As a former car washing entrepreneur, I can tell you that I saw my share of messed up paint jobs and paint damage. Things such as damage from eggs or bird crap always bothered me, mostly because had the owner cleaned it off quickly, the damage to the clear coat would have never occurred. Of course, not everyone realizes this, and sometimes the damage caused is too great to fix with buffing, waxes, or tricks of the auto detailing trade. Okay so let’s discuss this shall we?
There was an article online in Professional Car Washing and Detailing News on June 27, 2012 which discussed a study done in England with regards to birds crapping on cars, and the article stated;
“A study by online retailer Halfords revealed the drivers of red vehicles should be patient, prepared and pitied, KSTP reported. Red cars were ‘marked’ by birds the most. About 18% of the total vehicles marked were red. But red car owners should not feel too blue because the color blue is second in the running with 16%. Green vehicles are the luckiest, only 1% (Maybe this is due to camouflaging?) and in the study, Halfords estimated that car owners currently spend more than $89 million a year to fix paint damaged by bird droppings.”
Now then, as the owner of a red car, and having been in the auto detailing business all of this confirms what I’ve always known. So, it’s not just in England where the study was done that has these same issues – in the US, it’s the same game. If you truly want a red or blue car, you shouldn’t let the birds stop you, but when you do see bird crap on your car, and you most likely will as per the research, then you need to get it off right away. If not, the acids in the bird crap will eat away into your very thin clear coat, and the sun bakes it in – eggs are much worse, so you have to get those egg stains off almost right away.
When removing bird crap, especially if it has dried on a bit, you must not scrape it off, you need to get it moist again using some sort of cleaner, then gently wipe it off, yes “yuk” but you have to do it, so don’t wait. Trust me on this, I’ve seen paint damage that never needed to happen. Okay so, please consider all this an think on it.
