Tree sap
 

My wife’s car has tree sap on the hood. It rock solid. I bought some meguire stuff that didn’t dent it. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks.

Bug and tar remover and a whole lot of elbow grease.

I use mineral spirits. We call it mineral turpentine here but the same stuff. Safe enough on the paint but wash it odd afterwards.

Rubbing alcohol works great on pine sap. And it's cheap.

Plastic razor blade, then sap remover is what I use.

Stop.

Rub on vegetable oil or margarine.

Then wash with soap.

No elbow grease or unnecessary scratches required.

Even after it's dried?

I tried goo be gone (basically food oil). No luck. I just put some vegetable oil on with no luck. The stuff is some prehistoric sap. I can try again, do I leave on for any set time 10, 20 mins..)?
Thanks. I’ll try rub alcohol next and then mineral spirits.

Never tried but sounds good. I'm trying it today on my truck.

You can also get it off slowly with acetone/finger nail polish remover. Put it on the rag. Move around rather than beat on one spot as it did soften the engine bay paint on my 911 when I was getting that sound deadening pad glue off. On my 94 F150 hood it never phased the paint.

mechanics hand cleaner with pumice worked for me. (orange gojo) but then there's lots of polishing to do to get the scratches out.

this, like dissolves like, soak a cloth and let it sit

Let the saturated cloth sit on the sap covered paint?

Peanut butter

Smooth not crunchy

I think that's for getting gum out of your hair. Or spread on your forehead to distract your dog while you trim his nails.

I like the forehead idea
yes, vegetable oil will soften it, should not hurt the paint

I've always used WD-40 for stuff like that.

I'd be really cautious about putting solvents not designed for car paint work on there.

Whatever you do, be sure to protect the area with a good cleaning and then apply whatever your favorite flavor of paint sealant/wax is.

This & that...

WD 40 didn't do anything to the sap on my car. I park under a pine tree and this thing bombs my truck often. I want until it gets hard, cut it out with a blade. PITA but I will try the rubbing alcohol or veg oil. I sure hope some of you aren't kidding about the veg. oil.

I camped up by Shaver Lake for weeks during "Captain Marvel". Got a crap ton of pine sap all over my truck.

I was going to buy some of the expensive solvents and the campground lady who looked straight out of Central Casting with the cigarette dangling from her lips said "Screw that, rubbing alcohol is all you need".

She was right.

I’ll try the alcohol in the am and repot back. Thanks

Timely thread. I removed what I thought was maybe rust spots on my F150 hood not too long ago. I thought maybe it was from me grinding something. I looked again today, and it’s back with a vengeance. We only have a palm tree and an oak tree near the driveway. I park close to the palm tree, so what is falling down?

Anyway, I’ll try the above recommendations.

Back in high school I worked for a tree topping company and we also did some light logging… the margarine or vegetable oil trick is proven… I did this every single day back then.

Got it. Will also try when the heat dies down. We are suppose to have a major heat wave come tomorrow and next week. It got up to 100 today.

Correction: natural peanut butter

Yesterday the guards red single stage paint on my 86 911 got covered with little specs of sap. Would have probably not noticed, if not for the specs on my windshield.
I can't wash the whole car in vegetable oil or alcohol.
Can I just put some in with the car wash soap? Or just go with soap?
I didn't drive the car today because I was worried about it getting baked on.

Just douse a rag in alcohol and wipe away. It may take a couple of passes as the sap will spread a bit the first wipe but you'll eventually get it up.

That's the good thing about the rubbing alcohol. It's cheap and won't damage painted surfaces.

I tried vegetable oil, WD-40, lacquer thinner, and mineral spirits. After rubbing the four substances on that big spot, you can see that it did come up some. When I last cleaned it off, I used polishing compound and really had to use my fingernail to get all the spots up. And took multiple hours to clean the hood.

Before
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1725550917.jpg

After
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1725550917.jpg

The stuff I have is 99%, but I'll tread lightly.

You will be fine with alcohol.

I'm telling you, acetone will work better but I am not discounting the alcohol.. Just steal some fingernail polish remover from the boss and try on a tiny spot. I'm not advocating the ONLY thing that works, I'm hoping to gain some hands-on knowledge from others on various things.

The sap on my 94 F150 looks like surface rust. It must have dropped on the truck like mist. It has sat under a giant oak tree since the early 2000's. It has left marks in the clear coat similar to acid rain once the sap was removed in a couple of spots but it's able to be polished.

I am going to test the cooking oil and isopropyl alcohol right now. Rubbing alcohol is diluted isopropyl with a couple extra ingredients. It's a driver 94 F150. Not much to lose if something goes south.

Acetone wil definitely work better than rubbing alcohol

Sorry that mineral spirits plan didn't work. The only sap I've had on my car is pine tree sap and it worked well on that.

The Crisco vegetable oil was ten times easier than Acetone. Lay it on the crud with a soaked rag for an hour. Flattened out the wrinkles and made sure there was good contact. The microfiber rag was pretty saturated. Not dripping but soaked. Covered the rag with cardboard as sun was pretty hot.

Used hot water and car washing detergent. I'm sure Dawn would be great, too. Doused it, scrubbed a bit with another microfiber towel. Dried off with a towel as not doing the whole car so no hose.

I will never use acetone again. Smooth as a baby's ask.

Thanks Tobra and I'm sure the (oily) natural peanut butter would work well too.

Look between the spots of sap and the pot of soapy water. One MF towels worth of space. The acid etching is there but nothing else. It's smooth to the touch. You can clearly see the untouched areas on the driver's side. Other missing sap on the passenger side has been my adventures with acetone. It works but it takes a long time and elbow grease.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1725572730.jpg

Sap is nothing. Try removing artillery fungus.

I tried veg oil and mineral spirits, nothing. Looks like the same sap above.

Clay bar?

You might try lighter fluid or charcoal lighter fluid. Has worked for me on a number
of things and is paint friendly.

I have used a product called "Goof Off" it comes in a spout can, metal bottle, and a spray. The stuff works for removing all kinds of sticky things. Dab some on a q-tip and work it into the sap. I wouldn't let it linger on paint for very long though. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...208b3fba1f.jpg

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Goof Off, denatured alcohol, acetone and MEK, didn’t do much. It seems like only physically rubbing a compound for a long time, makes any progress. With the top of the front fenders, the hood and the roof of the truck, I need something that will cut it quickly.

Probably be easiest to sand it off and re-clear coat it.