MG RED 99

How do you remove or repair clearcoat paint on a C5 after a bird has left it's mark on the hood. The bird did its business on my hood and the car was outside in the sun for a while. After cleaning the spot the clearcoat has been etched by the bird dropping.

lushdrunk

Use a rubbing compound such as the 3M scratch remover rubbing compound found at wal-mart and parts store for $10-$13. Or mothers rubbing compound. You may need to go over the area a couple of times to remove it if it is bad. But it should remove something as minor as nuclear bird droppings.
After compounding apply your wax of choice for protection.

DUB

Be very careful on how much you compound this spot. The clearcoat from the factory is not thick as you may think and if you get the spot out...you may have reduced the mil thickness in that area enough so that the clear can not provide any protection to the basecoat color...in refernce to fighting back the UV's of the sun. IF you do buff it out and in the future notice that in that area the clear is beginning to "milk-out" or get a haze to it....and keeps coming back after you polish it back to a shine...then the clearcoat is shot and it will keep doing that until it will fail completely and possible delaminate...much like sun burnt skin.

It all depends on how deep the bird droppings actually ate into your clearcoat. This is assuming that it is factory paint.

"DUB"

dieseldave56

If you can feel it with your finger nail then compounding is not my first choice i.e. control of clear coat thickness.

You're only looking at a small area. The OEM clear coat is really hard on Vettes . I would wet sand with 2000 paper(one direction) till you can barely feel the etching. Then lightly compound and finish.

karlsbad

If the clear is etched...no amount of polish (by itself) will remove the defect. It will require wet sanding...do not use bare fingers wet sanding automotive paint...period. You must control the sanding with a block and for this you want to use a precision spot "block" with 1500-1800 wet dry use lots of lube (detail spray or clay lube- preferably high quality clay lube).
Once you "straighten out" the defect area with 1500-1800 you need to follow with 3000-3500 wet dry with a soft sponge block to refine the area.
Then use a (1) diminishing polish, (2) high quality no filler glaze then (3)sealant (not wax).
If you dont do it this way guaranteed the etching will come back, the next day, when the paint gets heated in the sun.

Here is a really nice video on a blog showing the exact process.
http://www.carscratchremoverblog.com...ird-droppings/

Alex/plus

Find a professional to do it.

techvette

The same thing happened to me today...Except my car is black (shows everything) and the large pile of bird **** landed directly on my month-old paint job on the hood. Then it sat in the hot sun all day. It definitely etched the clearcoat...I can easily see it and feel it.

Do you think a high speed buffer and some swirl remover or similar compound will take care of it?

C50Bob

At the end of this post is a picture of etched bird droppings, after serious wet sanding with 400 grit (in preparation for complete repaint). It appears that the damage is so deep, sanding to at least the basecoat is necessary. The damage may go into the basecoat and further. We won't know until more sanding is done. So, in some cases, no amount of color sanding and buffing will fix the problem. That bird needs to see a doctor! The next question now is how deep will I have to sand?


Regards,
Bob

karlsbad

If you can feel the defect compounding it with a machine, alone, will not remove the defect.

Can you post a photo. That fresh of a paint job is on the ragged edge of being fully cured...usually 30 days or so. It is very vulnerable to damage especially a bird dropping on a super heated black finish.

karlsbad

You must remove the entire defect. If you do not...it will come back a few months after the paint cures. You have probably seen crappy paint jobs that were not prepped properly at the final priming stage(or when body filler was not final sanded properly (ie hack job). where after a few months you can see 220 grit scratches where body work was done and the paint has "sunk" into. You can of course "color sand" old school term...now days bc its really clear coat you are wet sanding and block sand and hit it with a rotary.

My advice: rubber block sand that etched defect out...that way it will be nice and straight... you do not want a dip there. If it means feathering into primer to totally remove it... so be it. Then you will need to hit with primer maybe once or twice more... again and block some more...a lot of work...yes...worth it on a car you care about yes.

C50Bob

Will rubber block. Should I use 220, then 400 or struggle longer with just 400?

See below pix of fender and door in process. Now using small blocks and 400. Will be doing 3-stage with 4.7 solvent basecoat. The plan is to minimize primer use as to minimize thickness. Questions:
1. After 400, should I reblock with 600/800?
2. Where 400 breaks thru to factory primer and the overall area is still flat enough, should I prime and block again?

Regards,
Bob

karlsbad

For the defect area I would stick with 320-400 at the stage you are at. 220 would probably cause unnecessary extra primer work.

if you break into factory primer, I would hit with thinned out primer coats(80% maybe)--just dont want a lot of build up as you block the fresh primer on the defect area (perhaps prime/block 2x)

PS I can see you are being careful around the window trim rubber molding etc...however, I would either remove it now or at least tape it off...so you can get right up to it while sanding by hand.

Have fun!

34RedRage

i had a 2009 vette in my shop a few weeks ago. i hit it with 600 and then 3m compound and finesse polish. it removed about 90 %of the spot, customer was happy. i did not want to take it any further because i did not feel like repainting the hood for free!!!!

Chuck A

I still have the scar of the bird droppings on my vert, its not visible unless i show you were it is, then you will notice it, yea bird crap, really destroyed my finish and paint