Had the misfortune of parking near to a Willow tree last Tuesday on the works car park. Mr Willow tree very kindly dumps a film of yellow pollen on my shiny black roof. I hosed most of it off Tuesday evening, however in washing the car properly today it was covered in tree sap arrrgh! Took me a good 5 hours to go over the whole car with methylated spirits to remove the sap and to apply 2 coats of Meguires Gold Class wax. Moral of the story is don't be tempted to park under a shady tree in sunny weather! it's surprising what they can dump on your pride and joy! Thankfully Basil is nice and shiny again )
Dont put your arms around the tree you'll get covered in crap and all your workmates will be looking out of the window thinking youve lost your mables
I suppose you could plant another tree.
All of us MINI owners have a name for our cars - you need to get one to understand why
Anyways, to the topic of tree sap on a car's finish, or bird droppings for that matter - folks, I highly advise keeping in your car a clean microfibre cloth and a detailing spray (like Meguiar's Quik Detailer). Mist the affected area with the detailing spray, and wipe off with the cloth. Or you can keep a container of bug and tar wipes in your car to do the same thing. The important thing is to remove such contaminants right away from your car's finish before the paintwork is affected.
And I have to park my current car under trees at work... Looks like Ill be changing spaces when the MCS arrives
You have reached ScottyB, I'm not here at the moment, but please leave a message, I'll try to get back to you in a timely fashion... yeah I know it sounds a stretch - but trust me!
I have large trees on both sides of my drive way. they dump sap on my car all summer long. I wash as normal once a week and the car comes up fine. I certainly don't need to use meths to get the sap off! My mini has several layers of autoglym extra gloss on though, maybe thats why it washes off so easy......
Maybe thats a thumbs up for Autoglym over Meguires?? I had only waxed the car a fortnight earlier and its washed every weekend. I was just surprised how hard the tree sap had set on the paintwork so normal washing wouldn't remove it hence the Meths which did the job! Just a pain at the end of the day. Maybe I might try a few coats of Autoglym extra gloss and compare results at keeping contaminants at bay!
I'm a touch obsessive with my mini, I've applied at least one coat of Autoglym extra gloss every week, sometimes two, sometimes three.
I've washed my car today, after leaving that post this morning. It was minging, loads of sap all over the car with bits of everything stuck to it. A good rinse down with water, a wash with shampoo and hot water and another rinse. Clean as a whistle. (and another coat of extra gloss.... I can't get over the shine, I think I'm addicted!)
Give extra gloss a try, and let me know what you think..... I'd be interested to know whether or not it really does make a difference or if I'm just totally wasting my money using so much! I've never used Meguires so I couldn't really comment on how it compares
Maybe we'll find that the best shine comes from a combination.... a bit meguires polish and a touch autoglym extra gloss......
The windows of my house.... now thats a whole different problem.....
One, I like the trees.
Two, there's ten of the bvggers.
Three, they are huge, far too much hard work.
and Four, they are protected, so I couldn't chop them down even if I wanted to.
I think we should have more trees anyway, they help clean up all the muck that our cars produce!
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might be quicker
