Water Spot & Etching Removal

A water spot is not water — it is what the water left behind. As a droplet evaporates the dissolved minerals concentrate in the middle and then bite into the clear coat. Caught early it is a surface deposit that can be dissolved off. Left through a few hot days it becomes a physical crater that has to be polished out.

How we treat it

• Assessment to determine deposit versus true etching
• Chemical removal first where the deposit is still on the surface
• Machine correction where the mineral has etched in
• Glass polishing — windows often take the worst of sprinkler spotting
• Coating afterwards so water sheets off and stops sitting

The most common cause we see in Melbourne is a garden sprinkler or a neighbour’s bore-water system hitting a car parked in a driveway every morning. Once the paint is coated, water beads and runs off rather than sitting in a dome and evaporating in place, which is what stops the spotting recurring.