[vasanthn21]

Mods: Please move to appropriate location

For the last few days, it is raining quite heavily when I am driving back home from work.

Once I reach home (covered car park), I wipe the car dry as I absolutely do not like water marks on the windshield/any glass/body of the car. I take special care to make sure the water droplets between the door beading and the body of the car is removed, this is a little time consuming and not as easy as removing water from the B pillar. The lower part of the door is especially tricky because it tends to have splashes of mud/dirt mixed with water, if not cleaned carefully can cause scratches on the paint. Another pain area is the water that seeps in between the boot lid and the body of the car.

The reason I do this is because my car is a pre-owned car. The previous owner was not careful and I see a lot of water mark especially on the B-pillar. I want to keep such marks to the minimum.

Coming to questions:
1) Is it necessary to do all this or am I being paranoid?
2) Is there a better way of achieving the desired result (no water spots/marks) without actually wiping the whole car dry every time after rain. I end up spending considerable amount of time on this activity (almost 30 mins per night)
3) What do other members do to take care of the car during rains?

One benefit of rain is that the car gets clean whenever it rains else it gets a wash only once a week.

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by vasanthn21

3) What do other members do to take care of the car during rains?

.

apply some wax based polish, this would keep the water away from the surface.


Pramod

[bullinb]

Originally Posted by vasanthn21

The previous owner was not careful and I see a lot of water mark especially on the B-pillar

I don't think water droplets would cause permanent marks. It has to be something else.

[vasanthn21]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

apply some wax based polish, this would keep the water away from the surface.

Pramod

OK, so how frequently do I have to apply the wax based polish assuming I take the car out in rain every day? Once a week or fortnight or a month?

Being from "Gods Own Country" you should be quite experienced with these kind of situations

Originally Posted by bullinb

I don't think water droplets would cause permanent marks. It has to be something else.

I never thought it could be something else, I always assumed it was water spots. I will try and post a pic of the same tomorrow.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by vasanthn21

Coming to questions:
1) Is it necessary to do all this or am I being paranoid?
2) Is there a better way of achieving the desired result (no water spots/marks) without actually wiping the whole car dry every time after rain. I end up spending considerable amount of time on this activity (almost 30 mins per night)
3) What do other members do to take care of the car during rains?

One benefit of rain is that the car gets clean whenever it rains else it gets a wash only once a week.

1) Not needed

2) Give the paint a good surface refinement and polishing by 3M or similar, apply one or two more layers of good quality wax after this. This will keep marks away and clean the car over the weekend.

If you are very particular and don't want to put too much effort with weekend cleaning, try hosing down the car and then blow drying (using a vacuum cleaner) before storing it, do this outside the parking area to minimize the humidity there. This is what i used to do when i was young

3) Nowadays i don't do anything, just leave it as it is and give a good shampoo wash over the weekend. But yes i regularly add a layer of wax on the body.

[vasanthn21]

Jaggu;1841824

1) Not needed - cool, good to realize this before the onset of monsoon

2) Give the paint a good surface refinement and polishing by 3M or similar, apply one or two more layers of good quality wax after this. This will keep marks away and clean the car over the weekend. - I need to learn a lot about applying wax or doing any such stuff myself, will spend some time on "ARTICLE: The Car Care guide (Aesthetics)"

If you are very particular and don't want to put too much effort with weekend cleaning, try hosing down the car and then blow drying (using a vacuum cleaner) before storing it, do this outside the parking area to minimize the humidity there. This is what i used to do when i was young - This is something i can do immediately, will try it out and update you

3) Nowadays i don't do anything, just leave it as it is and give a good shampoo wash over the weekend. But yes i regularly add a layer of wax on the body

[WDM007]

Generally, water will not leave any stains on the car.
But, if it is bore water or hard water [used by previous owner], there may be some stains due to the salts in the water.

[vasanthn21]

Originally Posted by WDM007

Generally, water will not leave any stains on the car.
But, if it is bore water or hard water [used by previous owner], there may be some stains due to the salts in the water.

Oh!! I was not aware of this, Thanks. So, if I get the stains removed once, ideally I should not be getting them back again.

[pramodkumar]

I "USED" to do it once in ever 2 weeks, i am bit lazy these days as it requires a lot of effort . so what i do is i wash is every week, the color of my car is good in hiding the dirt, i hope yours is a pearl silver which is again good in concealing dirt, BTW even i get water marks but it goes once the car is back in the sun, its a know issue when water gets between the clear coat and paint. once you apply wax polish do not wast with car wash, just use regular water.

Pramod

[vasanthn21]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

I "USED" to do it once in ever 2 weeks, i am bit lazy these days as it requires a lot of effort . so what i do is i wash is every week, the color of my car is good in hiding the dirt, i hope yours is a pearl silver which is again good in concealing dirt, BTW even i get water marks but it goes once the car is back in the sun, its a know issue when water gets between the clear coat and paint. once you apply wax polish do not wast with car wash, just use regular water.

Pramod

Why should one not use car wash after applying wax polish?
If this is true, do you mean that ideally - I apply wax polish once in two weeks henceforth and never use car wash again henceforth?

I have taken the pics of the water spots, will post it tomorrow.