Well I screwed up

[shenster]

I'm an admitted newbie at detailing. I don't detail my car too often but try to keep it clean. I have a 1 year old black Audi.

Anyways, I was at Costco on a sunny day and noticed a bird dropping on my trunk. I thought myself smart because I kept a bottle of 70% isopropyl alcohol with a bunch of those very bright yellow microfiber towels from costco.

So first mistake was doing this in the sun. Worse yet I soaked a microfiber towel and put it over the bird droppings and wiped some of it away, then left the rest to soak for a bit to soften it. BIG MISTAKE. I got distracted, promptly forgot about it and went to get some supplies. I came back to my car to find my towel still sitting there soaking the bird poop in the sun about an hour later.

To my horror I found that I was easily able to remove the bird poop but the spot where I left the towel is now GREEN. It's almost a flourscent green, really hard to see at night or in dim lighting, but very easily spotted in direct sunlight. (it almost glows)

I'm not sure what has happened. I tried Meguiar's ultimate compound but it doesn't seem to have touched it. I can't imagine isopropyl has eaten through my clear coat? Is it just a dye transfer from the microfiber towel? ANY suggestion would be appreciated. I can't believe I screwed up so badly and my only consolation is that it's on the trunk and not on the hood.

Pictures below

[Top Gear]

Re: Well I screwed up

It looks like you've done chemical damage to the clear, cooking the dye and alcohol into the clear, and perhaps the paint underneath. Maybe it is only superficial, as the photos seem to indicate. I would try some aggressive passes with a DA machine and UC, then some polish and wax if that works. You cannot fix this adequately by hand, so if you don't have a DA, find a professional detailer or friend who does. You can also take it to a paint blending service, or have them come to you, and they can certainly sand this down and perfectly paint-match for much less money than a body shop.

In future, I would never use rubbing alcohol for anything of this sort. When I get a bird splat, I use Quik Detailer and Quik Wax, or a rinse or sudsy wash, or all the above as needed. The poop may still leave a seeming glaze spot on the clear, but my treatment to clean off the poop is chemically gentle, and I've found such glaze spots will fade away over time with washings and corrections and quik-waxings, because the spot may not even be in the clear, but in the waxy layers on top.

Hope that helps!

[J4o2el7]

Looks to me as if the alcohol soaked microfiber bled into the clear. You can try the d/a if you know someone that has it, but might be taking it to somebody that might be able to wet sand. That's going to be in the maybe side as well because of modern day clear coat is so thin. Let us know how it turns out , and what the correct step to get the correction done.

[larry0071]

I've got to ask, what possessed you to carry isopropyl alcohol for clean up? It's used to strip, remove and eradicate any protective products applied to your baby. Using it as a detail spray is an extremely poor choice.

But some Meguiars Ultimate Detailer (or similar) and you can clean these little drippings while not hurting your car or the protective products you spent time and energy adopting to your ride.

There are no mistakes in life. Only lessons. Lessons shall be repeated until learned.

[DrdetailNashville]

Re: Well I screwed up

Hard to tell from the pic, but my guess is that it can be fixed without repainting. Probably a job for a professional detailer though, it will probably require aggressive compounding and/or sanding.