If you live in the San Fernando Valley, you already know the struggle: Southern California has some of the hardest municipal water in the country. If you wash your car at home with a garden hose and let it dry in the sun, you are practically guaranteeing that hard water minerals (like calcium and magnesium) will bake into your clear coat.
When tap water evaporates off your vehicle, it leaves behind mineral deposits. At first, these sit on the surface. But when exposed to the intense California sun, these minerals heat up and begin to physically etch into the clear coat of your paint. Once etching occurs, a simple wash will no longer fix the problem.
For fresh water spots (less than a week old), you can often use a dedicated water spot remover (a mild acid that breaks down the minerals). However, you must thoroughly neutralize and wash the area afterward to prevent paint damage.
For baked-on, etched water spots, the only solution is machine polishing (paint correction). This involves safely removing a microscopic layer of the damaged clear coat to reveal the pristine, flat paint underneath.
The absolute best way to stop hard water spots from ruining your paint is a professional Ceramic Coating. A ceramic coating acts as a sacrificial, highly hydrophobic layer over your clear coat. Water beads up and rolls off instantly, and the tight molecular structure of the coating prevents minerals from penetrating.
At Mission Mobile Detailing, our vans are equipped with spot-free, deionized water systems, meaning we can wash your car perfectly even in direct sunlight without leaving a single spot.