It’s a first for this blog, but I have a car-cleaning tip that actually works! Even better, it requires no chemicals, and is completely free!
Both of our cars are parked on the driveway under the canopy of the large Oak Tree on the front of the propery. This means they are constantly ‘targeted’ by numerous birds of different species that poo all over them. To make matters worse, the car park where my wife works is rough ground, with spaces for the cars falling naturally under many trees.
The end result is that both cars suffer from being splattered with bird poo on an almost daily basis. We usually get quite a lot of rain in Beetley that helps to wash it away, but a recent rare dry spell and unusually hot temperatures have served to ‘bake’ the poo onto the paintwork.
Yesterday, I took the smaller car to a drive-through car wash. Despite paying extra for a ‘Silver Wash’ including a ‘foam bath’, the poo was still there. Back home, I looked online for tips about removing it without using any abrasives that would damage the paint. One suggestion was to apply WD-40 to the affected spots, leave for 10 minutes, then ‘just wipe away’. But the Beetley bird poo defeated the WD-40, and was still standing proud after.
Then I found one from England that showed someone soak kitchen towels in water, fold them into a thick pad, and then simply laying them over the areas that needed to be cleaned. I was sceptical, but did it anyway, leaving it for 30 minutes as recommended. When I went outside to check, it had worked! The smaller areas just wiped away with the wet paper, and the thicker deposits were easily removed with some gentle rubbing.
Ten sheets of kitchen paper, a bowl of cold water, and complete success!
beetleypete 