Concours Corner

Fighting off the dreaded "Bird Bombs"

by David Bynon, San Diego Region

from THE WINDBLOWN WITNESS

Without a doubt, one of the most dreaded car care problems we face is the bird…or at least its inevitable end product. Bird droppings can quickly damage your paint.

Bird droppings are very acidic (pH 3.5 to 4.5). When they fall on your paint, the acid begins to burn and etch the paint surface. The longer the bird droppings remain, the greater the damage.

I've had bird bomb incidents with my Speed Yellow 996 (the seagulls just seem to think it's a target) that have created damage as deep as 2-3 mils. To give you an idea of what that means, notebook paper is approximately 2 mils of thickness. Your car's paint is only 6-8 mils thick.

The result of bird dropping damage is a dimple in the paint's surface, perhaps as large as an inch or more in diameter. This damage is permanent, but can easily be repaired. However, the best medicine is preventing bird-doo damage in the first place.

While it's not really possible to keep birds from bombing your car with their dirty little surprises, you can take steps to limit the damage. The most obvious protection is a car cover (please, not while you're driving). But, even the cover won't help you on the road.

To limit the damage when you get hit, you need to remove the offending slime as quickly as possible. Don't wait.

I've found the best way to clean up after a bird hit is with a good detailing spray and a cotton terrycloth towel. As I'm a clean-car fanatic anyway, I keep a little detailing kit in my trunk. It holds a spray bottle of quick detailer, a couple towels, and my favorite rubber and vinyl dressing.

When a bird gets me, I spray the bird droppings with a few shots of detailing spray and wipe it off with the towel, turning the towel as necessary to keep a clean wipe on the car.

Another way to protect your paint from bird damage is to keep your car waxed. While a standard carnauba wax offers limited protection against a juicy attack, it makes cleanup much easier. Acrylic polymer sealants protect a little better against the harsh acids, but it's not enough to create a damage-free barrier if the bird poop sits too long. You still need to remove the mess as quickly as possible.

Repairing Damage

The only way to repair the damage caused by baked-on bird doo is to polish the paint. You must use the polish to blend the surrounding paint, bringing it down to the same level as the damaged area. This may sound drastic, but it works very well. The only concern is that you are making the paint thinner in a localized area. So you must be careful not to polish all the way through to the primer. Do so, and you'll have a more noticeable problem than what the bird left behind.

Any good paint polish can be used to fix the damage with a fair amount of rubbing. I've found that it's better to start with a mild compound, as you would find in a scratch remover (Eagle One Scratch Remover is a good example), followed by a good hand polish.

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