How can I remove bird muck from my Volkswagen Golf?

I have a 2010 Volkswagen Golf 1.4. On return home from a recent holiday in Cornwall I proceeded to remove bird muck from the metallic paint. I was appalled to find that it looks as though acid has been splashed on the paintwork, made even worse by my attempts to get it off. Clearly I should have been more diligent, but I was equally lax with my last Golf, and cars previous to that, without encountering any paintwork problems. Has Volkswagen changed the spec of its paint and, if so, do all new cars suffer from this problem? I love my Golf but I can't go through this again.

Asked on 2 February 2013 by MA, Solihull

Answered by Honest John

EC rules have changed. The clearcoat lacquer is probably still solvent-based but, for environmental reasons, the colour coat is water-based. What happens is that sunlight heats the paint surrounding the bird droppings to a greater degree than the paint under the dropping itself and that causes the marks. They can sometimes be removed by a specialised heat treatment, but standard advice is to remove any bird droppings as soon as you see them on the car.

Tags: polish and paint protection paintwork problems

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