For the last couple of months, my car and some of my neighbors’ cars have been under attack by one or more wild turkeys that live in the vicinity and wander through the neighborhood. The bird or birds see its/their reflection in the painted surfaces and peck at it very forcefully, thinking it’s a rival turkey. (From what I’ve read online, it’s just certain male turkeys that do this – to assert their dominance.) The damage is bad: the typical peck causes a vertical scratch about an inch and a half long.
I witnessed one attack on a neighbor’s car – a brand-new dark gray Honda Accord – that lasted 65 minutes. The bird just kept circling the car, pecking every five seconds or so. Needless to say, the scarring was horrible. The attack ended only because I went outside and chased the bird off. (I had been on the phone – a very important call that I couldn’t cut short; otherwise I would have gone out sooner.) The owner of the car was away on vacation for several weeks. I shudder to think how many times her car was attacked during that time. The birds seem to mosey through on an almost daily basis.
My car, a 2004 Acura TSX that I’ve owned since it was new, is black (Nighthawk Black Pearl, to be precise), and because it’s been well taken care of, it still reflects very well – much too well for its own good now that this turkey problem has developed. I’ve had to do corrective work on the paint every weekend since mid-July. The total number of hours must be into the double digits. Primarily, I’m using my trusty Porter-Cable polisher and Meguiars Ultimate Compound. In certain light, some of the scratches are still faintly visible even after those areas have been worked on repeatedly. (The scratches on the plastic rear bumper cover seem especially hard to remove, undoubtedly because of the material’s relative softness.)
It occurs to me that all of this corrective work has probably made the paint even more reflective than it was before the turkey attacks began.
I work at night and sleep during the day, and these turkey attacks seem to occur between mid-morning and late afternoon – when I need to be asleep. I live in an apartment-and-condo complex, and the owner of the property says he’s called the town and the state and been told, basically, that the turkeys can’t be killed or even trapped and moved. His "helpful" suggestion: get a cheap car cover. Obviously, he’s not aware that car covers aren’t meant for use on daily drivers.
What it comes down to is this, I think: Somehow, I need to make my car much less reflective – in a temporary, benign way. The idea I’ve come up with is applying wax to the car and not buffing it off until it’s safe – turkey-wise – to do so. (I figure that a wax will create a better haze than a sealant. The only wax I have on hand is a 30-year-old tin of Mother’s Carnauba Paste Wax with Cleaner.) That might mean having unbuffed wax on the car for a week. (I’ve got plenty of reservations about resorting to this, but I’ve just got to do something. The thought of polishing out another huge batch of scratches has me feeling desperate.)
My dream is finding out that someone here knows of a product I could use instead of wax – one that would effectively obscure the paint’s shininess AND could removed easily and without causing marring. And if trying wax idea seems as good an idea as any, how would you remove wax that`s been on the car for days (and probably in direct sunlight for some of the time)? Obviously, the goal is to do no harm to the paint. Use a quick detailer before starting to buff, perhaps?
I’m very much in need of help here, so, please, let me know what you think. And if you can suggest what you think is a better approach, great.
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