Took delivery of my 220d se, Astral Black with Pembroke Leather on Thursday. I am so over the moon with it. Anyway today we wnt to Glasgow Green to do the Sport Relief Mile and on our return to the car there was a dirty great big bird crap on the bonnet. As sonn as we got home the washing gear was out, but to my horror the crap had marked the paint (slight rippling). After the wash I polished the car with CarLack (came up amazing) but the mark was still there. I take it this will be repaired under warrenty and it also begs the qyestion whether the dealer actually polished or waxed the car before delivery

Cheers

Russell

We have a set of swallows that nest next to the house. They are always crapping on my car but they've never marked the paint so far (touch wood).

I was in Leicester shopping yesterday and I took my car to Lexus to take advantage of the free car wash. Car looked amazing, got home, parked up. I was emptying shopping out the car and then noticed that a bird had crapped on the car! I hadn't been back more than 5 minutes!

[quote name='russell3lliott' post='366770' date='Jul 16 2006, 12:04 AM']Took delivery of my 220d se, Astral Black with Pembroke Leather on Thursday. I am so over the moon with it. Anyway today we wnt to Glasgow Green to do the Sport Relief Mile and on our return to the car there was a dirty great big bird crap on the bonnet. As sonn as we got home the washing gear was out, but to my horror the crap had marked the paint (slight rippling). After the wash I polished the car with CarLack (came up amazing) but the mark was still there. I take it this will be repaired under warrenty and it also begs the qyestion whether the dealer actually polished or waxed the car before delivery

Cheers

Russell[/quote]


i dont recall seeing that seagull crap is covered under warranty !

[quote]I take it this will be repaired under warrenty[/quote]

Absolutely not covered on warranty.

Warranty won't cover it, but I'm sure your local dealer will look at it (may be for free!!) Depending on how severe, you should be able to polish it out.

Carlack68 is a chemical cleaner polish, not abrasive or "coarse". Try something like Maguires scratch X, or an Autoglym polish only on the affected area.

Scratch X can be a royal pain to remove. I really struggled on Friday (evening when it was cool, in the shade) with the Hona Jazz, which was swirled up by the dealer when they gave it a sandblast (free wash after the service)!! I let it haze, and even with a polisher I could not get it off at all. In the end went over it with a damp towel, followed by a dry one immediately and it came off easy!!!!

Same thing happened on my car a few years back, a bird crapped on it and I didn't wash it off straight away, when I did wash the car a few days later you could see an imperfection left in the clear coat. I've been paranoid ever since.

The opposite extreme though is someone I know who tried to clean a bit of bird crap off their car with some kitchen roll and didn't use enough water, it scratched the paintwork and put a nice dull patch in it

Good tip on Scratch-X there, I've been thinking of trying some of that myself on the gf's Fiesta. It's black and a certain bodyshop ruined the paintwork while repairing some accident damage We complained and they took it back and I think they actually managed to make it worse!

A drop of white vinegar on tissue paper will help to neutralise the pooh. Only works while it's fresh though

i tried to wipe up a fresh one with a cloth, and left lots of lovely fine scratches, damn birds must be eating grit

[quote name='star a' post='367075' date='Jul 17 2006, 03:45 PM']damn birds must be eating grit[/quote]

Birds do not have teeth so they swallow grit to grind down what they eat, and inevitably some of the grit reappears out the rear end.

bird droppings seem to be more of a problem nowadays, this is probably down to manufactures using water based products, once you've cleaned it off, your next step it to remove a little of the laquer coat, this is where the poo has etched in, a fine polish should do this, frecla have good compounds for this. then you need to apply a wax coat.


as for selants like the car lack, amazing glaze diamond brite an all its other guises, this coating is easily removed, even a good traffic film remover, or fairy liquid will remove this coating. this is why they tell you to use warm water, soft sponge and a car shampoo.

ps i own part of a family run body shop, so if people have anymore questions about dents paint polishing and stuff just ask away


jake

Just take it down to the dealers and they'll polish it out with a cutting polish - I'm sure it'll go, but don't mention it was caused by bird poo just in case it is more serious and will need a warranty repair

Dont try to polish it out yourself, you will make a complete **** of it!! I had some 3M cutting polish and made it look worse. Take it to a bodyshop you can trust - they will professionally cut/polish the mark out by machine. Believe me its worth it.

Thanks for all your advice. I'll let my local dealer have a lokk at it

Cheers

Russ

Happened to myself and my black IS bonnet. Its becoming less noticable the more I Polish after everywash. I also used a Turtle Wax safe cut paste, seems to remove alot of the swirl marks and uneven paint work. Still find it a little amazing how bird crap seems to eat into black paint to quickly.

Although it's too late in this case...

If you have dried on birdy pooh.... the best way to get it off is to soak a cloth in warm water, gently wring it out and then cover the birdy pooh with the cloth and leave it for 10 minutes.

This will soften it and then make getting rid of the crusty remains a lot easier and a lot less of a scratch experience !!


The Ed

By coincidence I have my car in the Lexus dealers today to repair the damaged dash and gear console, after the rattle repair was botched.

While it is in, I have asked for the seat belt recall to be done, and pointed out the bird crap marks on the door and roof. I have washed the car and used a polish but the marks remain, and like mentioned above it looks like the lacquer is etched by it. I tried a small bit of T-cut on a small area, and it brought the crap mark to a lovely shine, but didn't shift it all all.

So I have several corrosion marks caused by a bloody wood pigeon, and one shiny one caused by me!

I'll let you know later what the dealer said about the marks.

I seem to have "almost" got rid of the mark. I used Zymol HD Cleanse on it. This stuff takes the paintwork back to factory condition i.e. removes polish, wax, oxidization etc. Was a lot of work but I am really happy with the result, you really have to get down really close and know what your looking for to see it. Anyway my panic is over. I gave it a good polish and wax after with Carlack 68 and a coat of Zymol Concours wax ontop, the result is amazing, the best shine I have ever had on any car I have owned. . I will post photos as soon as I workout how to do it

Cheers

Russ

I don't know if this is an Old Wives tale, but if you fancy a bit of retribution you could always feed the seagulls with food stuffed with bicarbonate of soda.

I don't know if it's true but I have heard it from various sources that seagulls are unable to "pass wind" (so to speak). The inevitable build up gas apparantly causes the seagull to explode

Anyone else heard of this or is it BS?

Of course the honourable folk at TDIPLC couldn't possibly condone such cruel actions (unless under the extenuating circumstances that one has just shat on your Lex)

[quote name='tdiplc' post='367607' date='Jul 19 2006, 01:24 PM']I don't know if this is an Old Wives tale, but if you fancy a bit of retribution you could always feed the seagulls with food stuffed with bicarbonate of soda.

I don't know if it's true but I have heard it from various sources that seagulls are unable to "pass wind" (so to speak). The inevitable build up gas apparantly causes the seagull to explode

Anyone else heard of this or is it BS?

Of course the honourable folk at TDIPLC couldn't possibly condone such cruel actions (unless under the extenuating circumstances that one has just shat on your Lex) [/quote]

But if they end up exploding all over the car then we'd be in a whole new world of trouble

[quote name='Steve ( West Mids )' post='366796' date='Jul 16 2006, 10:07 AM'][quote]I take it this will be repaired under warrenty[/quote]

Absolutely not covered on warranty.
[/quote]


it WILL NOT be covered, but simply dont tell them about the seagul - say u were cleaning it and saw the mark, its quite simple

[quote name='tdiplc' post='367607' date='Jul 19 2006, 01:24 PM']I don't know if this is an Old Wives tale, but if you fancy a bit of retribution you could always feed the seagulls with food stuffed with bicarbonate of soda.

I don't know if it's true but I have heard it from various sources that seagulls are unable to "pass wind" (so to speak). The inevitable build up gas apparantly causes the seagull to explode

Anyone else heard of this or is it BS?

Of course the honourable folk at TDIPLC couldn't possibly condone such cruel actions (unless under the extenuating circumstances that one has just shat on your Lex) [/quote]


i have it on very good authority that this does not work due to the amount of soda required, I have also been told that seagulls have a very strong digestion system and even products used to kill rodents has no effect on seagulls.

I of course do not condone any such actions that would cause pain/suffering to seagulls

Mr Angry here !!!

Just got my IS back from the dealers. They finally fixed the damage they caused to the console, and it all appears as good as new, got a bottle of champs and a full tank of petrol too, so you'd think I'd be happy.

Well, they did the seat belt recall thing, and now that has caused a whole new problem...they have broken th elugs that hold the side pillar trim on. That is the white fluffy trim near the seat belt. So when you open the door this is now no longer firmly held in place by a plastic clip and is now flappy. I noticed it straight away when I opened the driver door, as I wanted to see if they had adjusted the door seals, as I had reported increased wind noise of recent.....

Just checked the passanger side, and the same damage to the clip there !!!

On top of that they tell me I need to get a quote from their body shop for a full body / panel buff to remove the bird stains !!

They are picking the car up again next week, and I am seriously thinking of ditching this Lexus main dealer, as they clearly have a monkey with hoofs for hands employed there.

That is shocking, it may well be worth changing dealers. I agree with the sentiments of giving them a chance to rectify problems but the recall work should be straight forward.

As for the comment..

[quote name='its_a_doozy' post='367663' date='Jul 19 2006, 04:47 PM']I am seriously thinking of ditching this Lexus main dealer, as they clearly have a monkey with hoofs for hands employed there.[/quote]

That made me laugh out loud