You’ve just arrived to work with your freshly-washed car that’s so clean you could eat your lunch off it. The sun is shining and you want to keep your car as cool as you feel, so you park it in the shade of a nearby tree. Later on, you take a look out of the window to admire your pride and joy… only to realise a feathery resident of the tree has turned it into a toilet.
That stuff doesn’t clean off easily, either. Some methods are better than others at getting bird poop off your paintwork, both in terms of speed and efficiency and care towards your vehicle. Read on to find out how you can get it squeaky clean once again, and why you should do so in a hurry.
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Does Bird Poop Damage Car Paint?
Due to the acidic nature of bird excrement, it does indeed damage the paintwork. Bird poop that sits on your car will actually burn through the clear coating and do permanent damage to your paint job. The pH level falls between 3.5 and 4.5, which is around the same as vinegar!
Plus, if you don’t clean it off quickly (as the title of this blog post suggests you should) it’ll start to harden and stick. This is when the most significant damage happens and the poop will start to really eat away at your paintwork. Therefore, you should really aim to clean it off as soon as possible, and as gently as you can.
How to Remove Old Bird Poop Stains From Your Car
If you’ve left bird poop stuck to your vehicle for so long that, upon finally cleaning it off, it appears to have left a stain, your options are a little bit limited but not all is lost. The best course of action would be to take the car into a professional body shop so that the experts can handle it, touching up the area or respraying if completely necessary.
If you’re not willing to spend that amount of money right off the bat and would rather try some of the DIY cleaning methods that you really should have used much sooner, then read on and we’ll explain those further down the page.
How to Get Bird Poop Off Your Car Without Scratching The Paint
There are a number of ways and several different products that can be used to effectively clean bird poop off your car without doing damage yourself:
- WD40 – Anyone who knows their way around a car is probably aware of how wonderful this stuff can be, but did you know that it’ll do an excellent job of cleaning bird droppings off your paint job? Spray it on to the offending excrement and after about 30 seconds, wipe it off with some tissue paper or a cloth.
- Detailing sprays – Another one that will be stocked at car accessory retailers, detailing sprays will be designed to aid your specific car care needs. Look close enough during your next trip to the shops and you’re likely to find one for this exact job.
- Hot water & baking soda – Add four tablespoons of baking soda into a litre of water and give it a stir. Then, apply some of the solution to the poop and leave it for up to 10 minutes, at which point the mess should start to loosen up enough to clean off with tissue or a rag.
- Specialist wipes – Bird droppings have become such an issue for cars, that most car accessory retailers now stock special wipes for removing poop. They’re designed to be extremely soft and equally as effective, allowing you to clean your car without scratching the paint.
How to Stop Birds Pooping On Cars
Now you know how to clean bird poop off your car, but let’s be honest, it’s not the most glamorous of jobs… so how do you stop these feathery creatures from doing their business on your vehicle in the first place?
- Tactical parking – Birds have the freedom of the skies, so there’s no way to police their every move. However, most of them will cover your car in poop while they’re perched, so once you park your car, look up. Are you underneath a tree or a lamp post? That’s prime real estate for a pigeon. If bird poop is a concern, you should consider parking elsewhere. For best results, park in a garage.
- Bird repellent sprays – These can be made up at home from everyday food ingredients, including apple cider vinegar, chilli flakes, lemon oil, cayenne pepper, garlic and peppermint oil. But, you should be aware that these ingredients could affect other wildlife, like dogs, cats or foxes that might wander around the neighbourhood.
- Tin foil – This one might raise a few eyebrows from neighbours or passers-by, but the shiny, crunchy surface of tin aluminium foil should scare off birds like seagulls who might try to land on your car’s roof.
- Scarecrows – We’re not suggesting you stuff an old shirt and pair of jeans with straw, but if your car is being harassed by pooping birds while parked outside your house, installing some kind of bird-repelling object (a tasteful statue on an eagle, perhaps?) might scare the lesser birds away.
- Bird repellent noise-makers – Essentially, these serve the same purpose as scarecrows. These electronic devices mimic the calls of larger creatures in the hope of scaring off the smaller prey birds.
If birds have done a number on your motor and the paintwork is in ruins, it might not be cheap to get it fixed up. Believe it or not, with the excellent prices on offer from Scrap Car Comparison, you might be better off scrapping or salvaging the car entirely and putting the money you earn towards something newer (and cleaner). We can get you in touch with a local scrap or salvage buyer who will even collect your car from you at no extra cost! Find out how much you could make today!
