How to Remove Brown Stains From Tree Sap on the Exterior of a New Car

Tree sap may seem insidious, but it's fairly weak when confronted with the right solvents.

It's a hard-knock life for paint, especially when it's exposed to organic compounds such as sap and bird droppings that can penetrate its surface and permeate into the finish. Tree sap is an organic resin not entirely dissimilar from that used in fiberglass, which makes removing it slightly more difficult than running through your local car wash. Fortunately, a number of other compounds will break the resin's molecular bonds and turn it into something with the consistency of tap water.

Things You'll Need

• Cotton balls
• Painters masking tape
• De-greasing detergent
• Sponge

Instructions

1. Soak a cotton ball in your cleaner of choice. Acetone and mineral spirits will easily dissolve the sap, but may also soften or dull the paint. Rubbing alcohol is a bit slower, but more benign, and penetrating oil (like WD-40, Liquid Wrench or Gumout) is even slower, but is far safer.

2. Press the saturated cotton ball over the sap spot and apply a piece of tape over it to hold it in place. Odds are good that whatever solvent you use to remove the sap will also dissolve the adhesive on the paint, so try to keep it off any portion of the tape that's going to touch the paint. Apply the tape firmly to hold the cotton ball in place.

3. Allow the cotton ball to sit for five minutes if you used acetone, 15 minutes if you used alcohol or 30 minutes if you used penetrating oil. Remove the cotton ball, soak another ball in the cleaner and use it to lightly scrub the stain and remove any dissolved sap.

4. Wash the car with a de-greasing detergent as you normally would to remove any trace of the sap or cleaner residue.

References

• "Auto Detailing: The Professional Way"; James Joseph; 1992
• "The Mechanics of Materials"; Fedinand Beer; 2005