Horrible Bird Bomb!

integraNUT

integraNUT

My Integra > *
Hey guys, great site you have here! Anyways, 2 days after claying and rewaxng my beauty, BOOM! Bird shit on the hood! This wasnt just any poop, it was vicious poop! I wiped it off the hood and but there was still some dullness on the paint. It looked like the shit ate through my clear coat but im not sure. The texture is smooth, as if nothing had happened, but the sight is horrible! Its only visible at certain angles but its still making me feel uneasy! I tried re-claying, detail spray, wax, degreaser, and a orange based cleaner, acetone but still nothing. Does anyone have any good ideas for restoration? Thanks.
 
You might have to use a paint cleanser to remove all of the layers you've built up over the bird sh*t as well as any layers below. :dunno Then start over again with the protectants.

Charles
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you have clayed, acetoned, etc and it's still there - it sounds like your clear coat is etched. :( I had the same problem with my z3. Do you have a magnifing glass or a loupe? Look at it and if it looks like tiny white cracks in the paint, it's etched. Wetsanding is the only way I know to remove it.

Can you post a picture of it?

Hope I'm wrong on this ...
 
I have found it helpful when removing the bird bombs to:
Never wipe them off dry or with plain water ... I don't know what some of those birds eat but it seems to come out like sandpaper.
as soon as possible, I spray the area with Poorboys Spray and Wipe and let it soak for a few minutes, then dab the bird poop with a clean cotton cloth or Micro Fiber ... repeat until gone then wipe the area to remove any spots.
The bird poop can etch into the paint in a short amount of time and even scratch it when wiped off.
You might want to go over the area with a mild cleaner polish like AIO, 4* UPC, or Poorboys Pro polish. If marks remain, step up to something more abrasive like Poorboys SSR 1, Meguiars Color-X or something along those lines. Finnish up with wax,etc.
 
dalmore said:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you have clayed, acetoned, etc and it's still there - it sounds like your clear coat is etched. :( I had the same problem with my z3. Do you have a magnifing glass or a loupe? Look at it and if it looks like tiny white cracks in the paint, it's etched. Wetsanding is the only way I know to remove it.

Can you post a picture of it?

Hope I'm wrong on this ...
Click to expand...

Ill try to have a picture up by tonight. But thats exaclty what I did, I looked at it under a magnifying glass! It does look like white cracks :(.
 
Sounds like it might be a job for spot wet sanding with a piece of 2000 or 3000 grit Meg's Unigrit sandpaper about the size of a stamp. Mike Phillips demonstrated this somewhere but I don't recall which forum.
 
Yep, if aggressive polishing doesn't work ( take it easier if using a rotary) looks to me like a candidate for that spot wetsanding I mentioned
 
Agreed - I think you're probably going to have to wetsand. If you decide to do it yourself as opposed to finding an experienced detailer - take your time. Use less agressive sandpaper than you think you need. Sand less than you think you need. You can always wetsand again if needed. You can't put back the clear coat you sanded completely off the car. When you start buffing out the wetsand marks and you discover the etching is still present - finish buffing out the scratches before you start sanding again. That's very important. It's very difficult if not impossible to remove any cross hatching you introduce by sanding over existing sanding marks. Wetsanding is not difficult but the rules need to be followed or you can set yourself up for a repaint .... Autopia had a guide to detailing which has a section on wetsanding. Meguairs had a video online that has a section on wetsanding. I'll look for the links in a bit and add them if I find them.

Just curious - how long was the crap on your car? I gather it wasn't very long from your first post. Was it hot that day? I think that heat seems to encourage etching from bird poop.
 
dalmore said:
Agreed - I think you're probably going to have to wetsand. If you decide to do it yourself as opposed to finding an experienced detailer - take your time. Use less agressive sandpaper than you think you need. Sand less than you think you need. You can always wetsand again if needed. You can't put back the clear coat you sanded completely off the car. When you start buffing out the wetsand marks and you discover the etching is still present - finish buffing out the scratches before you start sanding again. That's very important. It's very difficult if not impossible to remove any cross hatching you introduce by sanding over existing sanding marks. Wetsanding is not difficult but the rules need to be followed or you can set yourself up for a repaint .... Autopia had a guide to detailing which has a section on wetsanding. Meguairs had a video online that has a section on wetsanding. I'll look for the links in a bit and add them if I find them.

Just curious - how long was the crap on your car? I gather it wasn't very long from your first post. Was it hot that day? I think that heat seems to encourage etching from bird poop.
Click to expand...

Id love to wetsand it, the problem is i dont know the first thing how to! lol. The poop was on the car for 3 hours, and yes, it was hot that day.
 
Well, it wouldn't hurt to try polishing it out before you try wet-sanding. I've gotten etchings like that (felt smooth, but were visible at an angle) out with DACP (using a PC), but you could try Meg's ScratchX by hand. It's cheap, available locally, and it'd be worth a try.

The key is how deeply etched it is into your paint. Here is a link by Mike Philips from Meg's on how to use it if you're interested:

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1516

Sorry for the link to the Meg's forum, but there are a lot of pics I think may helpful.
 
That's nasty :( I have several of those as well.. I tried to polish some of them out using dacp, didn't work. My last resort was to use a 3000 grit and wetsanded it.
 
Thanks for all your help guys!!! I finally got rid of the etching! I was a bit hesitant at sanding, so I took everyone's advice and buffed with Meg's ScratchX. It took a solid 1.5 hours of buffing, cleaning, reapplying, buffing, but now the etching is no longer visible! Thanks guys! I would love to post pics of my car, but the weather is so nasty down here in Houston, I cant take my baby out for pics yet! But as soon as I do, Ill put them up! Here is a pic of my hood in the garage (the light is the shop light above). Damn I love this site. . .

:dcrules
 
i know. i think thats another reason why all of our cars will look awesome years from now. most people wouldve given up and figured it wasnt possible to fix. same thing with scratchs, swirls, and all other junk that messes up our finsh. thats y they'll be asking years from now why our cars still look great, and why u're kids wont be so negative about u handing down u're car to them and getting u a new one. its great. i know the feeling of fixing something that i thouhgt i was doomed for.
 
Next, I'd just go over the area with water/alcohol or Prep All to make sure no traces still remain. If everything is good, you're prepared to apply the LSP
 
Here are two pics I took today! Its really rainy and cloudy here, so there was no sun :(. Nonetheless, I think it came out pretty well! :rockin
 
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