bird sh*t + 110 F = ruined paint?
 

So it has been extremely hot here in the midwest (110F+) and today I noticed some birds took a crap on my car. After I got home I cleaned them off and I could still see a mark where the bird crap baked on my car for 6+ hours in the heat. I tried a little rubbing compound and some layers of cleaner wax/polish and spray detailer. Still there.... Anyone had this issue before and can offer a solution?

I was always told that was good luck...
Try taking a pick of it and post to the concourse forum here on Rennlist - there are some very helpful people on it that have done it all.

The acid in bird droppings will permanently discolor the paint if not removed promptly. I speak from experience. Brian's suggestion above is a good one - check with the concours folks to see if they have any alternatives. Good luck.

Hey! Enjoying the heat or what? Yeah I usually wash it off right away but I was at work while the sh*t was baking on my hood all afternoon..

happened to me. The body shop told me I needed to paint the door. Since I had nothing to loose, I wet sanded with 2000 sandpaper (very lightly) and then, polished up. you can't tell now. The bird droppings actually chewed away part of the clearcoat.

Your car is painted with 3 layers: primer, colored paint , then clearcoat. Typically the bird droppings will etch the clear coat. The proper method for removal is to polish the clearcoat (basically remove clearcoat surrounding area where mark is to bring them all to the same level). I recommend Griot garage orbital and some of their machine polish. If you look on griot's website they also have some free info.

Let me clearify - most likely/hopefully clear coat is only part way etched through. So you just need to remove some of the clearcoat to bring the surrounding area to the same thickness.

Also once you fix the issue wax you car to protect paint in the future...

This is very true. Several years ago, my wife purchased a new Honda Pilot, and the first week she had it, BIG bird doo doo left a spot right in the middle of the hood:banghead:. Fast forward two years, and small accident on driver's side needed some paint, and while the body shop repaired the damage, I had them fix the spot from the bird doo doo;)

If you have hot pepper bush's around your place they contribute to damaging paint since the birds are prone to dump the highly acidic stuff a lot more often. Some of the birds love peppers. I remember grasshopper spit being a pain around NC. Yah yah grasshoppers spit and it's pretty bad stuff especially around tabacco field.

Thanks for the advice. I will give those methods a try. It does look like it lightly etched the clear coat. I'm not happy since I just got my hood repainted last winter... :banghead::banghead:

Had huge bird **** on my drivers side fender just this morning on the way to work. Ran up to work and right down to clean it off. That bird crap is no joke especially given the heat down here.

You might consider leaving the mark as is. If you do decide to try to polish away some finish, be careful that you don't do what I did--polished away too much finish leaving behind a 3" diameter lightly
faded area where a 1/2" minor mark had been.

Sounds like you may need an Rotary buffer with the proper pads/compound/polish. If you don't have that, I'd take it to a professional detailer.

As a (part time now) pro detailer I can tell you in most cases if it just looks like a light discoloration and doesn't appear to have etched all the way through the clear it's pretty easily fixed.

I've wetsanded many a bird bomb in my time, while it takes longer the safest approach is just to use 3000 grit, take your time wet sanding and then follow up with an orbital polisher. If you don't go any more agressive than 3000 grit you can still easily clean up with an orbital with a compound.

As alawys if you're not comfortable doing the work yourself find a (**qualified**) professional to do the work for you. The forums at Autopia.org are a great place to find such individual.

Andy

Andy! good to see you on here. picked up a gt3?

Best,
Hans