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Birdsh*t paint stripper

Gentlemen,

A few months ago I noticed one of my cars had taken a hit from a passing bird. I wasn't bothered at the time as I'd expected it not to cause any damage and the rain would soon wash it off anyway. I can't spend every minute of the day keeping all my cars spotless as I'd never get any work done. Anyhow, I was doing other things and didn't really pick up on the fact that the rain never came and the sh*t got baked on under the unusually hot sun. Yesterday when I decided I'd move the vehicle into the garage to do a bit of tinkering with it, I decided to brush off the now anhydrous birdsh*t. Unfortunately, whilst it brushed off easily enough, it took all the paint off at the same time, right down to bare metal. I've never known this happen before. Fortunately the site of the hit was on the fuel filler flap so only that will need repainting, which is a blessing I suppose. Has anyone else experienced this and are there certain breeds of wild bird that are worse than others in respect of the caustic content of their droppings?

Reply to
Cursitor Doom
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Minor signs of it in the clear coat on one of the cars we had. I was able to take care of it.

I was told it happens on newer cars (this one was a 2008) which use environmentally friendly solvents in the paint process.

We now make a point of rinsing it of ASAP.

Reply to
Brian Reay

Water based car paints have been around for quite a long time. Well before

2008. Not always popular aftermarket, as they need baking in an oven.
Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

If I see any bird dropping on my 1995 Saab, it gets cleaned off straight away. I have a couple of theories which I wish to float here.(or thould I say: "flog").

Theory 1. My old Saab is actually quite resistant due to the paint have had long time to harden over many years.

Theory 2. Birds prefer certain colours of cars which they associate with a pool of water from high above. So Birds are natually quite clean as they prefer to do their business over water if they can find it.

Reply to
johannes

My experience is that birds always shit within first few meters of the perch they have sat on to digest the contents of their crop. Not much more distance than the width of a pavement.

Reply to
Peter Hill

what an excellent analysis of a birds bowel habits.

Reply to
critcher

Perhaps, but not in my particular case where there were no perching opportunities available.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

What colour is your car?

Reply to
johannes

Some years back, I had a dark blue car which spent the work day on a large car park with 100s of other cars, on the edge of an airfield. It was quite noticeable that it 'attracted' more bird (probably sea gull) deposits than lighter coloured cars.

Reply to
Brian Reay

Birdshit colour :-)

Reply to
Andrew

Not sure what colours birds can see. But I think they prefer dark colours; black, dark blue or green.

Reply to
johannes

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