Water Spots

[GORDON]

Hello Crew,

Just returned from 10 full days on Shasta. Great time. The Bu was in the water the entire time. The bummer is that I have water spots below the rub rail. I was pretty good about wiping the top half with babes at the end of everyday, so the spotting is not too bad there. But below the rub rail looks awful. You could almost feel the spots with your fingers. I had a good coat of wax on at the beginning of the year. I have tried to use Babes Water Solver. I have tried to use Mequires wax/cleaner. No luck. Does anyone have any tricks under their sleeve to remove these spots? I have attached a picture to reference the color only.

[SCOTTDOMINE]

Hello Crew,

Just returned from 10 full days on Shasta. Great time. The Bu was in the water the entire time. The bummer is that I have water spots below the rub rail. I was pretty good about wiping the top half with babes at the end of everyday, so the spotting is not too bad there. But below the rub rail looks awful. You could almost feel the spots with your fingers. I had a good coat of wax on at the beginning of the year. I have tried to use Babes Water Solver. I have tried to use Mequires wax/cleaner. No luck. Does anyone have any tricks under their sleeve to remove these spots? I have attached a picture to reference the color only.

Could try vinegar and water mixed 50:50. Stinks, but usually takes spots off. Then wax!

[liljohn]

Shasta is horrible for water spots. I was there last year and when I got home I just called the detail guy. best c-note spent ever. he buffed all the spots out and put two coats of wax on my baby. I know he started with a buffing compound then a cleaner then the two coats of wax. he told me that Shasta is high in minerals and he sees alot of work from that lake. good luck i tried all the tricks before I gave up . best of luck.

[WakeGirl]

For that, I'd try 100% vinegar & that really stinks. But it actually does a much better job than the mix on a boat that's been in that water for that long. You can also try the CLR product & then wash after, but I don't think that it does any better than straight vinegar. If that doesn't work, a mild polishing compound will work. Follow all of that with a good wax & you'll be golden.

EDIT: I did a wipedown on our boat of straight vinegar on the ramp at Oroville (similar type of water, nasty spots) after the boat had been in for 4 days & it took them all off. When we got home, we re-wiped it with vinegar after a good wash, waxed & you'd never know.

[zad0030]

Vinegar and DISTILLED water. The distilled water makes a huge difference. 50:50 mix

[cstello]

I ran a detail shop for 6 years so here is the best advice I can give you. DO NOT use any type of compound. DO NOT buff the boat. If a detail guy told you he put on two coats of wax he more than likely was lying to you. Heres what you do:

Go buy some muratic acid (pool acid). In a spray bottle pour a SMALL amount of acid in it and fill the rest with water. (When I say small think of this, the smaller the amount the better. Try a tablespoon or two, the more acid you use increases the chance that something will get messed up.

*** This will stain any chrome you have! Cover all chrome with plastic or a towel. Always have a soaking wet towel on hand so if you do get the chrome a little you can IMMEDIATELY wipe it with the wet cloth.

I also would advised to stay away from any metal, as it will discolor it.

Just remeber to be very careful using it and you should be ok. If you think you got it on anything that it will hurt wipe it immediately with the wet towel. From my experience I have only seen it hurt chrome and bare metal.

Next wax the boat, and you should be good to go!

[bound4er]

Muriatic acid or hydrochloric acid (usually 30%) will definately work but 5% acetic acid (vinegar) used undiluted or 1:1 should do the job and is much safer. You may have to spray it down good and let it dwell before wiping.

[Malibudude]

Well I've tried Tony's toilet tonic and that worked slightly better than 100% vinegar, but discolors the metal again not worth it in the end. Even Babes Spot Remover is worthless, use a mild scrubber pad and 100% vinegar, polish and then a great coat or two of carnauba wax. Believe me Shasta water spots are nothing but always have a coat or two of wax on before long extended trips. I've even been known the wipe it down at night and apply a spray wax...

[WakeGirl]

Yeah the Babe's is good for a daily outing, but straight vinegar is what I use if it's been in overnight. It's cheap & very effective.

[GeorgeWBush]

I just detailed my boat with a Maguiares Clay Bar. Mothers also offers one. It took the water spots of my boat pretty easily. Then again I did not have them too bad.

[Sixball]

My lake will give a boat water spots in less than a day. I will go for a ski if we have a hot sun the boat will have spots by the time I get back in. I use vinegar. Vinegar & water if its not bad. Before I lived on the lake my boat did not get as much care so I had to go with Muriatic acid I used wood bleach and a day of scrubbing and washing. I my need to do a Vinegar & water wash this week as the boat got a lot of hot sun use this past week and even with wipe downs after use it has spots.

[GORDON]

Hey, thanks for all your tips. I will try the 100% vinegar. Do I use a white vinegar? What would be the proper proceedure? I am thinking spraying it on a towel, then wipe on the boat, and let sit for a minute or two. Then wipe again with a wet water towel. Does this sound correct?

Gordon

[WakeGirl]

Yes, white vinegar (the stuff in the gallon in the cleaning section of the grocery store) & we just spray it on directly.

[bu ford]

We went for week at Shasta and spent half of the next week trying to remove water spots.

Bought the boat used from a private party but was at a dealership being detailed when I picked it up.

You could see it had just been waxed but I guess the 2000 mile trip home and a few trips to our local lake took its toll on the wax.

Anyway, tried vinegar solution, straight vinegar, boat brite, and Fiber-Fab Tub-Shower Cleaner.

The Tub-Shower cleaner worked the best. "an aqueous solution of phosphoric acid, nonionic an cationic surfactants, wintergreen fragrance and nonsubstantive coloring agent

I think it worked best because the soap helped the acid cling to to boat and kept it from drying out as quickly as the boat brite.

Whether boat brite or the shower cleaner, the key is keeping an area wet with the acid for 10-15 minutes.

I used a mini paint roller, picked out an area I could keep soaked and kept going over it - then rinsed it real good - then still had to buff it with polishing compound.

Note: these acid solutions will discolor concrete and probably don't do your tailer any good.

I soaked the trailer before I started and tried to keep a steady spray of water on the trailer.

Somewhere in my searches on the net, I saw something that went on as a gel. Wish I could remember the name. I think that would work well as it would stay in contact till you rinsed it off.

In retrospect, I would do lile liljohn and hire it done. Then put on the best wax you can find.

If it weren't for the fact it would look bush, I think the best thing to do would be to just apply the wax without buffing, then buff it when you get back from Shasta?

[rmarch]

We had our new Bu at Lake Mojave for a few days, the water spots were horible when we pulled it out. Wipeing it down at the ramp didn't even faze the spots. It was so bad I had to use a scrubby pad on the windows. To remove the spots I used Harley Davidson swirl and scratch remover about $5.00 a bottle. Very little rubbing effort, then I put a couple of coats of Maguiares wax on after. The boat shines like glass now. Also the HD chrome cleaner works outstanding on chrome (never use there metal polish on chrome). FYI nobody likes there ride to shine more than Hog riders.

[WakeDaddy]

I have to admit, I had some serious water spots that had built up over time. I was applying Babes each time after pulling out of the water and it wouldn't touch the spots.

Tried the 50/50 vinegar and water last week for the first time and was shocked at how well it worked. I just mixed them together in a spray bottle. Then followed with Meguires.

Sionara to babes (does smell a lot better though).

[MrB]

I've used Scrubbing Bubbles in the past when spots get out of hand. It doesn't harm anything and works very well.

[WakeGirl]

Where the Babe's works (along with most detail sprays) is as a preventative measure. One reason that our water spots came off so easily is that we 1) keep a good coat of wax on it & 2) wipe it down with Babe's each time we get off the lake. It keeps them from piling up or really "hardening" (for lack of a better term). If you've got a lot that have built up over time, Babe's won't even make a dent. Also, I've seen boats that were "detailed", but all that was done was to wax over the water spots. It makes them less noticeable for the short term, but when the wax starts to wear off they come back just as bad (because they were never removed in the first place). This makes it really hard to get them off.

[Malibudude]

I'd suggest using Oxalic acid instead of Muriatic acid (which is Hydrochloric acid). It’s known to be safe on gelcoat as it’s in many products specifically for cleaning hulls, such as Starbrite Hull Cleaner, On & Off, or West Marine Heavy Duty Hull Cleaner.