While washing my car last week, I noticed fairly sizeable glob of pine tree sap on my driver side rear panel. Tried using a bug&tar remover...nothing. Tried pre-treating it the other day before another wash...nada. I'm reluctant to use Goo-gone, as I have never tried this product on a car's finish before. Although, it works well in many other applications. Can anyone make some recommendations as to what course of action I should take to remove this stubborn bastard. It seems to be slowly getting smaller, but it bugs the hell out of me every time I see it getting into my car. Thanks in advance.

 

Have you tried claybar?

 

I have not. The thought had crossed my mind since I have read much about this on the forums. I've never used it before, and to be honest, never heard of it until I joined this forum. I've never really owned a car where I was so concerned with ourward appearance. You think that would work? This crap is holding on for dear life. I'm hoping it doesn't leave a permanent mark.

 

Meguiards Paint cleaner or Meguiars Step 1. If that doesnt work try goo gone. Goo gone wont harm your paint

 

Use rubbing alcohol. Dip the corner of a paper towel and touch the blob and get it wet. Wait a little while and start trying to scrape it off with your fingernail. Might need a few applications. Get it off quick or you'll see a permanent mark.

 

I don't know how goo gone reacts with clear coat but it will take paint off......i've had it happen.

 

Well, step 1 has been covered. Here is step two.

I had tree sap on my hood. I waited for a HOT day, left the car in the sun, and removed it with alchohol.

However, this left very faint haze/swirls where I was working.

I just used "Harley Davidson Scratch/Swirl remover" and it worked awesome. (I have a bike so I had this stuff in the shop). It is basically a very mild paint polish. It will remove shallow scracthes and leave a nice shine.

So, if you end up with hazing from removing the sap, you can polish in step 2.

By the way, many car "polishes" these days are really just cleaner/wax. You need something that says it will remove swirls or haze of scratches.

AndyB

 

I know of one clever way that works on large spots - but it might be a pain if you have a bunch'o'small ones. Take a piece of ICE and hold it on the sap for a long time. When the sap gets really cold, it gets much firmer, even brittle. Once it is cold you can often just pop it off with a fingernail. This may leave a tiny bit of residue, but that is much easier to clean than the big spots that just keep smearing all over the place, making matters worse. Clay bar the existing residue using lots of lubrication to prevent any scratching. If this doesn't work your going to have to use a light paint cleaner/polish like Meguires Dual Action Clean Polish #83 followed by Meguires #9. If you have any slight hazing you can follow up with Meguires #81 Hand Polish for a mirror like finish. For polish application use a random orbital polisher to avoid any swirls that a direct drive unit would cause. Porter Cable 7424 is what I went with and it's nice and easy to use. Good luck!



Yielar

 

The ice works great on glass. Didn't help much for me on the paint, but my test vehicle had it on there a looong time. I may not have been patient enough though

 

You need a good cleaning polish like Klasse AIO. If you use alcohol this will remove any protectant you may have on the paint. Don't use anything abrasive like steel wool. Know somebody that did that once (Eeeeek!). Not pretty.

Anyway, if you use a cleaning polish you have something that will take off the sap and leave a coating behind if you can't wax the entire car at that time.