CaseyS4

I have a 2012 S4 in Phantom Black--

As you can imagine it blazing hot down here in NC--105F and higher!

Anyway...last week a bird had his way and left a huge dropping on the hood of my black beauty...really bad.

I took to carefully removing the mess from my hood when I finally got home--several hours later.

However--even though I was very carefuly using warm water with car wash and a micro fiber cloth...the bird dropping...which had become hard as cement....left micro scratches in the paint...it also appears to have discolored the paint slightly!!

Not sure if this is the unfortunate result of an extra large dropping hitting the hood of my car in extreme heat....or a bad paint job/clear coat from the folks at Audi.

I have several layers of car polish on the car...so I was surprised the bird dropping did any damage at all.

Any recommendations on repair? I have tried polish and quick detailer for black cars...but the scratches and paint discolor remain.

I am worried about future bird droppings....because its going to happen...no avoiding it.

Anyone else notice the paint/clearcoat not holding up.

As I say...I had a good layer of protection on the hood.

brooklyn86

Use alcohol (70% achl, 30% water) to remove it and it'll be fine. You can dilute it even more with water if you want to be safer.

Only downside is the alcohol may remove the coating you previously applied at that location.

Buy a full front end clear bra if you want to keep the car paint pristine. I have Xpel Ultimate; expensive but worth it.

chestlock

Our clearcoats are rock hard, water-based eco-coats, very durable in the long run, but very susceptible to etching caused by acidic substances like bird droppings. Black paint shows the etching off more than any other color. Poops on the paint for as little time as an hour will etch the clearcoat depending on the bird's diet. Your paint is not discolored, it's just light reflecting of the micro-etched grooves in your clearcoat

The etching can be polished out quite easily, but it needs to be done properly, with the proper pads and proper polish.

What you will need: a random orbital Flex 3404 or Porter Cable 7424XP machine with a finishing polish such as Menzerna Final Finish (to be used before their Power Finish if the Final Finish is not aggressive enough). Hand polishing is also an option, but the lesser preferred method.

Menzerna is not the only polish out there, but it's my preferred brand.

You could do some homework on polishing techniques and purchase the equipment yourself, do your homework and borrow someone elses tools, or take it to a professional and reputable detailer. Be careful who you take it to, many "detailers" out there are hacks.

Never use any sort of cloth to wipe off birdpoop, even if it's microfiber. Poop needs to be softened first and then sprayed off. Keep a 500ml bottle of soda water in your trunk for next time - when you find fresh poop you can shake to bottle to make it fizzy and then spray off the fresh poop. If the poop has already hardened, soften it first with a detailing spray containing lubricants, and then hose it off once soft.

Steven Lin

From what I've read on various detailing forums, bird droppings are very caustic. It can go right through the clear coat, which is probably what happened to you. Same thing happened to the driver's door on my beauty, so I can't avoid seeing it every day.

Often times, the only recourse is to take it to a good detailer for paint correction. The usual hand-applied polishes won't do any good.

chestlock

Check out Phil's blog here: https://detailersdomain.com/blog.asp

You'll find articles he's written on how to deal with these issues if you hunt around a bit. He's a real top-class detailer.

GUEST123

The bird doo-doo / clearcoat issue was recently discussed in this AZ post as well ...

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...Weak-clearcoat

FatalBert

Clean it off, wash your car like you normally do, give it a few weeks and then see if it still looks as bad. If so then try to get it corrected.

I've heard of cases where the clear coat corrected itself just by sitting in the sun heating up enough for it to un-etch itself back to normal. Happened to me once, I was freaking out about the etch one doodoo left on my drivers side rear door, the next week I couldn't see it.

Of course this will not be the case if it is bad enough but you shouldn't be too hasty to correct it if its possible to correct itself.

helix139

+1, and polish isn't going to protect your clearcoat, unless it's a "polish" like Zaino that is actually a sealant. You need either a wax or some kind of synthetic protection such as Zaino, Einszett Glanz, Menzerna Powerlock, Wolf's Body Wrap, or Opticoat. I use Zaino on my car and keep a bottle of Z6 in my trunk. In the event of a dropping, I saturate the dropping and the area with Z6 to soften and then lift off rather than wiping with the microfiber. I've found Zaino to be somewhat self-correcting in that hard water spots, dropping etchings, etc. that may be visible at first will go away after a wash, spraydown with Z6, and a few days time.

Even better than removing with a microfiber is to saturate with quick detailer and then remove by flooding the area with a hose and adjusting the pressure up until it comes off. I used this strategy when a very gritty dirt dobber nest from the garage door fell onto the trunk of my car and had no marring afterwards.

CaseyS4

I have washed as well as tried polish without success...Phantom black is not very forgiving when it comes to micro scratches.

I will try some of the other suggestions here...

I need to figure the winning combination...

EF99

A good photo might be useful.

For future reference:

Always assume bird droppings have grit in them (birds eat critters out of the dirt), and always assume it's acidic and any protective coatings on your paint will only resist for a short time.

Wiping or scrubbing should be avoided. As someone mentioned, soften it (by soaking it for say 15 minutes under a wet rag until it's very loose), then try to float it off rather than wiping.