Well Water

[Ken H.]

Gasp! Argh! 430 bucks???

I have a very good professional detailer that I use for my 1963.5 Galaxie show car. He went to our local water treatment shop (Culligan) & bought a large deionizer for $150ish. I think it is 4-5 ft tall from his description. He has it mounted/strapped on a hand truck. It has an inlet connection that he connects to the hose from his house. Then an outlet connection for the hose to his sprayer/pressure washer/nozel. Came with a water tester. He periodically checks the water & replaces it when the count starts to increase - usually every year. He does lots of cars. Would probably last us multiple years. I’m planning to look into it this spring.

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[LouG]

I have a beautiful blue ember metallic paint . . . covered in white spots like I rinsed it in milk. I am on a well, probably drilled down into a calcium cave.

Anybody on a well have any tips for me? My prior car was silver, so I never noticed this before.

Water spots are the bain of my life. I don't know if it's available in the US, but Duraseal spot remover worked well on my wife's car.
There will be other brands. Dilute white vinegar is supposed to work too.
There's always buffing as well.

 

[MAT1955]

@Junkyard Dog ..... I lived in the country for many years - same problem with my vehicles. I purchased a small portable water softener designed for marine use at a dock (purchased it at West Marine boating supplies). You could purchase cheap backflush kits to revitalize it and even replacement packs of filter media. Connected it to an outlet in the garage and only used it for vehicles. End of problem.

 

[Sofa King]

I have a beautiful blue ember metallic paint . . . covered in white spots like I rinsed it in milk. I am on a well, probably drilled down into a calcium cave.

Anybody on a well have any tips for me? My prior car was silver, so I never noticed this before.

I am on well water that leaves white spots too. I don't wash my cars at home... I take 'em to work or (no touch) carwash. I do occasionally wash wheels at home and use a leaf blower to dry them with pretty good results.

 

[fishinrich]

Is your car ceramic coated?

This happened to me and it was the car wash I was using.

I got CARPRO Reset to was the car with and no more spots.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

Is your car ceramic coated?

This happened to me and it was the car wash I was using.

I got CARPRO Reset to was the car with and no more spots.

No ceramic, and it is the water. I hosed off some dirt that splashed upon the car, and the water from the hose left spots when it dried.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

I have a beautiful blue ember metallic paint . . . covered in white spots like I rinsed it in milk. I am on a well, probably drilled down into a calcium cave.

Anybody on a well have any tips for me? My prior car was silver, so I never noticed this before.

Spray it with a rinseless wash product before you dry it. P&S Absolute wash works great as a spot free drying agent.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

Spray it with a rinseless wash product before you dry it. P&S Absolute wash works great as a spot free drying agent.

You have started me down this black hole of watching car washing videos related to this product. I never even knew such things existed.

 

[Paul's stable]

I have a beautiful blue ember metallic paint . . . covered in white spots like I rinsed it in milk. I am on a well, probably drilled down into a calcium cave.

Anybody on a well have any tips for me? My prior car was silver, so I never noticed this before.

Set up a filter system that gets rid of the minerals that leave the water spots for the hose you use to wash your car. There used to be a hose nozzle for washing cars that had a filter that worked it left no spots.

 

[Paul's stable]

you need to have the car undercoated with woolwax, fluid film. or NH oil undercoating.

You can was the under side of the car all you want, once brine or salt splashes up and inside one of those holes under the car, it is going to rot from the inside out

I see it every day at my shop in NH

You need to coat the inside of the rails and the underside of the car, also the inside of any panels (doors) you can get into.

In the autobody business when you do a repair or sectioning of a rail, and other parts we go back in afterwards with a product called a cavity wax to restore corrosion protections.

It is a coating in a aerosol can with long wands to go in the holes and coat the inside of the panels.

Spend the $$$, make sure yo have it "touched up" every 2 years or whatever the manufacturer/installer says, and you car will last a long time

Otherwise the useful life of the car is 10 years, and by 12 it is junk

When I restored my 68 F100 my painter sprayed bee's wax inside the door to prevent rust.

 

[MAT1955]

I have had my vehicles, going on 30 years now, sprayed with a clear oil. The product is now called Corrosion Free. I still know the owners of most of the cars I sold as they are family and friends who want a car from a truly ocd guy (that's me). No rust on them anywhere. I'll try to attach some pics of the underside on my 2024 GT Convertible. I plan to do the same for the 2026 GT Convertible I have ordered. These pictures were taken after my drive home. The treatment costs about $100.00 It will last two or three years if fair weather driven but I touch it up every year anyway with aerosol cans you can buy and get it redone every third year. For winter driven vehicles I get it done every year. Stops dripping after a few hours will not in any way attack plastics, sound proofing caulking, bushings etc. It is basically just a light oil spray.

 

[Frogdog1]

I'm on city well water with no spots at all. After having to drill countless water wells needed in the drilling of oil and gas wells in my earlier career, I suspect those getting water spots are getting water from shallow water aquifers. To drill an oil well we had to have a strong, steady 2" stream of water 24/7. Generally, that came from deep sand water wells that was very clean water.

 

[GooberDH]

You have started me down this black hole of watching car washing videos related to this product. I never even knew such things existed.

I recently tried ONR after knowing about it for years and I'm pretty shocked at how good it is, no spots using it with my tap water. You can even buy a few gallons of distilled water for like $10 if your tap water is super bad and use that with it. Stuff works great on my computer monitors too for no spots, no streaks. I'm pretty excited to use it as a finisher on the inside of my windshield to get rid of that mega stubborn film from offgassing you can never seem to clean without those gross streaks you didn't notice but can't unsee every time you pass a streetlight at night.

 

[Westphal]

That, I have not seen.

My initial idea would be to look at the home, existing water lines and tap into one of the hot runs. A line could be run from the tapped point to the garage area, with a spigot installed there. It'd need to be a wall adjoining the interior of the home. Running to an exterior wall would risk freezing.

But, there's the issue with codes, drains and sewer lines. You'd have to check with a plumber. Getting hot water into the garage is easy. But giving it an exit point to be in compliance would be something else.

Ideally what you'd want to do is install a hot tap, cold tap and a sink in the garage. With that, you can have a wash cart with a wand setup or some kind of rig you can wheel around and use. Or simply attach a hose and run it outside.

In my example, I could tap into the adjoining wall to the laundry area and access hot, cold and sewer.

Plumbers generally don't charge for project estimates. I'd rough out some ideas and have one come over to see what's possible.

When we had our house built about 12 years ago, I spec'd a wash sink in the garage so I could wash my hands and dirty car parts there instead of the kitchen sink to avoid my wife's wrath. It has hot and cold water, and can hook up a hose to the outlet as I turn off my outside spigots from the inside of the house during the winter.

 

[rustedrotors]

IF you know someone with deionized water source, get a few gallons. Wash n rinse your car. Then take a graden watering can and do a final rinse with the deionized water. You might be able to get away with 2 gallons of purified water from the store for 3 or 4 bucks.

Did that for years with my old gto's and trans ams.


Best thing for winter. Get a winter car you don't care about, way way more fun than 450hp in the snow. A little toronto driftin'.

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