray your water spot remover onto a microfibre applicator pad, not directly on the paint.

Divide your bonnet or roof into 40x40cm sections. If you try to do the whole car at once, the product will dry and cause a mess.

Work the product in a cross-hatch pattern (up and down, then left to right). Don't scrub like you're cleaning a burnt pot; let the chemistry do the work.

Let it sit for about 30-60 seconds. Do not let it dry! If it starts to dry, add a bit more product to keep it wet.

Wipe the area with a damp microfibre towel and then rinse thoroughly with water. Acidic cleaners need to be completely removed.

Dry the section and use a torch (or your phone light) to look at the paint from an angle. Are the spots gone? If yes, move on. If they're still there but look 'fainter', repeat the process once more.

If the chemical didn't work, the minerals have eaten into the clear coat. You now need to polish. Apply 3-4 pea-sized drops of finishing polish to your foam pad.

Dab the pad across the section you're working on to spread the polish before turning the machine on.

Set your DA polisher to speed 3 or 4. Move slowly, about 2-3cm per second. Use light pressure; let the machine's weight do the heavy lifting.

Go over the area 4 times, twice vertically and twice horizontally. This ensures even removal of that damaged top layer of clear coat.

Use a clean microfibre to buff away the polish residue. Use your IPA spray now to remove any oils. This is the 'moment of truth' step.

If spots remain, move to a slightly more aggressive compound and pad. But be careful, you only have so much clear coat. A customer once brought in a Ranger that he'd tried to 'scrub' with a green kitchen sponge. Don't be that guy. Use the right tools.

If you used a heavy compound, follow up with a fine polish and a soft white pad to bring back that deep Aussie gloss.

Water spots on glass are even tougher. You can actually use a dedicated glass polish or even 0000 grade steel wool (only on glass, never paint!) with some glass cleaner as lube.

Once the whole car is done, give it one last rinse with that distilled water we talked about earlier. It's cheap insurance.

Now that the paint is 'naked', you must protect it. Apply your wax or ceramic sealant immediately. This fills the microscopic pores in the paint so minerals can't grip as easily next time.