when it rains ceiling of the parking garages drips on my car and leaves white spots. I beleive it is calcium chloride. But it might be something else. Any ideas what it might be and how to remove the spots?

 

Yes, those are hard water spots.....they can usually just be wiped off if you get to them right away. Use something like one of the "Quick Detailer" sprays you get in any auto parts store (keep it in the trunk with a soft 100% towel) and you should be able to wipe it off without much problem. IF NOT, then you have to go to Plan B, which is use something a bit more aggressive, such as Meguiar's #3 machine glaze (NOT with a buffer....just a bit on a towel and the spot will be gone with no damage) or a 3M product called "Perfect-It II Rubbing Compound FINE CUT. Dark gray bottle found in mostly all auto body supply shops. A tiny bit will do, and again, just rub the spots lightly and they'll be gone. One more thing: I know everybody is concerned about damaging their paint. All new cars have base coat (color coat) with a top coat of clear. When you wax, polish, buff, etc, you are NOT buffing the base coat/color coat. You have the protection and gloss offered by the clear coat. The trick is to use techniques that don't harm the clear coat, and that's easy if you just use mild products. Everybody has their favorite, and so do I, so I won't get into a Polish War here. I've found over the years that having a good polish/wax/whatever you want to use, helps in removing whatever spots you might get on your car, be it hard water spots, bird poop, insects, etc. Hope this helps.

 

i guess you mean 100% cotton towel?

 

Ooops. That's what I get for typing too fast. Yes, only 100% cotton towels. And if you want the absolute definitive word on car finish care, take a look at: www.ZainoStore.com and click on some of his tips on how to polish your car and achieve an absolute show car look from just about any car. I've been using his products on my other car ever since the car club members told me about it. I was very skeptical at first, but I'm a believer now. Also read about what towels he says to use! Ha! And I thought I was fussy. With all the products he has, it sounds like a big project, but it's really not.

 

ln Chicago the news had a special segment report about parking garages leaking on cars and although I can't remember exactly what the chemical compound was found in the leaking water it was causing severe rust problems. The city eventually had garage owners apply a special coating to the cement to keep the water from becomming tainted.

I'm not trying to cause undue alarm but if I were you I would look into this issue further to ensure you don't have problems later...

 

Without apearing too clever, how about changing the parking spot?