Parked Under a Tree..

Pixel · 8 Jul 2009 at 14:58

I parked under a tree in the carpark at work yesterday. When I finished work later that day I was greeted by my car being covered in a sticky cloudy-white substance. Just spent the last 2 hours trying to clean that gunk off.

So either an elephant made love to my car while I wasn't looking, or this sticky stuff is some kind of sap from the tree. It did rain quite heavily for an hour during work I might add.

Anyone else had this happen to them? Any recommendations on the best stuff to completley remove it? I've gotten most of it off, but there's little bits (they look orangey) here and there that are a pain to get off.

smelf1 · 8 Jul 2009 at 14:58

Tree Sap, and try a clay bar, thats normally how i remove it.

paradigm · 8 Jul 2009 at 15:00

Yep, clay bar, autoglym intensive tar remover, or autoglym active insect remover. All will remove tree sap without problem, but all will result in you needing to re-wax the paintwork afterwards.

VBDub · 8 Jul 2009 at 15:05

A few weeks ago I washed my car and then went around to a mates and parked under a tree by his house... Came back to find the car covered in spots of sap too. I was

Pixel · 8 Jul 2009 at 15:20

Thanks guys.

mrk · 8 Jul 2009 at 15:39

Tree sapping your se....car!

I made the mistake once of parking by a tree as it offered shade from the hot sunlight.....big mistake :O

Le_Petit_Lapin · 8 Jul 2009 at 16:44

All the places to park at my work have trees that cover my car in sap every day.

bledd · 8 Jul 2009 at 16:50

i left my vectra under a tree for about 8 weeks without driving it before, that took ages to remove, and looked really really shocking

Clarkey · 8 Jul 2009 at 19:10

I find tree sap comes right off easily with just normal car shampoo. I know this all too well as there is a big stupid tree right over my driveway.

Dogbreath · 8 Jul 2009 at 19:35

bledd. said:
i left my vectra under a tree for about 8 weeks without driving it before, that took ages to remove, and looked really really shocking

If you leave it long enough you'll find snails start eating it off your car, and leave millions of tiny triangular shapes in the sap

Pixel · 8 Jul 2009 at 21:27

I couldn't see out of any windows afterwards, that's how bad it was.

Clarkey said:
I find tree sap comes right off easily with just normal car shampoo. I know this all too well as there is a big stupid tree right over my driveway.

I used Meguiar's Gold Class, it got most of it off fine, but these orangey bits (I don't know what they are, they're marks about the size of a pea) are a different story.

Fido McNasty · 8 Jul 2009 at 22:46

The other thing is birds in tree's... Avoid.

Le_Petit_Lapin · 8 Jul 2009 at 23:24

Oh wait, misread that. nvm

Lum · 9 Jul 2009 at 00:38

Le_Petit_Lapin said:
Oh wait, misread that. nvm

I was down in Essex the other week and I came back to find a bird taking a crap on my car bonnet.

So I told her to **** off and use a toilet like a normal person.

(I'm assuming the misread was something along these lines)

mjt · 10 Jul 2009 at 15:54

-Ad- · 10 Jul 2009 at 17:17

White spirit does the trick for me, but has to be followed by a good wash.