BERKSHIRE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE AND SURREY

Bird Droppings
(lime)

Damaging

The biggest killer of paintwork on any vehicle is bird lime.

About

It’s very important that you remove any bird droppings on your cars paintwork as fast as you can before it causes irreversible damage. Bird droppings contain uric acid which is corrosive enough to eat through any wax and sealants, most protectants won’t stop the acid eating through only delay it.

Unlike mammals, birds have no bladder as they do not store liquid waste. Birds pass their urine into a common chamber used for digestion and urinary wastes. This chamber, called the cloaca also contains reproductive by-products, so when a bird lets go with a ‘bomb’ it contains uric acid crystals and a bunch of digestive wastes such as insect parts and seeds.

There are two types of bird dropping etchings.
Topical stain etching and fractured wrinkled etching.

Type 1 – Bird dropping topical stain etching

Etchings are usually only topical that is shallow enough they can be completely removed or at least greatly improved to the point where they are difficult to see.

This type of etching can be removed by using a clear coat of safe compound and machine polishing.

Type 2 – Bird dropping fractured/wrinkled etching

Wrinkled etchings are too deep to fix safely. The problem is the paint fractures (splits apart into tiny lines) or wrinkle as the paint swells and bunches together. In both instances the resulting defect is throughout the clear layer of paint and not topical. Thus, trying to remove it will require removing so much clear paint that you will likely expose the base-coat or colour layer of paint which has a dull appearance. For this reason, it’s not safe to try to remove type 2 bird dropping wrinkled or fractured etching.

I would always recommend that ceramic coatings are the way forward to protecting the paintwork of any vehicle. Two or more layers of glass coatings are sufficient enough. Even with a ceramic coating, which does provide an outstanding barrier of protection against bird droppings. It is still highly recommended the bird dropping should be removed sooner rather than later; with a PH acidity that can typically range in the area of 2 to 4.5 bird droppings should not be taken lightly.

Products used

Alu
Angelwax
Autoglym
AutoSmart
Bilt- Hamber
Bouncer’s
Britemax

Carpro
Chemical Guys
Flex
Gliptone
Gtechniq
Gyeon
Koch Chemie

Kranzle
Lake Country
Labocosmetica
Makita
Menzerna
Poor Boys
Rupes

Scangrip
Scholl Concepts
Sonus
Shine Auto
Sonax
Stoner
Valet Pro

Message Us

On-going care and advice

We are always here for help and advice. Any questions or queries, then contact us below.

Call Us

0782 895 4373

Fully Insured

Unit Location

13 Sunderland Rd, Maidenhead SL6 5HG

Open Hours

M-F: 8am - 6pm, S-S, 9am - 1pm

Email

info@madpolisher.co.uk