Bird Bombs
by David W. Bynon
Bird BombsCopyright (c), 2000, Autopia Car Care -- All Rights Reserved Without a doubt, one of the most dreaded car care problems we face is the bird. Beautiful to watch fly, but vial to our car's finish, a bird's droppings can quickly cause damage to your paint. A bird’s droppings are very acidic (pH 3.5 to 4.5). When bird droppings fall on your paint, the acid begins to burn and etch the paint's 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, often as large as an inch or more in diameter. This damage is permanent, but can easily be repaired. Repairing Damage The only way to repair the damage caused by bird droppings is to polish the paint. You must use the polish to blending 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're making the paint thinner. 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.  continued... |
