In Aug of 2002 I picked up my MCS and by halloween,some little turkey threw an egg which hit hard on the Passenger door.I cleaned off the runny part but the shell seems to have embedded itself in the paint, quite deep.I call it my crown of thorns.Now more than 2 years and almost 40 k miles later it's still there, and I figure it's time to deal.Anyone have any experience with this? Jock

 

There's still pieces of actual shell in your paint? Wow.

If it was mine, I'd take it to Julian at Sublime Restorations in Rowley. Great guy and he'll give you an honest assessment. I've had lots of work done by him and he does an excellent job.

 

where are they located?Rowley's the next town over from me.And yes, there is a circle of egg shell fragments embedded in the paint (the circle it makes is the size of the egg)

 

Hop onto 95 south and take the 133 east exit to route 1. Left at the light onto route 1 north proceed until you go through traffic light with supermarket (Market Basket?) on the right. A few hundred feet beyond that intersection, on the right look for a long narrow building perpendicular to route 1. It has a sign out on the road listing Sublime Restorations along with the other businesses that are in the building. Sublime Restorations is at the end of this building furthest away from route 1.

Mini of Peabody sends all of their bodywork to Julian - that's how I found him. He exclusively works on Minis and BMWs.

 

Start with a claybar to remove the embedded debris. The process is very quick and easy.

Then you will have to evaluate what, if any paint damage is left. Chances are you could have some spotting similar to water spotting. It could also have "raised" the paint which egg often does. Can't tell without seeing it.

 

I know the building,there is a kayak dealer and a small machinery rental place in the same building.I'll check it out,thanks for the help. Jock

 

I had an old Toyota that was hit with an egg after a college football game (Stupid geeks from Georgia Tech ). It had this same concentric ring of scratches where the egg shell shattered against the paint.

I was able to buff most of them out with a medium cut rubbing compound, followed by fine and then a cleaner-wax that I had laying around.

The more abrasive compounds can remove paint fairly quickly, so be careful. Work with the medium (by hand) for 30 seconds or so and then buff it off with a clean towel. Do the same with the fine and then the cleaner-wax. If the scratches are still there, repeat... maybe a bit longer with the medium cut compound if you feel that you didn't make good progress. The key is to remove the MINIMUM amount of paint necessary to buff out the scratches. You often can't tell if the egg scratches are gone due to the scratches imposed by the medium-cut compound, so it is best to be conservative on the first pass or two.

Just take it slow and inspect your work frequently until you get a feeling for the abrasiveness of the product on your particular paint. You may want to even forgoe the medium-cut compound, preferring to spend a bit more time with the fine-cut.

 

I forgot to mention my favorite products:

I use the 3M line of compounds (fine and medium cut), but you may do well with Meguiar's 'Scratch X', that seems to fill a gap somewhere between these two. It seems to be a bit more agressive than fine-cut, but it doesn't create the fine scratches that need to be buffed out like medium-cut.