Bird-bomb bummer

[rx280]

I just discovered that a bird relieved itself while passing over my 2004 Acura TSX (Nighthawk Black Pearl). The good news is that there were only a couple of shirt-button-size “hits;” they’re about a foot apart on the hood. The bad news is that they etched the paint, and that my attempts at polishing the affected areas weren’t what you’d classify as successful. Making the situation extra-painful is that the hood has only been on the car since around Christmas. Because of rust on the underside, the original hood was replaced; the dealer and Acura split the cost. The new hood was painted by the dealer’s body shop. Whether the 3-month-old, body shop-applied paint was less able to withstand the acidity of the bird droppings than the factory-applied paint would have been, who knows?



Until last weekend, I hadn’t done anything to the new hood other than wash it – no washing or waxing/sealing – wanting to give the paint plenty of time to cure. Last weekend I put some Eagle One Wax-As-U-Dry on it. Maybe if the paint had a “regular” wax or sealant on it, the bomb hits wouldn’t have etched it quite as much. No way of knowing, of course.



Anyway, not wanting to do anything too aggressive to any more of the new paint than absolutely necessary, I used masking tape to create square “windows” around the etched spots before using Quixx – the two-step polishing “system” for use on scratches. Quixx has worked well for me on scratches – quite a bit better than Scratch-X – and that’s why it’s the product I chose to use on the hood. I rubbed the Step 1 (“repair”) polish pretty firmly, and reapplied it several times, then used the Step 2 (“finish”) polish.



I probably shouldn’t be surprised by the results. The etching doesn’t look much diminished, and I regret having used the masking tape, because you can tell where it was – and wasn’t. It’s kind of a picture-frame effect – not exactly what you want in a cosmetic-damage zone. I did a bit of additional polishing after removing the tape, hoping to make evidence of the “windows” fade or disappear, but it didn’t do much good. Also, when I get my head down close to the hood for a shallow viewing angle, I think I’m seeing VERY slight depressions, which probably means I applied the Step 1 polish too firmly and/or too long.



I’d welcome thoughts or suggestions. I expect that my description of what I “accomplished” will make anyone who chooses to comment tell me that I shouldn’t do anything more, for fear of making things worse. I’ve got Scratch-X and 1Z Paint Polish that I could – hypothetically – try. And the Quixx comes with 3000-grit sandpaper for wet sanding of defects that you’ve had to use touchup paint on, but using that at this point would probably be way too risky.



At some point I’ll probably go to the body shop that painted the hood to see what they’ve got to say.



(I seem to have bad luck when it comes to newly painted hoods. About 15 years ago the hood on my black 1990 RX-7 had to be repainted. Within a month, the hood took a BIG bird-bomb hit; the splatter zone must have been a couple of inches in diameter. The etching was severe and my detailing-neophyte attempts to lessen it did zero good. I went back to the body shop – not the same one that painted the Acura hood – and showed the damage to the shop’s owner, who was probably the most outstanding business owner I’ve ever dealt with – an exceptionally customer-friendly guy. He agreed to paint the hood again. I kept the car for another seven or eight years and, fortunately, it didn’t take any more damaging bird-bomb hits.)

Thanks for reading, and for commenting, if you choose to.

 

[imported_BobbyG]

Before I resorted to have the hood repainted I'd give it another go with something like Meguiar's M105. This stuff works wonders and I'd be awfully surprised is you didn't see some positive results. Use it with a yellow or orange pad.



After using the M105 it's time to switch up to Meguiar's M205. M205 is a fine polishing product and can be used with white or green foam pad.



If a finer grade of polish is desired then try Menzerna PO85RD with a gray or blue pad.



IPA wipe down

Seal or Wax

 

[Accumulator]

rx280- I woulda just suggested the Scratch-X, except that you said the Quixx (which I'm not familiar with) worked better for you.



The 1Z PP shouldn't be a *bad* idea, but don't do any more masking and confine any subsequent efforts to one small area. Don't do more than that area until you have your approach dialed-in. Yeah, that advice is a bit after-the-fact now, but still...



I'd pick one area and try either the Scratch-X and/or the 1Z PP. But work carefully, with appropriate pressure and work-time. Inspect inspect inspect so you know what's going on. Don't move on from the test spot until you know what works.



Don't mask off the area, just confine/limit your efforts appropriately.



Bird-bomb etching can often be too deep for safe removal. But having some etching is, IMO, better than having the artifacts of improper polishing, so I'd be trying to correct the latter at this point. Unless the Quixx stuff did some incredibly severe damage, you should be able to get that sorted out. Then you can give some thought to the etching.

 

[RaskyR1]

The new ScratchX 2.0 is also FAR more aggressive than the older version of ScratchX. I would say try that or the Meguiars Ultimate Compound and see how that does.





I've always found repainted panels to be more prone to spotting and etching than the factory painted panels too and even if you had some wax on the car the bird poo would have still etched in most likely....if it's strong enough to eat paint a wax or sealant isn't going to stop it.