A friend of mine left her Scoob in a parkland car park at the weekend. On returning to the car a bird had very kindly dropped it's load on the boot and rear window of said vehicle.

It was a very hot day at around 35 degrees centigrade (not in the UK obviously) and the sun had dried the bird's deposits to a crisp. The next day she tried to wash the vehicle and she sensibly used a wet towel to soak the droppings so they came off without scratching the paintwork. Where the droppings were on the window and the metal bootlid there are no marks, but on the flat plastic of the spolier the paint appears to have been stained/damaged by the droppings.

Firsly what can she sensibly do to polish the mark out without going to a bodyshop/detailer or is that her only option?

Secondly what can she use on the paintwork to protect it in the future?

The car is a mica red classic manufactured in 2000 if that is any help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated particularly from the detailers on here, thanks in advance people.

 

Try a clay bar first mate, i have found that this can work quite well, failing that a light polish may be able to get it out

 

I had the same thing happen to mine but on the bonnet and the mark is still there tryed everything on it but just wont go. Bodyshop next.

 

had this on my old spoiler - it might require a light fine sand then a good polish up

Try and polish it first

 

Etching like this is caused by the uric acid in the crap eating into the surface of the paint. Thus, it is sub-surface damage, and a clay bar will do nothing to improve it. As with all sub-surface defects, the solution is to polish the paint surface to remove the damaged surface layer and (hopefully) expose a clean undamaged layer beneath. I say hopefuly, because in cases like this is it not possible to tell just how deep the etching is, and in some cases in can affect the entire clearcoat thickness, meaning that no amount of polishing will solve the problem - in such cases a respray is the only option.

In this case, I would advise your friend to try using a good quality polish to lightly cut the paint back; the best products to use for Subaru paint would be Menzerna Intensive Polish, applied using a Lake Country German CCS Light Cut Pad (see sticky guide to polishing Subaru paint at the top of the section).
If this fails to cut back the problem after 3-4 attempts, then it will be time to visit the bodyshop (or a professional detailer to see if it can be sanded out before the repsraying option is considered). In future, a good quality wax or sealant layered several times should offer reasonable protection, but note that in some cases the uric acid concentration will be sufficient to penetrate all known protective products - birds crap really can be nasty stuff. Out of the products we offer, the system that offers most protection against birds crap etching is the Werkstat Acrylic system.

I hope that helps!