Tuesday, July 17, 2007

What Bird Poop Does to Your Car

Some gigantic bird dropped a load of poop on the hood of my car last winter and I was foolish enough to let it sit there for possibly a week. I'm always in a rush when I get in the car and usually carrying a pile of stuff when I exit it so that's my excuse for not cleaning the mess off sooner.

When I finally cleaned it up I saw that it had eaten away through the clear coat and into the paint. I was horrified at the power of the poop.

My son-in-law was going to paint the car for me but he's become too ill so I went to a local body shop and arranged for them to do the work today. My negligence in cleaning away a hunk of bird poop is going to cost me $200.

Something interesting I found out at the body shop was that my car, purchased when it was 1 year old, had previously been repainted. No-one repaints a year old car unless it's been in an accident but we were never told that at the time of purchase. Apparently it's the law to reveal these things. I guess we were lucky that we haven't had any mechanical problems with the car since we bought it almost 5 years ago.

I plan to keep the car for 2 more years but now wonder what I have to reveal when I sell it. I guess just that I painted the hood and that it had been repainted once before but that I have no knowledge about why it was.

Anyway, I hope the body shop does a good job matching the color. The damage has been done and I learned an expensive lesson...clean up bird poop immediately!

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