Ok.. so what happened was.. i parked my car under a tree and all this random sap just fell onto my car.. it was a numerous i mean MILLIONS of small dots of sap all over my car. for some reason i was washing the car and none of this was coming off with anything so i used part of a squeejee(SP?) and my fingernail to get some of this off. i can see very small scratches in the clear coat to where i was scratching.. wasnt the smartest of things to do but i was wnodering if scratch or swirl remover will get all this off? thanks in advance!

sang

 

I had the same problem years ago when I was living at home, we had this huge tree out front that would leak copious amount of sap in the summer. The only way I was able to get it off any of our cars was a VERY SLOW and VERY HOT wash with VERY SOAPY water. The heat will soften it up nicely and mass amounts of suds will take it away. Of course you'll need a fresh coat of wax afterwards but then hey.... you won't park there again will you

The scratches will be better with Zaino Z5, it worked very well on my Red S2k

TJ

 

thanks. i was thinking of doing the hot wash thing.. but a good friend of mine told me that its not good to wash your car under hot weather. but i will definately look into the z5!

sang

 

z5 will only mask the scratches and they will be back... you need a real scratch remover, not just a mask, imo. i would use 3m swirl remover since you say they are minor. use it on the scratches only and if it works, then you might do the entire area around it.

 

First, it depends on whether you want to fill or remove the swirls / scratches. I've used Meguiars Swirl-x to remove minor scaratches and it really works well. Here are some products I'll be trying next:

http://store.yahoo.com/classic-motoring/me...ngerbespol.html


I'll be trying the final polish on my wife's accord this weekend. Classic motoring reccomends using intensive polishfirst to remove sratches and swirls and final polish after. I'll be using only the final polish this weekend on my wife's black accord; the surface is not bad enough (IMO) to warrant both.

Here is a post from smspimp who has used them, PM him if you have questions.



https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...threadid=143592

 

thanks for all the replies. They are very minor.. they only cut into the clearcoat and nothing more and you can only see them at angles in the sunlight. maybe partically because my car is white.. but its very minor. im' going to try the meguiars swirl-x first and then zaino my whole car to try to see what happens.. if that doestn work then i will be moving onto more stronger items.. but i think it'll be alright. thanks again

sang

 

Next time don't overlook using hot water. I've found that hot water can really help remove tree sap.

A machine known as the PC (Porter Cable Dual Action Polisher) is very good for these scenarios with a product like 3M swirl remover or DACP and a white or yellow cutting pad.

 

Whoa, you are missing the easiest way to get the sap off of your car. Wash your car as normal, then get the instant detailing spray and your favorite clay bar and you will have the sap off in no time and with hardly any effort to boot. This will not scratch the finish and it will not remove the wax, either.

I just found a new favorite clay bar today. It's the stickiest clay bar I have used, which makes it impossible to drop, since you will have to peel it off your fingers. It was readily available at Autozone and it was about $10 including the spray. It is called "Clay Magic".

I planned on using the clay bar after washing my car today, since it's time for the "annual strip off the old wax and put on the new wax" routine. I washed the car particularly well, but I was amazed at how much crud the clay bar was able to remove from my freshly washed car.

I did break out the Porter Cable polisher and the 3M Swirl Mark Remover, also. This combination is nothing short of fantastic. I'll get the last few minutes of polishing finished first thing tomorrow and then put the synthetic polish on and then top it off with the S100. The shine WILL knock your socks off, guaranteed, always does.

My weekend project,
Bob