Velvet951

What is the best way to get sap off my paint safely?

On a side note, I am starting a 951 tour club from my PCA here in Salt Lake. I need a name for us. I like the 928's Land Sharks, and was thinking along those lines... Any suggestions?

special tool

I use precleano or prepsol - paint prep products used for degreasing before paint. They will remove all traces of wax, but wont hurt paint. Bug and tar removers have abrasives that I don't like.

<img border="0" alt="[bigbye]" title="" src="graemlins/xyxwave.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[burnout]" title="" src="graemlins/burnout.gif" />

slinky

I've used WD40 to remove tar. Spray some on and let it soak. Just make sure you wash the car immediately afterwards.

There are also some bug and sap remover products that some people have had success with. I tried one made by 3M and had no luck. That's when I moved to WD40.

Dan87951

WD40 will remove it but wash it after you use it.

Jon Moeller

The two best things that I've found for tree sap are rubbing alcohol, and clay bars. The rubbing alcohol will dilute the sap, so you pretty much, apply, wipe with a clean cloth, and repeat until gone. The clay just rips through the stuff.

Learned this from keeping my e30 BMW beneath pine trees for far, far too long. 951 gets a garage. ;-)

-Jon
'88 951

ian

I vote for the clay bar, these things are amazing, and if used properly can really do wonders for the paint of an abused car....

I'm wary of solvents on paint, because although it gets the sap off it must also be eating into the finish of the paint, but i'm paranoid and I know that WD40 and some other products can be used.....

IceShark

Clay bars work great if you can't get whatever you have on the paint off with chemicals that won't hurt the paint. But if you have a highly polished finish the clay bar, even a brand new one, is going to scuff the finish enough that you will be able to tell if you look at the right angle. I found this out the hard way.

ian

I did 3 cars yesterday with a clay bar, and yes the initial clay bar use will leave a slight scuffing, but going back with a nice polish will clear that up and you can be back to a deep mirror shine....

Danno

Hmm, interesting... recommendations of polar and non-polar solvents and they both work...

fluid15

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by ian:
<strong>I did 3 cars yesterday with a clay bar, and yes the initial clay bar use will leave a slight scuffing, but going back with a nice polish will clear that up and you can be back to a deep mirror shine....</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">I've heard all kinds of great things about clay bars from many sources. How good do they work on metallic finishes? I can understand how a mirror shine could be had with straight black but mine is more of a dark, charcoal metallic. Impurities are much harder to notice.

Ian/Iceshark - advice from doing this to metallic finishes? I also thought it was very time consuming, but if Ian did 3 in a day he either loves the results or is a maniac!

Burma Shave

Petroleum based solvents won't work on tree sap. Try hot water, if the sap isn't too old(hard) you'll be surprised how well it works.

IceShark

fluid15, Ian is a hyperactive thyroid type. He and Keith swapped out all the guts of their cars to each other, including motors, because they wanted different colored bodies. More or less in 3 weekends. Take everything he says with that in mind to figure out how much of a job it is for normal people. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

The clay bar will work fine on metalic paint. Then after the clay bar use some 3M fine cut Perfect-It II rubbing compound. The normal retail PepBoys type may not have it but the professional suppliers will. That baby will shine like a mirror.