My wife brought our new ABP TSX home tonight, covered in tree sap. She parked it at work under a tree, and it looks like the car was sprayed with a very fine mist of water; very smalll drops of the sap covering the car.
I spent two hours removing the sap from the paint, and a half hour removing it from the chrome. I used Meguiars Cleaner Wax on the paint and Turtle Wax Chrome Polish on the chrome. Tomorrow I'll clean the windows with a tar/bug/sap removing product I have.
So........ be careful where you park, boys and girls. This could happen to you!

 

Sap is THE WORST this time of year, it drives me nuts. My assigned parking space in my complex is right under a very drippy tree. My favorite is when there is sap AND pollen, so that there's a lovely sticky, powdery situation on my one-month-old car. But, I find that if you keep it washed, the sap comes off easily. But if you wait and let the sap build up for more than a week, it will never come off.

If I remember correctly, the major sap stopped falling around the end of July last year. So, only two more months of this, hopefully.

 

It will come off with a clay bar.

 

Or I'd think the cheapest and easiest way to handle it would be get a car cover and just put it on everyday and take it off every day. And the sap should dry on top so you can just get a new $25 cover once a year.

 

 

Just for your info, isopropal alcohal will take tree sap off effortlessly -- even when it has hardend. It will strip wax though, so you'll want to re-wax that area.

Slats

 

Terrific tip! Thanks.

BTW, when my wife came home the next day, I was prepared to take the sap off the windows with tree/bug/sap remover. When she pulled into the garage I noticed there was no sap on the windshield. I asked her how she got it off and she replied, "I used washer fluid and the wipers." I felt like an idiot as I told her I had a"special product" that would removed sap from the windows.
Why do wives do that to us? ;o)

 

Formulations of windshield fluid may vary dependong on where you live, but I believe isopropanol (and/or some other alcohols) are common components.

 

I ALSO HAVE A PAINT PROBLEM!!!

my school is having construction done all over, and i guess one day they were doing asphalt....but my car was in the vicinity. I now have a ton of tiny bits of asphalt covering the back and left side of my car!! A bunch of them just brushed off, but some stuck...should i just sort of poke them out with my fingernail and then wash/wax immediately or should i be doing something more drastic?? i should emphasize that these are really tiny, about the size of a grain of salt, but they are still there and there are quite a few

 

When in doubt, clay the car. It will remove all other bits of dirt as well. It's good to keep the paint super clean.