While cars these days come with all kinds of crash ratings and safety tech to keep their occupants safe and sound, what could be a real hindrance to the paint and the finish on the car is not harsh weather or a crash, it’s bird poop. Yes, and we’re here to help you discover the best ways to remove bird poop from your car.
Our recommended methods to remove bird poop from your car are:
- Detailing Spray
- WD-40
- Baking Soda with warm water
- Bird Poop car wipes
Can Bird Droppings Damage car Paint?
Bird poo damages a car’s paintwork. Birds’ excrement consists of a mixture of solid and liquid waste that contains uric acid, seeds, rocks, and enzymes. The uric acid is highly acidic, ranging from a pH of 3- 4.5. This can stain and etch the paint surface leaving permanent damage.
A study in 2010, titled, A mechanistic study of degradation of a typical automotive clearcoat caused by bird droppings within the Journal of Coatings Technology and Research believes the key ingredient in bird poop causing the damage are enzymes. These create an enzymatic reaction, resulting in damage to the clear coat.
A further study in 2011 by Autoglym, a car care company, hypothesized that the damage bird poop inflicts on the car’s finish is not due to the acidity of the poop as is commonly believed. Rather the damage appears from the paint lacquer shrinking on cooling and moulding to the irregular texture of the dried bird dropping.
As paint lacquer warms in the sunlight it softens and swells while the bird droppings simultaneously harden on the paint’s surface. Then as the paint lacquer cools, it contracts and hardens around the composition of the bird dropping. The result is that the light’s reflection is interrupted by the damaged surface, giving a dulled appearance.
Preventing Bird poop on Car
As the say ‘prevention is better than cure.’ Avoid parking your prized possession in high-risk areas where birds congregate such as lamp poles, trees, telephone wires, and under the edge of buildings.
When at your home, park your car in a garage, or if not possible then spend the money to buy a car cover.
Another preventive measure is to apply paint protection to your car. This, in reality, does not prevent the car paint from being damaged but gives a person enough time to clean the dropping and minimize damage.
The same applies to car wax. Though car wax can make the cleaning up of bird poop a lot easier, it by no means makes the cars paint bird poop-proof.
How to get Bird poop off your car
If on returning to your car you find the birds have used your car for target practice, there are some harmless methods one could adopt to clean up the bird excrement and save the car paint.
Whatever method you adopt, your aim should be to remove the bird poop as soon as possible. In the process, you mustn’t wipe or scrub the paint surface, as the small bird poop rocks and seeds have the potential to further damage your paintwork by creating scratches. Additionally, avoid paper towels or your fingernails to clean up the mess- that’s just going to add to the damage also.
Tried and tested on our vehicles, here are cost-effective damage control measures to get bird poop off your car.
1. Water and Microfiber Towel
If you’re at home and you have access to a garden hose, this method should be your first choice to remove bird poop. You could begin by spraying with water to soften the droppings. Be careful to not apply too much pressure, a mild amount would be sufficient enough to blow all the muck and grains from the surface.
If there is any residual dried bird poop, place a microfiber towel over the poop and pour water over the towel to give it a decent soak. Once it has soaked gently pat the towel to entice the fibers to pick up the rocks and seeds without wiping.
After the job is complete, ensure to re-apply a protective coat to the affected area of the car.
WD-40
A car enthusiast’s reliable friend, the WD-40 could have more than 200 uses on a car, including peeling off warm, dry bird poop. A spray lubricant in originality, the WD-40 can easily penetrate dry droppings. An ideal way to achieve the best results is to spray entirely on the affected area when the car is parked under shade.
Allow it to soak for a minute, then wipe the area with a microfiber cloth and rinse it off with water. In case there is solid poop still left over after rinsing with water, then spray WD-40 on the dry fecal matter and repeat the procedure until the paint is devoid of stains and particles.
Baking Soda and Water
There’s nothing like a good old home remedy involving baking soda. Baking soda is an alkaline agent, a salt composed of a sodium cation and a bicarbonate anion. The ideal way to use Baking Soda to remove bird poop is to mix it with hot water. A 200 ml water container needs to be filled with four tablespoons of baking soda in a spray bottle.
The solution must then be sprayed onto the affected area of the car. Allow it to be soaked for up to ten minutes before rinsing it off with water. Wipe the area with a wet cloth, preferably a microfiber cloth to avoid micro scratches.
Speciality Wipes
Specialty car wipes with funny names do exist, but they do a great job at clearing bird poop from the car’s surface pretty effectively. These wipes use bio-degradable material and a wet solution that neutralizes the uric acid in bird droppings. They’re straightforward and simple to use- just wipe the product over the stain until the dropping is cleared. You may use two or more wipes based on the amount of dropping found at a particular spot on the car. Or, just read the instructions from the manufacturer on the cover and use them accordingly.
Apart from the above methods that are found to be most effective, there are other alternatives you could use to get rid of bird droppings on your car. You could try club soda that works great on glass surfaces. It even helps to get rid of other sticky and rigid substances like tree sap which even windshield wipers struggle to clear.
Detailer Spray
Another method one could try is to use a suitable detail spray. Several brands sell these and they’re often surface specific. Some can be used directly on car paint while some are suited specifically to removing bird droppings from glass surfaces.
Meguiar’s Quik Detail sprays like our Ultimate Quik Detailer work great to help loosen up the bird dropping so you can safely remove it. We recommend soaking the dropping with the detail spray, and with a microfiber towel, lay the towel on the stain and use a “picking up” motion, almost like you are picking the dropping up off the paint.
You could choose a combination of these based on your budget. To wipe it off it at the end, do use a microfiber cloth.
How to Fix Bird Poop Damage
While the above methods could be applied to save car paint, what if bird poop has already done damage to the paint of your car? The damage could be as major as a large patch that created enough contrast for the world to see. Or, it could be minor, just enough to be spotted by a magnifying glass. If you have a Black car, the paint corrosion could seem more amplified.
The actual extent of the damage will be known once the car is washed and wiped completely. If the extent of damage is only to the clear coat, there is a simple method to sort this out.
It is important to notice any dry fecal matter still stuck to the car’s surface but isn’t deep enough to suggest a change in the shade of paint. Such stains are often referred to as Topical stains. These are relatively easy to clear off using an electric polisher or by rubbing the polishing compound by hand. Before you begin to polish, do use a clay mitt to remove the tiniest of contaminants trapped under the clear coat. If the damage is limited, this step could alone do the entire job for you by removing the stain or patch.
The next step is to smoothen the surface by polishing it evenly. You may choose to use tapes around the affected spot to keep it in focus. Spread the compound effectively and buff it out until the surface is smooth and transparent. You may notice the absence of bird poop stains once you have finished polishing the area. If you had earlier applied a protective coat over your car, you could re-spray it to protect that bit of the area.
The above process is the best DIY one could follow to get rid of dropping stains on your car. It is simple, effective, easy, and cheap. What’s best is that it gives you the freedom to examine and analyze the severity of the dropping yourself without having to rely on a detailer who might hand you over a long bill just to clear- off a small amount of bird poop.
Speaking of a detailer, you might need their expertise and their sophisticated products in case bird droppings have penetrated deep into the paint of your car. This can be evident if there is a visible difference in color tone, fractured or etched paint despite following the steps mentioned earlier. A professional detailer might be able to clear the spot for you since there are complications and intricacies involved in such tasks.
To conclude, the issue of bird droppings might seem like a small problem but it could make a big difference to the look of your car if it isn’t dealt with seriously, on time. Prevention is always better than cure so we suggest you clear droppings off your car as early as possible. You may also carry car wipes in your car to wipe away any dropping instantly. Or, you may also choose to invest in a high-quality quartz ceramic coating for your car that protects paint at a microscopic level and prevents bird droppings from damaging it for two to five years. In addition, if you park your car outdoors, use a car cover to protect your car’s paint not only from bird droppings but also from tree sap and dust.
