Bird poop
02-01-03, 02:53 PM
#2
First thing you should do is spray some isopropyl alcohol and water (50/50 mix) on it to neutralize the acids, otherwise the etching continues even after you've wiped the dropping away, believe it or not. Yes, even after you've used a polish sometimes. it's still absorbed into the finish. Don't ask me how I learned this years ago. 
What you're seeing is the etch the acids in the dropping have caused. They have eaten into the paint, and removed resins. Hopefully it's not too deep or you're pretty much sunk.
If polish or rubbing compound didn't work...well.. you only have one option left; wet sanding the area and then use the rubbing compound (removes the dullness and scratches caused by the wet sanding ) and finally a polishing compound to bring back the gloss.
If you've never wet sanded, you probably don't want to do this though. You could make it look even worse or possibly go right through the paint to the basecoat or primer, depending on paint type. Take it to a pro detailer is my best advice.
If you insist on trying, find the thread about "wet sanding" further down this forum, there's a link that has info on DIY wet sanding that I wrote.
Good luck, sorry, there are no "magic" products to make it invisible , because paint has been eaten away, and you can only HOPE the depth of that etched area now leaves enough paint underneath it to allow leveling the surrounding paint so as to make it dissappear. You may just have to accept that a repaint of the spot/panel is the only way to make it truly disappear.
What you're seeing is the etch the acids in the dropping have caused. They have eaten into the paint, and removed resins. Hopefully it's not too deep or you're pretty much sunk.
If polish or rubbing compound didn't work...well.. you only have one option left; wet sanding the area and then use the rubbing compound (removes the dullness and scratches caused by the wet sanding ) and finally a polishing compound to bring back the gloss.
If you've never wet sanded, you probably don't want to do this though. You could make it look even worse or possibly go right through the paint to the basecoat or primer, depending on paint type. Take it to a pro detailer is my best advice.
If you insist on trying, find the thread about "wet sanding" further down this forum, there's a link that has info on DIY wet sanding that I wrote.
Good luck, sorry, there are no "magic" products to make it invisible , because paint has been eaten away, and you can only HOPE the depth of that etched area now leaves enough paint underneath it to allow leveling the surrounding paint so as to make it dissappear. You may just have to accept that a repaint of the spot/panel is the only way to make it truly disappear.
Last edited by Guitarman; 02-01-03 at 03:05 PM.
02-01-03, 03:38 PM
#3
BTW...public service announcement.
This is an important thread for anyone that doesn't already know about this particular issue.
FWIW, a seagull dropping can eat completely through clearcoat in as little as 45 minutes! Other birds are similar though it varies depending on their diet. Either way, you're dealing with only hours, not days, before damage is done, sometimes irreversibly.
This exact thing happened to me circa 1998 on my black Thunderbird SC, about 1 year after I painted the car myself (more on that later). My wife had gone shopping at a mall. She parked the car under lighting stanchions, thinking it would be a theft deterrent if the car was lit up well at night. Bad idea. We live 2 miles from the ocean here, and seagulls of course love to sit atop lighting posts anywhere. She came out after a 2 hour shopping spree, saw the bird droppings on the car, and drove home hurriedly. Also remember, I'm a pro detailer, so there was PLENTY of wax on the car at the time.
There were about 4 sizable droppings, 3 of which I removed with some Q/D and a cotton rag, a bit of polish was needed to remove their outline, whew. The last very large dropping on the pass. side front fender, I was not so lucky.
When I removed the dropping, I could see it had already etched the paint badly. This is about 2 1/2 hours or less (hard to know exactly when the birds had their "fun") after the fact, and it wasn't looking good for my fender. I broke out my wet sanding kit, and went to work. About a half-hour later, I buffed it out to a shine again, and...the etch was GONE! I was a happy camper. I shut the lights in my garage off and called it a night, quite content.
Now here's where the moral of the story comes in;
Next day I go out to the garage, look at my pristine car fender ...NOT!!! The etch had reappeared and eaten FURTHER into the clear! This after I had seen perfection the night before!
Ladies and gentleman, when I say to spray the dropping with alcohol and water, I MEAN IT!. If I had neutralized the acid on the paint, I could have avoided having to wetsand the area again, and remove even more paint. Yes, I was again able to remove it, because of the extra paint I applied, but I got hold of my detailing mentor and found out why this happened first. Although I felt quick detailing, wet sanding and polishing the spot was enough to remove the acids, I was wrong. It was from that day forth that I learned acid neutralization is a must, first.
I was only fortunate in that, when I sprayed my car ( DuPont Chroma paint) with 4 coats of clear, I gave myself enough headroom to make this etch removal possible. Trust me, on OEM paint, I would've been S.O.L. . and would have had to do a repaint of the fender. It's as simple as that. OEM paint has about 1.7 mils of clearcoat, ( or about the thickness of a clear cigarette wrapper folded over itself) my car had 2.5 to 3, about 2x that . Today the car looks perfect in that spot, but I learned why bird droppings are the "gift that keeps on giving" if you don't act fast and smart.
Sorry for the novel, but...if it saves any of you the price of a repaint, I've not wasted your time.
FWIW, a seagull dropping can eat completely through clearcoat in as little as 45 minutes! Other birds are similar though it varies depending on their diet. Either way, you're dealing with only hours, not days, before damage is done, sometimes irreversibly.
This exact thing happened to me circa 1998 on my black Thunderbird SC, about 1 year after I painted the car myself (more on that later). My wife had gone shopping at a mall. She parked the car under lighting stanchions, thinking it would be a theft deterrent if the car was lit up well at night. Bad idea. We live 2 miles from the ocean here, and seagulls of course love to sit atop lighting posts anywhere. She came out after a 2 hour shopping spree, saw the bird droppings on the car, and drove home hurriedly. Also remember, I'm a pro detailer, so there was PLENTY of wax on the car at the time.
There were about 4 sizable droppings, 3 of which I removed with some Q/D and a cotton rag, a bit of polish was needed to remove their outline, whew. The last very large dropping on the pass. side front fender, I was not so lucky.
When I removed the dropping, I could see it had already etched the paint badly. This is about 2 1/2 hours or less (hard to know exactly when the birds had their "fun") after the fact, and it wasn't looking good for my fender. I broke out my wet sanding kit, and went to work. About a half-hour later, I buffed it out to a shine again, and...the etch was GONE! I was a happy camper. I shut the lights in my garage off and called it a night, quite content.
Now here's where the moral of the story comes in;
Next day I go out to the garage, look at my pristine car fender ...NOT!!! The etch had reappeared and eaten FURTHER into the clear! This after I had seen perfection the night before!
Ladies and gentleman, when I say to spray the dropping with alcohol and water, I MEAN IT!. If I had neutralized the acid on the paint, I could have avoided having to wetsand the area again, and remove even more paint. Yes, I was again able to remove it, because of the extra paint I applied, but I got hold of my detailing mentor and found out why this happened first. Although I felt quick detailing, wet sanding and polishing the spot was enough to remove the acids, I was wrong. It was from that day forth that I learned acid neutralization is a must, first.
I was only fortunate in that, when I sprayed my car ( DuPont Chroma paint) with 4 coats of clear, I gave myself enough headroom to make this etch removal possible. Trust me, on OEM paint, I would've been S.O.L. . and would have had to do a repaint of the fender. It's as simple as that. OEM paint has about 1.7 mils of clearcoat, ( or about the thickness of a clear cigarette wrapper folded over itself) my car had 2.5 to 3, about 2x that . Today the car looks perfect in that spot, but I learned why bird droppings are the "gift that keeps on giving" if you don't act fast and smart.
Sorry for the novel, but...if it saves any of you the price of a repaint, I've not wasted your time.
Last edited by Guitarman; 02-01-03 at 03:43 PM.
02-01-03, 03:56 PM
#4
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THanks man. I think i have seen that pic of your thunderbird like 3x's now. lol. all of which the thread i start. lol remember my other "wet sandind" thread. yep that was me too. well i got a 1 inch in diameter bird dropping on my car that is totally int othe paint and i don't think will come out another other way but repainting it. I can't wet sand due to too thin of clear coat. so i guess i'll have to live with the doo doo
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