Super difficult tree sap/contaminants need assistance

Q

qwik

New member
Ok my gf's white 95 dodge neon has a hell of alot of tree sap and other contaminants on the surface. They seem to be baked in and extremely difficult to remove.



Since she does not care about her surface too much we didn't opt for a super expensive car wash. We picked up 2001 car wash (i think made by turtle wax) for $1.99 at pepboys and turtle wax's bug and tar remover. The wash didn't help to much but the turtle wax did, to a degree. On the roof and trunk lid it is nearly impossible to remove without super pressure. There are some blobs that are actually like 1/4 of an inch thick, those are hard to come off but do. Than there are little brown specs that you can't really feel but if you use your nail come out, so i am going to get the mothers clay bar for those but than there are actually stains of brown stuff like from a left over flower or something that you cannot feel and looks like really etched into the paint.



I was wondering if a better car wash would help (if so any available locally say at pep boys?) and if a better bug tar remover would help aswell. I did a search and i came up with a few things such as trying denatured alchohol (is that the same as isotrophol?).



I have a porter cable on the way (for something else) and i was wondering if there is a way to help combat the surface with the porter cable (what pad, what stuff to use?). I will supply this thread with pics tomorrow afternoon which i am sure will help.



Any suggestions in the mean time would be greatly appeciated. Thank you.
 
Pick out every thing you can with your fingernails then clay the whole car. You are probably going to start off strong with something like Meguiars DACP followed by Swirl Free Polish. Finish off with a glaze and wax (or a sealant).



A better car wash isn't going to help at this point. You need to get all the crap off the paint and get it sealed properly then worry about what car wash soap to use...and most major brand ones are pretty good.
 
Ok links to the pics are below and i know they aren't super detailed (had the camera on a low quality setting) but you get the picture, you can see the brown stains, any more suggestions on what to do??



Plan of attack:



Clay bar than hit it with SMR with porter cable and continue from there.



Any house hold concoctions or anything i'm willing to try. Thanks!



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After doing some research i found some people recommending denatured alcohol - doesn't that seem to be a bit too strong? I saw some of it at home depot but it is used to clean metal and other things, wouldn't it stirp off clear coat and paint? (even if diluted)
 
Holy cow! Tell her to stop parking underneath the offending tree if possible. I would agree with Scottwax on removal. When it's baked on like that, it's hard to get it off...if you pick at it a little bit, you'll expose the "soft underbelly" of the sap...then hit it with the clay bar.



Once you get the sap off, you have to keep it that way. No wax or sealant is going to help if its allowed to dry up and harden on the paint over the summer.
 
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