I discovered a busted bird egg on my MINI today. I'm not sure how it happened...it had to fall out of the air. I wasn't under a tree. It's dried up now...ran down the side of the bonnet....some splattered on the top of the bonnet and windshield as well. I'm pretty furious...as if it's not bad enough to poop on my car. Now they have to drop eggs on it. Seriously, what are the chances. It's still on there. The paint is Astro Black, and it's been baking in the sun for a while. I didn't want to throw water or Z6 on the hot paint. I'm letting it cool off a bit before I try anything. Will Z6 be my best bet as the most gentle way of removing the egg? Thank you.

Seth

 

No expert here but I'd get it off asap hot paint or not. Egg is one of the most damaging things for paint. I'd get the QD on it and see how much damage it's already done. Might be helpful to post pics when it's off. Also, if you've got a good few layers of Zaino on it then it might have saved you some.

 

yah, wash the area and then you'll have to polish some of the clear coat
off. hope it didn't get down into the base coat. then you'll have to live
with it or repaint.

 

Yeah...it's pretty bad. The paint is etched worse than I could have ever imagined. Scratch-X wouldn't even touch it. I'll have to get someone to buff it out...I'm not even sure if that'll do the job. Anyway, there's egg down inside the finder arch. I'm trying to figure out how to take the fender off. I'm afraid if I don't clean it out under the arch the paint may begin to chip under there. So frustrating...stupid birds.

 

sounds like you need to use something more course like Prima Swirl
or Griot's Polish2 or even Polish1.

 

Thank you...I'll consider that. I don't have any on hand. There's no way I can live with it...it covers too large an area. If it's through the clear coat, I'll have no choice but to get it resprayed. You can actually feel the indention with your hand. It looks like a spiderweb around the edges. I think I'll stop by my cousin's body shop and see what he says. I need to get a hail damage estimate anyway. This whole thing makes me a bit sick. I had no idea an egg could do this.

 

Egg is kinda scary if it gets on your car. Good luck getting this fixed and I'll keep my fingers crossed that you can find some way to fix it without a re-spray.

 

Eggs are evil when they connect with your paint. People don't realize the damage they cause. And we're not just talking about the hundreds of sharp impact points the shells cause, but the damage from the yolk itself.

Here's an example of a recent car that was at the shop. The owner of this car actually caught the kids who egged him and pressed charges when the police arrived.

The entire hood needs to be repainted and will cost around $500.

From a foot away, the damage doesn't look severe.



Magnified at 400x, the damage is very evident.











It should be plainly obvious why polishes like Scratch X and Prima Swirl will have no effect.

Richard

 

Thanks for the pictures Richard. The "scar" has gone down some. I'm not sure how the egg affects the paint exactly, but right after it happened you could feel where the egg once was. You can no longer feel it, and it's a little less noticeable. It's still more noticeable than the one pictured above. Mine covers quite a bit more area...it splattered everywhere, and it really shows up on the Astro Black. It kind of looks like someone poured acid on the paint...the paint is kind of crinkled. It's hard to believe an egg can damage paint like that. My biggest concern is a spot about the size of a pin head where it looks like the clear coat has a little bubble in it. There was a small little splatter there. I was planning to get a stripe, and that would cover the worst of it. When I get a chance to put it in the shop (for hail damage), I'll see what can be done and go from there. Que Sera Sera.

 

I would apply some filler or touchup or something to the impact area before covering it. You don't want the area to start rusting....that would be very bad.

Using my high magnification pictures, you can see the edges of the impact are jagged and other areas are spotted and look like layers--this is the yolk damage.

The picture is from an American car (I believe it was a Ford)--the paint tends to be harder than BMW/MINI paint, so it'll respond differently to impacts.

You might be able to improve the yolk damage by polishing it, but the shell impacts can only be fixed by adding more paint to it.

Richard