I used a clay bar a little while ago to try to remove some tree sap on my car that has been there for about 2 years . It was the megiuar's kit that was like $20.. and it didn't work. I then one night parked my car under a street light and noticed the way the light was hitting my car, an unbelievable amount of scratches in the area where I tried to use the clay bar to remove the tree sap. ... I have tried a lot of things on this tree sap and it will not come off, period! I don't know if there's some kind of special product out there that you guys know of but i'll tell you right now bug and tar removal didn't work (it was auto zone brand though) lol

 

Stoner Tarminator will remove sap.

 

Are you sure? Because, I have used bug and tar remover and nothing worked! This tree sap is OLD. VERY old.

 

WD-40 left overnight on the sap can be your friend.

 

You are probably seeing light scratches from not using enough detail spray as a lube. You left sap on your car for a VERY LONG time, therefore I'm assuming your car has not had a proper coating of polish or wax in a VERY LONG time. In that case your paint is in need of desparate help...and getting that sap off that is obviously BAKED in is not going to be a breeze. Try the WD-40 trick, or try the same with Tarminator...its probably going to have to soak and take plenty of elbow grease.

Once you get it off I'm guessing your paint will be in need of a good 3-4 step clay, compound, polish, wax process with a porter cable. The compound step will remove those light scratches you created.

 

you can use a more aggressive clay too. Meguiars clay kit is a fine clay if it is white. Mothers clay kit is yellow and is a mild clay and Meguiars makes a mild and aggressive clay which you should try IMO.....
http://meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+C2100 for the aggressive
and C2000 is the product number for the mild...in your case go right to the aggressive

 

Hey evenexchange

It could be to late to try to remove the treesap because you stated that it's been 2 years, good chances are that it's already etched into your clearcoat or single stage paint. How do you apply your product's,hand-orbital-DA or roatary?

The meguiars smooth surface clay kit (which is the fine grade clay)is what you tried to remove the treesap with and unless you caught it within a short period of time their's noway to remove that. What you was doing though was removing above surface bonded contaminates, and you said that you did try to remove it with some auto zone bug and tar remover, so you might have marred(marring usually refers to having swirls or RIDS random Isolated deep scratches - which looks like scratches and swirls) the paint using to much pressure applying the bug and tar remover, did you apply the bug and tar remover with a terry cloth towel.

Also using the meguiars aggressive clay often scour's the paint and needs to be followed by a rotary buffer to remove the effects of such an aggressive product, 90% of the time the mild clay will be all that is needed.

Also I wouldn't apply a product to my paint's finish that wasn;t intended for such use, car care products are made specificly for such applications but on the other hand if you are unsure and don't really care about any of that them the next best thing on the cheap and not as harsh as some others would be to your paint would be mineral spirits, but remember to wash the area after applying, and add a coat of wax because it will and does remove the wax and or sealant.