Baked-on pine tree sap

[RickRS]

My kid got a 93 Camaro in a dark purple color recently. The paint needs a lot of work, as it has scratches, cracking, and pine sap. Pine sap can be common in my area, as pines are the dominate tree in Northwest Florida. The sap is gobs of dime-size spots, baked hard by that Florida sunshine.

Tried Gunk brand Bug-N-Sap Remover, which hardly dented the sap. Next tried SratchX on a couple of spots. Got the sap off, but a lot of work and a major crater left behind. As the sap may be several years old, I can accept the crater, but any advice on how best to clean-up this mess?

After the pine sap is gone, plan to use ColorX to take out as much of the paint scratches and cracking as possible.

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Rick,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

I know this is going to sound like the too simple to work approach, but have you tried washing the car? Not washing the car as in spray on some water and then run a wash mitt over the surface, but as in getting the car wet as though it had been sitting in solid Oregon rain for a week type saturated wet. Then running a wash mitt and soap solution over the panel.

With enough time, water will loosen, dissolve and remove a lot of things, I don't know about this particular type of tree sap, but I have run into the same kind of problem in Oregon with a couple of cars parked under the wrong tree and extreme water saturation before attempting to wash worked for me.

Mike

[Tim Lingor]

Hey,

If the sap is very cold, you can usually chip it off carefully with your nail. But based on your location, that may be difficult. I have heard of people using an ice cube to cool down the sap, so that it becomes brittle. But extreme care must be used not to damage the surrounding paint. I have also used a light solvent like WD-40 to soften the sap. But again, avoid getting the WD-40 on the paint. Be sure to wash the affected area thoroughly, and then re-wax.

Being that I love the outdoors (fishing etc), I have, on more than a few occassions, had sap find my truck! But with a little patience, you can remove it.

Tim

[travisdecpn]

I use Stoner's Tarminator, it takes a few applications, but it eventually breaks sap down. After you remove the majority of it, try using clay to remove the rest. This has always worked great for me.

[RickRS]

The pine sap is already baked hard, so the trick of freezing to make it brittle is not necessary. I think that the sap has reacted chemically with the paint so it may be bonded to it. The crater left after I used ScratchX appears to go down into the base coat. Not that ScratchX did that, just what the sap did.

If water can soften this, now's a good time to try. Winter in NW Florida can bring rains that last 3-4 days at a time. Will also see is if Stoner's will work.

[jfelbab]

My go-to product for dried tree sap is isopropyl alcohol. Moisten a paper towel and lay it on the sap. Wipe it off in a few minutes. This stuff will dissolve the sap. Re-wax the area when the sap is removed.

[RamAirV1]

I didn't know that WD40 shouldn't be used on paint. I used some to remove adhesive residue from my (painted plastic) front bumper. No damage so maybe I was lucky.

I had tree sap (I think) problems this summer. Alcohol did not work. The only thing that worked was clay. What a PITA! The spots were too small to see, you could only feel them.

Meguiar's needs to invent a car wax that prevents all tree sap from adhering to paint! Even MPPP didn't help me with the tree sap this year. Last year I had very little problem with tree sap on my TA, which was black. Why the difference?

RamAirV1

[Tim Lingor]

Hey RamAirV1,

I am not saying that WD-40 is bad for the paint. I just suggest that people use caution when using anything like WD-40 on/near their paint finishes. With that said, I have used it on numerous occassions myself without issue.

Tim

[RamAirV1]

Maybe we should think of it as a "last resort" type of product. I had some adhesive stuck on my front bumper that would just not come off so I resorted to WD-40.

RamAirV1