Bird poo, bird s***, bird lime, bird droppings, what ever you want to contact it, if you take pride in the look of your automobile, you can not ignore it. Based upon the climate, immediately after a decent ‘fall’ the finish on your paint can be so badly broken it is going to require a trip to the physique shop.
If you have not seasoned it you are either quite fortunate, are particularly diligent, or do not take also significantly notice of your car’s paintwork situation! The usual inform-tale is that when you wash your automobile you notice a dull patch on your pride and joy. All the washing (and ordinarily all the polishing) in the planet and it is nonetheless there.
Initially of all, a small about what truly causes the harm.
Till pretty lately it was assumed that the lime itself inside bird droppings was truly consuming into the paintwork itself. Current research by automobile polish specialists Autoglym (whose solutions are authorized by suppliers such as Bentley, Jaguar and Aston Martin, so they know a factor or two) have carried out in depth tests that dispelled that myth.
The lacquer that covers your automobile paintwork expands and softens slightly as it warms, such as when parked in direct sunlight. These warm panels quickly lead to any ‘deposit’ to harden. When points cool down once again the lacquer moulds itself about the offending item and behold, the harm is performed.
Tests have been carried out with strongly alkali, neutral and strongly acidic ‘bird dropping substitutes’ (I know, the thoughts boggles does not it?) and negligible variations involving the harm brought on was observed. It was noted that these ‘deposits’ with a ‘higher grain to liquid content’ brought on a higher levels of dullness.
So, if your pride and joy has suffered, what can you do?
Nicely, based on the severity of the harm you have unique alternatives
Catch It Early Ideally of course you will spot the droppings immediately and be in a position to wipe them off cautiously with a wet cloth. If so, properly performed, no harm performed.
Light Lacquer Harm If immediately after a wash you see a dull patch (it is the light refracting badly via the broken lacquer), you can attempt and gently polish the location and see what occurs. Do not do it if you happen to be not comfy with what you happen to be carrying out. If in any doubt, go see an professional. You could just be quite fortunate and the lacquer harm is sufficiently minimal that an accommodating physique shop could be in a position to ‘flat and machine polish’ the offending location with 100% accomplishment. Or you could make a decision that the ‘almost perfect’ outcome is acceptable to you in the face of the option, which is…
Irretrievable lacquer and/or paint harm In a lot of the instances we see, the finish is also far gone for polishing. The only option is to refinish the offending panel, which will invariably involve a take a look at to the bodyshop. It really is worth mentioning that the harm can be inflicted in hours, it needn’t take days or weeks to come about.
If you are unlucky and it is essential to repaint aspect of the panel, if the resultant repair ends up inside about 150mm from an adjacent panel, it could also be essential to ‘blend’ the new colour across the adjacent panel to steer clear of any colour mismatch.
In terms of expenses, shop about to locate a trustworthy bodyshop that will charge much less than £200 for a single panel, plus about £110 per ‘blend’ if necessary. Bonnets (hood), bootlids (trunk) and roofs are of course quite normally the broken panels and you can count on to spend a small a lot more for these.
So, sorry to be the bearer of negative news. The reality is that untreated bird droppings quite normally causes harm that wants a bodyshop.
The only way to steer clear of it? Do not park outdoors (difficult) or carry some specialist wipes (Autoglym make some) and be particularly vigilant!
Oh, and on a final good note: Attempt imagining all these Autoglym testers mixing up a variety of unique ‘bird dropping substitutes’ with no smiling to your self…
