Sun or Sap - Lesser of Two Evils?

DD Nutz

DD Nutz

New member
I garage my car at night but I don't have access to covered parking at work. It's a business park with the typical asphalt lot and requisite landscaping.

My question is... do you opt for a spot that's open to the sky and expose your car's paint to the sun -or- park under a tree for partial shade during the day, suffering sap and bird bombs?

Now... I luvs me some trees (I'm 3% Lorax) and that big ball of gas farting on us all day long does allow life on our little rock... but this is my paint we're talking about.

*I'm not one for car covers unless we're talkin' storage.
 
Sun. Also where I park I don't have to worry about anyone parking beside me so no door dings.
 
I vote for shade - some trees dont drop sap anyway, some drop a lot of it..

Some trees get aphids which poop all over whatever is below them..

Less sun damage is always going to be better for me in the long term..

A good sunshade for the front glass is always going to help protect the dash and keep the steering wheel cooler, than getting blasted in the sun..

So you get a little or a lot of stuff on the car ? Now, you get to spend a little time washing it off once a week, or even less, if you have a coating on it...

You are talking to the car-cover-King here :) Have had so many cars with covers, Its hard to count..
If you REALLY want to protect your paint the best - (short of covered parking), then the car cover will be your best friend..

A really good light, UV blocking, breathe able one will absolutely keep the car clean for weeks - longer if you use it all the time..

And, if that is your Porsche Boxter in your avatar, shoot, that will take about 2 minutes to install and remove...

Now, you can park in the shade or the sun and the car will be protected from the elements...

These guys make the best protecting, easy to handle, small enough to roll up the size of an exercise mat covers -
www dot calcover dot com Look for the Superweave cover...

Good luck with this -
Dan F
 
Sun it is. A tree I've parked under in the past just started dropping sap, so I figgered I'd ask. We do get a lot of sun in CLT, so my next bit of research will be to see which wash/wax and whatever other stage solutions have good UV blocking characteristics. It's odd... the Car is Meridian Metallic Silver but it gets quite hot for how light the color is.

I do use a windshield screen but have yet to get the car tinted. (looks left... then right...) Don't tell "The Man" but... I'm looking to get the windshield tinted, too. Still doing research.

I've never owned a car cover but I will look into that link. I'm working on an audio installation right now and plan to keep the car for a long while, so a cover is a good investment.

Thx guys.
 
If available, I would park my car under a tree and avoid as much sunlight as possible. Sap can be removed, sun fade, oxidation, headlight coating failure, interior wear are all permanent (or re-occurring).
 
Yoinks.

My nut sports the Litronic HIDs, which are like... $$$:passout:$$$

(*note to self - research headlight treatments)
 
Temp maxed at 146 @ 12:30 p.m. Black cars in the lot were just shy of 180F max on horizontal surfaces. Atz no joke. White cars, 109F.
 

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DD Nutz said:
Temp maxed at 146 @ 12:30 p.m. Black cars in the lot were just shy of 180F max on horizontal surfaces. Atz no joke. White cars, 109F.
Click to expand...

Now you know, why I prefer shade at all costs, which will be way less than what the sun will do to the entire inside and outside surfaces over time...

For YEARS, I was the only one at AirTouch and later Verizon putting on and taking off a Car Cover for all the different cars I had..

And for the same amount of time, I had perfect, clean, paint, and beautiful, perfect Interior, wheels, and tires...

A good cover will also cover up about all the tire and wheel... :)

Good luck out there in the sun !
Dan F
 
DD Nutz said:
Yoinks.

My nut sports the Litronic HIDs, which are like... $$$:passout:$$$

(*note to self - research headlight treatments)
Click to expand...

When I bought my Black Grand Cherokee awhile back, I had a very nice Clear Bra installed over the entire front end and headlights, part of the hood and front fender edges..

To date, (5 years later), not issues, no white wax line in the edges, a few places where the clearbra saved the paint from little rocks, and all is well up there..

Another thing I always try to do is get a good clearbra installed right away.

The one I used back then was called VentureShield, I believe, that was bought up by 3M sometime...

My headlights are perfectly clear and protected and I dont have to worry too much about a rock hitting the lenses and cracking one, because you cant just replace a lens on an HID light..

Good luck with your research !
Dan F
 
Sap and bird bombs etch. Sun seems the lesser of two evils because we have access to UV protection in exterior and interior products.
 
They dont always etch... I saw a thousands of tree sap blobs in Washington from all the honking big fir and pine trees, and used Q-Tips by the case to remove them.. Didnt see a whole lot of etching if caught within a year or so.. Perhaps its because the shade prevented the sun from burning the sap into the paint ??

Now, if the tree sap was on for years and the vehicle was out in the sun, or it baked from the engine heat for a long time, the sap was sometimes harder to remove and occasionally it did leave a mark that could not be totally eliminated..

Bird bombs - same thing, saw them, but not nearly as much as tree sap, and again, perhaps the shade prevented the sun from baking them into the paint ?

Shade, covered or under trees (dense shade), in my experience has been better at protecting from UV damage..

So, to each his own... :)
Dan F
 
Park under a tree!
I can remove tree sap or bird drop easily, but the extreme heat and UV from sun will doing a lot more damage.
 
I have had the same dilemma many times. In TX the summer sun is brutal and the interior gets super hot. For me, I will park under a tree is I can find one. If that tree gets a lot of birds, then I will not park there. I bought a sun shade made to fit my car. Cost more than a generic one, but IMO worth it. I also had the windows tinted.

A car cover sounds great, but I had issues with it so I don't use one. It may be my fault. When I owned a Jaguar S-Type I bought a cheap cover. It was a pain to put on by myself. Then the wind kicked up one day and blew it off! After that I stopped.

If you park under the tress buy a bottle of Poorboy's Work Bird Sh#t remover!
 
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