WadesZ06

Hello all, I am a long term Corvette owner, having recently sold my 08 Z06 to purchase a new 2017 Black on Black GS. The GS was purchased two months ago and underwent a personalized full paint correction to correct long term dealership neglect just three weeks ago. Then my wife and I took our first long distance trip with the car from Palm Springs to Justin Winery in Paso Robles. Parked the car in a seemingly protected area near our villa, relieved there was no chance of door dings to my beautiful new GS.
After two wonderful days of wine and relaxation, I pop the trunk to load up for the trip home and hear something hitting against my car. I glance around and notice a cute little bird beating the hell out of himself against the lower door. Just then an employee walks by and says “hey man, nice car”. He noticed me inspecting the paint and says “yesterday I heard a racket out here and noticed that bird attacking his reflection” WTF, could have let me know yesterday.

Turns out my highly reflective paint correction made this batsh*t crazy bird spend two full days taking on his own reflection causing hundreds, if not thousands of scratches in the bottom twelve inches of both sides of my GS and the left rear pillar.

I have had red, silver and black polished cars and have never heard of anything like this. In the future, I will be traveling with bird ribbon/streamers just in case. (Even if it makes my beast look like a three year old girls tricycle)SEE PICS: first five are the damage, last three are post 2 step correction

joemessman

Unbelievable! I have never seen or heard of anything like that in my life. The paint correction looks good. What did you use, and or how did you do it? Looks as good as new.

SnowyATX

WTF, that is nuts. I saw a kitten on a car at an apartment complex on a car testing out his claws back in the day but never a bird go batshit crazy in his own reflection. That being said having had a pet bird with some strange quirks, granted not the same, ya never know what was going through it's mind.

WadesZ06

Could not believe it myself. Luckily the correction went great using a Rupes LHR 75E mini random orbital polisher. First step was nanoskin sponge. Second was 3 inch McGuire’s microfiber cutting disc with Jescar correcting compound using four pass crosshatch pattern. Third step was Rupes 3 inch yellow pad with Sonax Perfect Finish in same pattern. Will likely throw some Collinite on top next weekend.

movinlow

Wow, sorry to hear that!! Sounds like you know a thing or two about detailing a car!! Great job, didn’t understand much of what you said to fix it lol

mcoomer

Glad you were able to get the marks out. Just picked up a Rupes LHR15 Mark II myself, so glad to hear their mini worked for you. I bought their kit so it comes with blue and green cutting pads and yellow and white finishing pads with their associated polishing compounds. Looking forward to testing it on my truck before I work on the car.

How do you like the 75 mini? I was thinking that I might want to get one of those or an iBrid nano for doing tight places like door jams and such.

Mike

DGA3

+1

Same here (I did not understand a lot of it).

However, I figure that as long as I stay active on the forum, I will continue to absorb much knowledge and wisdom!

Kevin A Jones

If you own a black C7 you have to know a thing or two about detailing if you want a decent looking car as every little imperfection shows.

That's the craziest thing, good that you knew exactly what to do to correct. Kind of shows that no matter how much care you take to protect
you car, it's really just a roll of the dice.

23/C8Z

OK. One hell of a story lol... after owning several black cars and one black toy car, if I did a black vette it would have to be fully PPF'd and forget about it. owning a black hobby weekend car took up most of my "enjoyment" while owning it. Those of us who have some form of OCD should NEVER own a black vette lol.

DGA3

As I stated - I'm here to learn.

So, with that in mind . . . . . what is PPF'd? Some kind of paint protection (PP?), no doubt (like Xpel or a Opt-Pro) . . . . . right?

(I recently purchased a black Z06, so this is an important educational process!)

WadesZ06

Love the Rupes mini! Have a Porter Cable DA that I did the first correction with. Bought this specifically for the tight spaces that this bird damaged. After using it I may have to buy both the regular and iBrid nano (although I am hoping not to need paint correction for a long, long time!!!).

WadesZ06

Those kinds of details are probably better for the Car Care Discussion I suppose. To put it in simpler terms: Polish the crap out of it until I take off enough clear coat to make it look good again

Rangerdog1

Great job on the paint correction.

nytrorcr

Great job on the crazy bird damage.

DWS44

For a few years, our office was in a several-story office building with mirror glass, and large ledges outside the windows. It was not uncommon at all for us to see birds of all sizes sitting on the ledges and trying to interact with their reflections...some would just tap endlessly at the windows while others went nuts screaming and trying to attack. Some were quite comical, but what a mess for the OP!

YO-EL

I feel your pain brother!

Had that happen on my wifes black Lexus and my dark blue Jeep Grand Cherokee. Park in the driveway for 5 mins, and full scale attack was on from Cardinals & Blue Jays..

Damn birds! Now we drive WHITE cars!
Yep, the constant bird attacks affected our purchase decision!

Maxpowers

What bad luck. Glad you sorted it out.

dvilin

Well that's one for the birds, but in the end nice job you know your stuff.

WadesZ06

Wow!! Here I thought the hardest thing about owning a black corvette was dust.

Silver C7

Obviously a BIRD-BRAIN...