This stuff is already hardened

 

I'd guess it'll take the clay bar. Sap sucks!

 

I just ran into some sap issue last week. I clayed the car very carefully. I think everything is off my paint since it had Zaino Z2 polish on it. But the glass still showed some sap (micro dots). I did clay everything including the window glass. So I am going to try ISA shortly on the glass. After reading various forum, it seems the way to go . I read somewhere if it is real bad, someone used a steamer with Stoner's Tarminator.

 

I used a claybar for the first time on the weekend on the glass...took all those tiny dots of sap right off...they've been there for almost a year.

 

Zaino rules!

Glad it worked for you. Now I know too.

 

If its on glass, ive just used a blade (the rectangular ones, boxcutter ones i want to say) and it comes right off without scratching the window.

 

Yes, claying your car will remove it....be carefull
and follow the instructions. Once you've removed
the sap it's time to load up your paint with good
wax. Next time you have sap on the surface it will
wash off......"IF" you have plenty of wax on your car!

 

Is claying the car the only way to take off sap or bugs on your bumper?

 

You could opt for tar/sap remover, but some could be pretty harsh. Clay might be the safest way.

 

There are several approaches. I just went through this with my car. It wasn't really tree sap, but aphid honeydew - which is the same end result, a problem that needs to be removed. Aphid honeydew is a lots of micro dots that look like sap. Regardless, I would try a warm or hot wash on fresh sap/honedew.

If the issue is still there then try, Denatured alcohol, anhydrous isopropyl alcohol or mineral spirits may dissolve the sap.

If that doesn't work then a very mild diminishing abrasive, like Meguiar's ScratchX, followed by the solvents mentioned above.

All of the procedures above will also remove any wax or sealant finish on your car. Which means you have to reapply to get that layer of protection on your clearcoat/paint.

I'm currently using Zaino. So in my opinion, the sap/honeydew issue is lessened so that the problem sits on top of the Zaino sealant. It is then easier to remove.

Getting back to removing future occurences I avoid parking underneath trees that typically produce sap. I thought I solved that by parking underneath tress that don't produce sap. However, with my bad luck I parked underneath trees that were heavily infested with aphids, whose happy byproduct was their excrement - or honeydew. Billions of microdots. Don't believe me? Google: "aphids" "honeydew". You learn something new every day.

Oh... I another thing I read was using plastic razors to remove the nasty stuff from windows. But as a word of caution on any of the above mentioned techniques... do a test treatment on a small area.

To summarize, perform the least intrusive first (washing with warm or hot water) and go from there to polishing.

 

^^ nice info. thanks.

 

clay bar ftw!!

use plenty of lube, cant really go wrong ...