My latest is an IS300 a buddy of mine had me do for a friend. The guy lives in Chicago and unfortunately has to park the car outside, so I'm afraid it was pretty bad. He had been bombarded with bird droppings that were left to cook onto the car for several days this summer and was afraid there was no hope for it. Initial pics:






There were probably a dozen spots that were bombarded on the hood, sides, and fenders:






I can't believe how caustic it was. It was as if it softened the paint, changed the composition of it, and then it re-cured this way. Nothing I had would take it out.

I decided to hand rub using 3M white (OTC) rubbing compound and moderate pressure. Nothing. So I got the 2000 grit out.



I took it only this far and decided to stop as I was seeing black residue in the water. I hadn't seen it before on the prior cars I had wet sanded and got a bit freaked out. Toyota paint was much softer than the Audi and Porsche paint I had done before and I still don't own a paint guage. Even after quite a bit of sanding you could still see how far it had eaten into the paint.

 

The bumper was pretty beat up, too. Lots of scratches I didn't think would come out.





Before I put the paper away I hit it to minimize my work polishing back there.



After a good Dawn soak came the claybar with Mother's quick Detailer 2:1 as a lube.



After dried off I knew the paint was pretty soft so I was looking forward to getting the Cyclo out and seeing what it could do.

Overall the car looked pretty much like this everywhere else:

 

My procedure was first my new blue wool pads on the heavier stuff with Extreme Cut compound. They seemed to work OK but I am having problems with them throwing fibers still (I need to clean them out better), so I switched to the Orange pads. The cutting was the same so stayed with them to do the rest of the car with them. Second stage was Evolution cut on Green pads, followed by Polish on green. Last step was Meguires NXT on white two full times as I could not for the life of me find my Gloss Finish. Turns out the culprit was this little darling:



Turns out she like the way it smelled so much she took it inside to show her twin sister and it never made it back outside! I found it in the kitchen at the end of the evening! Thanks Rich for making such a great smelling product!

The NXT really didn't do a bad job so I didn't go back over it with the Gloss Finish after I found it as he was about an hour from picking it up. I did hit it twice with Gloss Enhancer two times before he did. End results. Was a bit overcast...

Say Cheese.....








The back bumper came out great!

 

The hood? Not so much. It was much better and you had to look much harder to see it, but the dropping stains were still there.

Straight down was pretty good.




From the right light you could see the damage plain as day:





The owner was pleased and glad I could get it 75% better, but until I get a rotary and some practice it was the best I could do. Black is rewarding to do, but it reminds you when you could have done better.

If anyone has tips on dealing with bird droppings in the future I'm all ears!

 

Jeez Damon you really do get the worst of the worst! I am thorougly impressed by the turnaround though, you had just about every type of defect in that paint and made it look almost new again. Very impressive finish. Maybe next time you can do a nice new car prep or something on a silver mini cooper

 

The results look great outdoors, however, do you have any after shots like the ones you took inside the garage with the harsh light? There were some deep scratches around the door handle, bumper, bird dropping etching, etc. I'm curious as to how those areas turned out.

 

Yeah, I sure can attract them, can't I? I enjoy the challenge.

 

Sorry, I don't. I finished it outside and it never went back into the garage before it was picked up.

 

Wow. That is quite the transformation. Honestly - the owner doesn't seem to care that much so I'm sure he is absolutely thrilled.

Well done!

 

Great work. Lexus has color in their clear coat so thats probably what was in your wash water. I freaked out once when I had black show up on my white polishing pad after working on a Lexus. But it happened when working on 2 other black ones as well.