I just moved into a condo from an apartment, and I finally have a hose so I can wash my car. Washed it a couple days ago, but after I was done the entire car felt horrible. The water is so hard here it left an actual layer of rough residue on my car. I had to wax the entire thing to get it off.

Is there anything I can do about this? I can't exactly hook up a water softener...or am I just screwed?

Arizona people are any of you able to wash your cars with city water?

 

I wash with city water...no softener at my house. Yeah, it sucks, you pretty much need to keep a nice coat of polymer on it so the paint feels smooth. What really helps is the detailing spray. I'm all out of Z6 spray, so I'll need to order some soon. I guess, any spray will help as long as you have a base coat of wax or polymer.

AZ water sucks!

 

If you're willing to go to extreme measures to solve the problem, a 3 gallon pump garden sprayer filled with distilled or deionized water from the machine outside the grocery store or from your own house if you have a reverse osmosis water filter can be used as a final rinse. You need to be fast and water down the hard water before it starts to dry. Some of my customers in the desert do this and it's solved the problem for them.

Alternatively, you can just pour it over the car from a gallon bottle or 3.

Ira

 

I saw a product that you can attach to the hose that should soften the water...good for 3 washes...the water in texas sucks also...let you guys know how it works out