Repair Automotive Paint Damage Caused By Bird Poop In 5 Minutes
Every time you take your car out of the garage, you are exposed to potential paint damage hazards. Some of the most common problems are acid rain, bugs, battery acid, and stones in the driveways. There is another hazard that is particularly messy and damaging, and that is bird poop.
Bird poop is essentially an acid. It can have a pH level between 3.5 and 4.5. That means it will burn delicate surfaces unless removed relatively quickly. On automotive paint, particularly clear coat finishes, bird droppings burn the surface and cause a permanent etching mark.
It is not uncommon for a large drop to cause paint damage 2 mils deep or more. To understand what that means for your car’s clear coat, a good laser printer paper is about 2 mils thick. More importantly, a quality clear coat finish is typically 4-6 mils. That means a heavy-duty bird pump won’t leave much of a clear coat on the area that needs repair. The good news is that etching paint from hard water stains and bird droppings is an easy repair you can do at home. Most repairs like this take less than 5 minutes.
Bird Poop Paint Damage Repair
The only way to repair paint damage caused by a bird is to polish the affected area with a fine-cut rubbing compound. The basic procedure is to use the compound to cut away the damage and re-polish the surface to make it look like new again. This is exactly the step that the professionals and the factory take when removing paint defects. Your only concern is over-polishing. Be careful not to overdo it and buff off the entire top coat.
The best car polish to use is one that is formulated to remove paint scratches or restore oxidized paint. The product I highly recommend is Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound. It’s available at most auto parts stores and works great by hand or with an electric car polisher.
If the damage covers an area larger than 1 square inch, a polishing compound alone may not be enough. For larger areas of damage, you can make the repair quicker and easier by first removing the damaged paint with 2000 or 3000 grit wet sandpaper and then re-polishing the area with the compound. This may sound harsh, but it is not. It is a safe procedure used by professionals in paint and body shops.
Bird Harm Prevention
Although it is difficult to avoid being splashed with bird droppings, it is not at all difficult to avoid damage. The sooner you remove the mess, the less likely your paint will be damaged. Conversely, the longer the mess remains on your vehicle’s paint, the more damage it will create.
If you live in an area where you’re prone to pooping, I recommend keeping a small bottle of auto detailing spray and a microfiber cloth or two in your vehicle. It will come in handy for all kinds of spills and emergency cleanups. Meguiar’s Quik Detailer is very affordable and easy to find. When you need to clean up bird droppings, simply give the bird droppings a few drops of the spray, let it soak for a moment or two, and then wipe it off.