The importance of paintwork protection

[Debo]

Hello all,

This thread is just to show you the importance of protecting your paintwork! One of my customers has had an Audi A5 on an 11 plate since new (she's had the car for 4 months now). After the first time I washed it a couple of weeks after she received delivery I recommended to her that we get some protection on the paintwork immediately, as I could see that there was barely anything on it from the dealership. Due to her busy schedule and one thing or another I only ended up protecting the car this weekend...

This is what I found after my thorough cleaning and claying procedure..



For those that aren't sure what these marks represent; it's the result of bird droppings etching the paintwork. Totally smooth to the touch. Had the car have had some form of protection, whether a decent wax or a sealant, this would not have happened, or at worst, would have been much less severe.

Luckily I was able to remove the majority of the damage with some wet sanding and then compound the effected area to remove the sanding marks and return the gloss.





Please note that this is a car that is only 4 months old! Fortunately I was able to improve the damage without reducing the life of that particular section of paint.

Moral of the story - USE PROTECTION, and on your paintwork too

[B3NZARMY]

good job there debo
i tend to use baby-wipes as soon as i notice the droppings due to the acid in the birds s**t
then use a bit of polish to buff any soap from the wipes works well and beats the acid attack

what did you use to get rid of the marks as i tried all sorts of cutting compounds before ?

[sicskate]

As Matt said, he wet sanded it out.

[Debo]

good job there debo
i tend to use baby-wipes as soon as i notice the droppings due to the acid in the birds s**t
then use a bit of polish to buff any soap from the wipes works well and beats the acid attack

what did you use to get rid of the marks as i tried all sorts of cutting compounds before ?

Cheers bud. If you really need to know; I wet sanded it with 2000grit as seen in pic #2, then removed the sanding marks using Scholl S3 Gold on a 'Cyan' Lake Country Hydro-Tech pad, and refined that afterwards with Scholl S17+ on a 'Tangerine' Lake Country Hydro-Tech pad - using a Makita rotary

If your car is fully protected, the bird poo won't etch it or at least not as severely. Whenever I find any droppings on the car I usually just rinse them off same day with some water. The protection tends to repel the stuff, and forms a barrier between that and your paintwork! Makes removal a doddle

[GTT_Raider]

I use the entry level Zymol wax on my car, (my hands also smell lovely after too )and when those lovely birds decide to poo all over my car it almost literally runs off, usually find its all washed off even after some light rain.

Protection FTW