bird poop paint etching
 

wondering if anyone has found a safe and effective way to remove etching from bird poop? i've tried 3m imperial hand glaze but still have faint etching. have heard about meguiar's scatch-x. anyone have experience with this or some other product? TIA

Why don't you shoot a message to Phil at detailer's domain. The guy knows everything there is to know about stuff like this...

try a clay bar - should get rid of anything still above the clear coat.

claybar is a good bet- bird poop is usually organic so any car cleaner wax should do the trick. Buffing it should help too if you have a rotor and a polishing compound.

I actually have used CLR (the kitchen formula, not the full strength liquid) to get rid of hard water stains on my windshield -yes, sorry I know its bad, but I was careful (dab on a sponge and gentle wipe) and yes it really works! so maybe try that... if you do, don't tell anyone you used CLR on your car because they'll probably think very low of you...but hey, you can blame me for it ;)

I'm very disappointed. I thought from the thread title that this was a new type of mod that you'd thought up!

No, you are correct. It is a new mod. He's just trying to return it back to stock since his lease is up.

Last time I had this problem I had to keep working with a clear coat cleaner
until most of etching was gone. Then I waxed the area with 3 or four coats of wax and that did it.

Rubbing alcohol will get it off, so will clay. Make sure you wax it afterwards.

Bird droppings are REALLY nasty because they just don't leave a residule that can be clayed out but eat into the clearcoat paint. Water droplets also will do the same thing except they act like little magnifying glasses they burn the clear esp if the car is dirty and in the sun. Scratch - X does work well but you have to work at it a few times. The polish is self destructing meaning its really hard to get paint rub through because the polish breaks down while you use it. Had a quarter sized mark on my hood from the car sitting on the dealer's lot for awhile. Had this on delivery - asked them to buff it out - they didn't really make a difference because they were probably scared that they would burn through the clearcoat. SO I did it with some advice from a detailler's forum. Put a small amount on a soft cloth and start rubbing in a circular / figure eight pattern on perimeter of the spot. Look at it with a fluorescent lamp looking sort of sideways. It will start to go away. Essentially you are smoothing out or removing some clearcoat in the process. Just don't go to far - there is a limit before it will go into the base coat even with the Scratch-X. Put on a few coats of wax and it will look fine but if you look in the right light or at the right angle you will see the outline very faintly. Better still is if you run over the area with a random orbital polisher (porter with sponge pad) with some polish then do the wax.

is wax sort of a requirement after claying?