So my one week old 2007 f-150 has a nice drop of i think SAP on the hood. It's mad sticky. Anyone have a good way of getting it off?

Thanks!

 

clay, clay, clay.... Go down to your local pep boys, atuzone, kragen, o'reilly, and pick up a clay kit. It will be like $15 and will do the trick, just follow the directions on the box.

 

or you could go to wal-mart or something equivalent, spend 5 bucks and buy some bug and tar remover. used it on my mom's week old 05 mustang. didnt mess with the paint or anything. takes a bit of elbow grease to use the stuff though. it works great.

 

Being that it's super sticky and gooey, clay may or may not take it off in that physical condition...

You want the clay to be hard and a bit more 'set' than gooey... that in mind, here's a trick if you only have a few unsightly spots...

-- an ice cube --

Take the ice cube and hold it on the sap spot for several seconds. Once you've hardened the sap, utilize the clay bar under normal conditions (per the package) to remove it.

Once removed, follow with a high-quality 'last step product' (synthetic preferred) to ensure that you have protection.

Best of luck! Let us know if you need any additional assistance.

 

I usually wash my truck. Soap does marvelous things nowadays.

 

Try Cascade Powder on your truck next time... it works WONDERS!

And, FYI, sap typically doesn't just 'wash off'. Thanks.

 

I didn't think of it being wet. My bad, I should have assumed that it was wet. Nice tip with the ice cube, i'll remember that for the future.

 

I have 2 BIG pine trees and they overhang half my driveway. I ended up with a few blobs on the roof of my truck over the summer and some were fresh and some were old and hardened up that i didnt see. I tried clay , but it was kind of harsh because if you over lube it did nothing and if i didnt use enough lube i left a nice haze patch so be careful with clay and sap. I used wd-40 as it did break down the sap without damaging the finish but it stripped all the wax and took too much time . But my best and easiest method is to use rubbing alcohol slightly diluted with water and a q-tip and it came right off. Hard or gooey sap came right off! I found out about this trick from a few guys on detailcity.org. One again this strips off all wax and sealants and is clearcoat safe. Just dont spill it on your paint , dip the q-tip into the diluted mix...
Hope this helps

 

It works... but, it's a booge to utilize if the vehicle is coated in sap. Just not practical when there's a LOT of sap...

 

Cascade Powder huh? I'll have to try that next time. Not. I have mad sap problems. I have 10 acres covered in trees so spring and summer are a nitemare for me. I usually don't get big blobs of it, rather it just covers the whole truck. All mine washes right off.

 

As for me, I parked under an oak tree one day last week, covered the whole truck in sap, and I was crazy busy for the next 4 days. When I got around to washing it, it came right off. No hard scrubbing. Very gentle pressure in fact. My thoughts as to why my life was made this easy: A good coat of wax every month or 2 makes nasties eay to remove. A simple Gold Class wash with a lambs wool mitt and 2 or more buckets, and you're ready...

 

The obvious here is that all sap is not the same. Some may come right off... others will hang on forever. Those of you that have this magical/mystical sap that comes right off with simple washing -- be thankful! Most don't have it!

Wax definitely will make a difference in ease of removal but, I can assure you that I have wax on my truck... same point though, I can assure you that I've had to work quite hard to remove some larger drips.

 

RP--Don't you have the problem of pine trees, though? (I only deal with oaks primarily) From my experience, Oak trees tend to have very little sap with very low adhesion to paint, whereas Pine trees tend to leave globs of supersticky sap on the paint. So, if you're faced with the decision of what kind of tree to park under, I'd go for the Oak.

(And after going on an excursion in East TX, I am definately glad that I don't have to deal with Pine tree sap very often...)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the adhesion have something to do with time of year? Isn't it something like in the fall/winter, the sticky sugars have gone to the roots, leaving a less adherant sap to fall from the trees...and in summer, excess sugars travel in the sap (which promptly landds on the hood...)??? someone who knows Biology/Botany, please let us know...out of sheer and utter curiosity.

Thanks & good luck to all with your sap removal

RP--I know WD-40 is a great adhesive remover (and strips wax)--have you tried it on sap? If so, how well does it work?

 

bug and tar remover . . . DEW IT

all bs aside stuff works great, depending on how large the spot is how long it's been there, it may or may not require a lil elbow sauce.

get some , it works

and cheaper than clay

 

I'm not an arborist -- but I play one on TV.

I guess it's stickier at certain points in the year -- dunno honestly. I would think that it may be more 'heat' controlled. Again, don't really know.

WD40 will, indeed, remove just about everything...but, it's because of its ingredients.

WD-40 MSDS

While we don't get a great look into the contents -- they use some general terms like aliphatic (which refers to carbon chain count I believe if my ole' chemistry serves me), it's definitely very volatile and could certainly, if left on the paint, cause a problem.

Clear coat is, inheritantly, protective but, it may not be a good match for a high-volatile compound like WD-40.

A quick hit, here and there, may not hurt but, my money is on other techniques depending on the contaminant.