Water spots on Graphene Ceramic Spray Coating

[EPHIOS]

After installing Graphene Ceramic Spray Coating on my wife's Lexus, we went to a 4 day road trip.  During that time we parked next to a sprinkler.  Now, more than half of the hood is covered with water spots and the entire front bumper. 

 

I have used a Griots Perfecting Polish and Fast Correcting Cream on a LC polishing pad with Flex 3401.  At first, I thought I removed them, they were not visible.  I even used an IPA wipe down to ensure no polish is covering them.  So, I reapplied another coat of Graphene Ceramic Spray Coating.

 

After a day, I went to check the hood again, and the water spots came back.  What?

 

Any suggestions?  I do not want to use a compound again because of the risk of the clear coat getting too thin.

 

 

[RayS]

I had the same thing happen to a vehicle with Ceramic Spray and it turns out that the sprinklers had a heavy dose of chlorine or something similar and etched in to the coating.  The only option was a complete polish and do it again.  I cannot say for certain that is what you will need to do, but the picture sure looks similar.  Chemicals in sprinklers that dry onto a vehicle can really mess up a good coating, wax, polish, etc...

[BrianT]

When the sprinklers were on, was it morning or during the day?  The water spots are in the clear, and you need to recreate the panel temperature to get those water spots out.  You can use a heat gun to warm the panel before you begin to polish out the water spots. Matt at  Obsessed Garage delt with problem.  Search his YouTube channel. 

[EPHIOS]

2 hours ago, BrianT said:

When the sprinklers were on, was it morning or during the day?  The water spots are in the clear, and you need to recreate the panel temperature to get those water spots out.  You can use a heat gun to warm the panel before you begin to polish out the water spots. Matt at  Obsessed Garage delt with problem.  Search his YouTube channel. 

I would say its in the low 80s when the sprinkler turned on.  I am not sure how I can get it to that temperature right now in Las Vegas.  Its about 110 on average.

[Chris@Adams]

Those sprinklers are very bad news. I don't think the water spots came back, you may have not gotten them completely removed the first time.

Sometimes they are hard to see in different lighting. I would re-polish and  use Surface prep before Graphene Spray coating.

Good luck.

[BrianT]

The paint on the car was hot given the 80 degree day.  The paint because it was hot had expanded and when the car got hit with the water, the water was able to find its way “into” the paint.  Correcting the car in a cool place only got the water spots on the surface of the paint.  You need to heat the paint up in order to remove those spots that are deeper into the clear coat.

[BrianT]

Have a look here, Matt explains what he’s doing to remove water spots from the paint. 
 

 

[EPHIOS]

5 hours ago, Chris@Adams said:

Those sprinklers are very bad news. I don't think the water spots came back, you may have not gotten them completely removed the first time.

Sometimes they are hard to see in different lighting. I would re-polish and  use Surface prep before Graphene Spray coating.

Good luck.

Since that I applied a second coat of Graphene Ceramic Spray Coating, technically is the water spots are in between the two layers?

 

Just a side note, when I attempted the removal I had all my 6 LED Shop Lights on at 4000 lumens each.  Maybe I should have gone and done 3 IPA wipe downs.

[EPHIOS]

2 hours ago, BrianT said:

Have a look here, Matt explains what he’s doing to remove water spots from the paint. 
 

 

Thanks I will watch it.

[Chris@Adams]

18 hours ago, EPHIOS said:

Since that I applied a second coat of Graphene Ceramic Spray Coating, technically is the water spots are in between the two layers?

 

Just a side note, when I attempted the removal I had all my 6 LED Shop Lights on at 4000 lumens each.  Maybe I should have gone and done 3 IPA wipe downs.

They very well could be, yes I would have done a Surface prep wipe down.

Water spots are tough to see & remove sometimes.

If it bugs you too much I would polish to remove coating & water spots. 

[EPHIOS]

17 hours ago, Chris@Adams said:

They very well could be, yes I would have done a Surface prep wipe down.

Water spots are tough to see & remove sometimes.

If it bugs you too much I would polish to remove coating & water spots. 

I will be doing that on Saturday morning.

 

Should I stay and just use a polish And slowly work on the top layer of the coating until I remove the water spots.  Or use a compound to remove the layer quickly.

 

I know, I know....You should always use the least aggressive method. 

[EPHIOS]

Here is a closer shot, under a shop light.

[Chris@Adams]

You are correct to start with the least aggressive first. Do a test spot so you will know what pad & Polish it’s going to take to remove the spots. Good luck!

[EPHIOS]

19 hours ago, Chris@Adams said:

You are correct to start with the least aggressive first. Do a test spot so you will know what pad & Polish it’s going to take to remove the spots. Good luck!

Thanks, I will try it tomorrow.

[EPHIOS]

I was able to remove the waterspots using a light polish and polishing pad via 21mm Long Throw DA.  I waited an entire day to ensure it does not come back.  About an hour ago, I just placed a layer of Graphene Spray Coating.

 

I just wanted to add the first time, I did this, I polished the paint using a Flex 3401 instead of a long throw DA.

[BrianT]

Awesome!  Glad to hear it worked out!!

[Tom Brady]

Any ideas what to do if compounding, using a microfiber blue/white pad, isn't removing the water spots? I spent a couple of hours trying to do my trunk - I got out the swirls, some nasty surface defects, but the water spots / etching isn't moving - and they're visible in normal light, don't need a focus on them to see them. I've seen people using 2:1 diluted acid wheel cleaner, and it looks like they wipe right off - but of course I don't have any available to try. The other option appears to be wet sanding the area - which I really would like to avoid if possible. 

 

I really don't see much information online about what to do with compounding fails to remove water spots - so I'm assuming this is pretty uncommon, but if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

 

Thanks!

[BrianT]

Did you watch the video I posted?  Matt talks about how the water spots are in the nooks and crannies of the paint and to remove them he needed to heat/warm the paint up in order to get the paint to expand enough to be able to correct the spots.

[Dan@Adams]

On 9/7/2020 at 2:20 PM, Tom Brady said:

Any ideas what to do if compounding, using a microfiber blue/white pad, isn't removing the water spots? I spent a couple of hours trying to do my trunk - I got out the swirls, some nasty surface defects, but the water spots / etching isn't moving - and they're visible in normal light, don't need a focus on them to see them. I've seen people using 2:1 diluted acid wheel cleaner, and it looks like they wipe right off - but of course I don't have any available to try. The other option appears to be wet sanding the area - which I really would like to avoid if possible. 

 

I really don't see much information online about what to do with compounding fails to remove water spots - so I'm assuming this is pretty uncommon, but if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

 

Thanks!

Tom, if the Microfiber/Blue Pad isn't cutting enough, try the One Step Pad with Compound. It will be a more aggressive cut and will generate heat more quickly, so be aware of your panel temperature so that it does not get too hot. Work in a smaller area (1-foot by 1-foot) with a very slow, even arm movement, with slight downward pressure, speed 5 or 6 on the Swirl Killer 15MM, or 4-5 on the Swirl Killer Mini or Swirl Killer Pro (I'm not sure what type of machine you are using). What kind of vehicle are you working on? How old is it and does it still have original paint? Using an acid wheel cleaner on paint, even diluted, can potentially be dangerous, and I would not recommend it. If you have not wet sanded before, I would strongly suggest getting a test panel from a junkyard and practicing on it first, if you have to go that route.
 

On 9/7/2020 at 2:48 PM, BrianT said:

Did you watch the video I posted?  Matt talks about how the water spots are in the nooks and crannies of the paint and to remove them he needed to heat/warm the paint up in order to get the paint to expand enough to be able to correct the spots.

 

You need to be very careful heating or warming up the paint too much with an outside source like a heat gun. Heat can equal clear coat strike-through, which is why we recommend random orbital polishers rather than rotary buffers for the majority of our customers. The polisher and pad combo can get the paint pretty warm by themselves. Adding another heat source could potentially be a very bad idea, especially if it's an older vehicle and you have not tried this before. 

At the 4:42 mark in the video he even mentions that since the trunk is being replaced, he doesn't have to worry about issues with blowing through the clear coat. It's certainly a good technique, but one needs to be careful attempting something like this. Also keep in mind that the trunk panel he was working on in the video was a repaint from a wreck, so the clear coat on it could react and behave differently than the rest of the vehicle. Some repaints I've worked on have extremely hard clear coats, and some are butter soft. Most BMW's and other European vehicles typically have medium to hard clear coats, so usually they can take a little more heat, but something with more soft paint could have bad results if the paint gets too hot.