I watched this video and gave my daughter the hand sanitizer to try to get all the old, dried, built up tree sap off her car and she said it worked so well!! She literally used a shop towel and rubbed it in and all the sap came right off!! She was so excited bc she's tried so many other ways. Thank you for this video🤗
Nope! Just tried Isopropyl Alcohol on a Treesap "drunk" 18 year old Volvo V70. Can say it didnt manage to remove anything! My guess is the sap have been on the finish way to long i sun & cold as i live in Sweden. Guess what the outcome becomes...
Chris. I want to seriously thank you for this video. I had my car inspection yesterday and clearly the guy had a little trouble applying the new sticker. Using alcohol easily removed the excess goo. Best of all, it cost me nothing. You saved me $6, $7 or more from buying something that clearly would not have worked well. Thanks again!!!
I tried it yesterday with lots of elbow grease. Got lots off but one huge blob still sits. Should have done UA-cam 🤦♀️would have saved me tons of time and work!
@@junipercook9061 Yea at the end. The best solution I found was just plain old elbow grease. None of these products really helped that much to get off whatever sap was on my car. I probably lost some clear coat to the scrubbing too.
You're a saviour! I've been working on my car for hours with Pine-Sol and it's working but it takes a long time & I'm exhausted. I'll be headed to town shortly for hand sanitizer & isopropyl alcohol. Thanks a million!
As a detailer for 12 years, I've found that the isopropyl content in hand sanitizer works best as well. The higher the isopropyl content, the quicker it works. Hand sanitizer is your best option because of its consistency. It doesn't run quickly when applied allowing it to soak into the sap. Regular rubbing alcohol tends to dry quickly and can run off of the sap. Hand sanitizer is the best!
@@AlexAbatecola1 I've heard rumors that it does, but no test that I have done has proved to be dangerous to the paint. It tends to evaporate too quickly to cause issues. It will however remove any protection that you have previously applied to the paint. You'll want to apply protection after cleaning the area. Sorry that it took so long to respond. It never notified me.
@@Greggg57 You're right about most hand sanitizers using ethyl-alcohol, but many also utilize isopropyl as well. Regardless of the type that you choose, the outcome is likely to be the same. However, I personally choose to use sanitizer with isopropyl content due to the safe history of recorded use on automotive paint. I have used ethyl-alcohol sanitizers and have had zero negative experiences with it, but I don't want to pass information on that I'm not 100% positive about, which is why I specifically mention isopropyl alcohol. If you choose to use ethyl-alcohol sanitizer, use it at your own risk. If you have trouble finding isopropyl options, Aloe Vera and Isopropyl Alcohol makes a great sap remover.
Okay. Dear Chris you may not read my comment but I will leave this anyway. I watched this video 7 years after you made it and I was so impressed I went to the store the next day and purchased some hand sanitizer. I am not lying when I say it actually worked!!! I tried DW-40, Goo Gone, and Nu-Buff and nothing worked. I watched several other videos but yours seemed pretty authentic. Just a regular bottle of hand sanitizer. I just thought it would be a little more concentrated because it is a gel. You should have seen my face when the sap almost just melted away. Not all spots will just melt away. Some spots you have to put in some elbow grease into it but I had just purchased my car a few month before and a storm blow tree sap all over my new car. Then it baked in the sun for a couple of weeks(do not judge me people) 😢 Anyway after I watched this video I went to my nearest store and picked up a bottle of hand sanitizer. People it may take a couple good washes and buffing but it is all totally worth it when the sap is all gone. Thanks Chris your a life saver👌😊
@@miningcamper Pine trees should be eliminated like mosquitoes. Not sure why we continue planting pine trees in residential neighborhoods and especially near parking lots. It's all a conspiracy with the car companies!!!
I had huge amounts of tree sap on my hood that had been there for about a week, sitting in direct sun. I went out this morning and sprayed a mixture of 3/4 white vinegar and 1/4 water, waited about 1 minute and wiped it off easily. Also works amazingly well on baked on bugs on the windshield.
With the peanut butter and mayonnaise you could make a car sandwich lol. I just used a wet paper towel and sprayed a little alcohol on the paper towel and the pine pitch came right off. So you don't have to use straight alcohol.
Yes I'm replying to a three year old post - to thank you for the idea - white vinegar and water worked great for me today, followed by a wash and rinse with soap & water. Thanks!
Sorry Chrs. I tried the 70% isopropyl but it just smeared it and enlarged the stain. The only thing that completely removed the sap was acetone. A little dab on the tip of a rag, a little rubbing, and...gone. follow with a cleaner spray and you're done! No damage to paint on a 2009 Cobalt.
Thanks for a great comparison test. The reason hand sanitizer works best, particularly on sap or bird crud that has been baking in the sun for a year or more, is that the gel holds the alcohol in place and really lets it soak in while you put it on other baked-on globs you have let accumulate. Leave it alone and come back in 45 to 60 seconds and the crud wipes right off. Hand sanitizer is about 65% alcohol, which explains its power. The rubbing alcohol from the bottle just runs off if you pour it directly on the sap or crud, and putting it on a rag and wiping doesn’t put enough alcohol on the sap to let it soak in and dissolve the crud..
I watched this video, but it was my wife who showed me how to get the sap and baked on dirt on my ‘98 Chevy Pickup. She sprayed the hood with Windex…..let it set for about five minutes….she wiped it right off! Then she came back as I was using the Windex, she had mixed up a spray bottle of Dry Wash, mixed with a couple tablespoons of white Vinegar…….wow, that really made it come clean without laboring. I like Chris’s videos, he has helped me out some much, but wanted to offer these two things to help.
Agree with your assessment-alcohols seems to work the best. Ethyl alcohol will dissolve sap and not the paint. Works amazingly well for cars. My experiment with iso-alcohol proved it was more harsh and dissolved the solid stain on my deck.
Based on the video, I tried rubbing alcohol. Absolutely worked. I had Georgia pine sap on my Jeep Grand Cherokee from several months ago. Worked like a charm. Alcohol all the way.
Thanks, I just tried 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol and it did work to remove the sap entirely. I did read in other places that it's likely that the rubbing alcohol will also remove some finish on the car so you should probably follow up with cleaning the area of the remaining alcohol and wax it.
Thanks man! You are a life saver. For two weeks I've been trying to remove the sap from my hood. The hand sanitizer worked perfectly and without almost no effort.
Okay so I have some thoughts....I had alot of sap on my car recently. Not a couple drops, but the entire passenger side was covered, windshield included. So I jumped to this video, and I used the 70% isopropyl alcohol, the bug & tar brand, as well as goo gone. And even after all three, it was still extremely difficult to remove. I'm surprised my fingers haven't fallen off quite frankly. I tried two different methods. The first day I pre soaked the car, sprayed bug & tar on each sap stain, let it soak into the sap, and then I used a micro fiber towel with the rubbing alcohol each time I scrubbed a spot. That method didn't remove it very well, even with just the rubbing alcohol. So the second day, I bought goo gone and soaked each stain with it, on top of soaking it with bug & tar, then waited again, and I used paper towel and it worked alot better. Idk if it's a different type of sap, some weird mixture I did wrong, maybe the fact it was hot, but I would reccomend the goo gone over the rubbing alcohol any day. I could tell that the consistency of the goo gone was more oily and helped the sap slide off quicker. I'm glad that it worked for other people on here but I never want to remove sap again, If anything I want to murder my neighbors for having a sap tree.
5 years later and this video still saving lives. Moved to a new apartment complex and got sap all over the hood and windshield. Poured rubbing alocohol on it and it came right out. Thanks ChrisFix
Amazing! Alcohol actually works! Tried everything else, including Stoner Tar & Sap remover, with no success. I keep rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle for cleaning the inside of my windshield (as per Chris' recommendation). Worked perfectly! Thanks, Chris!
Working in forestry, getting sap all over your hands is a daily occurrence. What I use is simply hand sanitizer so my choice is either the hand sanitizer or the rubbing alcohol.
Really surprised that rubbing alcohol is recommended. On a dark color it left terrible white smears that were very difficult to remove. I think it damages the clear coat.
I've been struggling with tree sap for 5 years on my RV, nothing has been able to remove it! I grabbed a bottle of Joe Sani hand sanitizing gel! Looks like new!!!! I am so excited! I haven't seen it like that in 5 years! I thank you and I will follow and share!!!!
Chris, I know alcohol seems great to remove sap, but I suspect too strong!!! It's good for paint prep at 10-15% according to one source. I'd say this will heavily fog the clear coat and require polishing to restore. You can't tell that on a white car very easily, try a black one. Thanks for all the great videos!
Exactly what happened to my friend's (black) car. He tried with alcohol to remove some really tough sap and he unfortunately worked to hard and scratched the coat. Although he removed the most, we can see also the sap stains embedded in the car paint. We tried a quick one-step polish with medium pad and medium compound, but although it reduced scratches a little, it's still "foggy" coat and the embedded stains are visible. We'll try with different mixes next and more rounds to cut more and see if that helps removing the embedded stains.
The hazing is most likely the alcohol lifting any sort of wax but not removing it. The spray wax from a self-service or drive through wash is the worst offender. If the clear coat on your car is in tact, even 91% alcohol won’t lift it. I’ve used 91% alcohol as a final surface prep prior to application of vehicle graphics for 25 years. As long as surface is free from dirt and wax there is no hazing. I’d suggest a thorough washing of vehicle to remove haze and dirt then applying a good wax or ceramic coating.
Thank you so much for the video.I have now successfully removed the dreaded tree sap from our car, I used alcohol hand sanitizer and it worked perfectly. Chris, your videos are fantastic
I tried WD-40. What a mess! Like alcohol, it created a film of sap all over my windows. I had to keep cleaning, then I had to get the grease from the WD-40 off the windows. That tooka lot of time and elbow grease, too. Use A 15% pine oil cleaner like Chris if you can find any. LESS THAN 15% doesn't work well.
@@bobbiec6924 go to a hardware store and get a razor for glass and once u see sap on there DO NOT use your windshield wipers or it will need to be replaced and it will spread it all over the glass but when u get a chance use a razor to get it off when it comes to glass
Thank you. This worked on my 2018 silver Nissan Sentra. It was covered in sap and I was heartbroken. I wasn’t able to remove it and it was getting baked in. It was on there for couple of months. I bought 70% hand sanitizer from Walmart, Equate brand and it took some elbow grease but it came off. Thank you so much, you’re the best!!!
@Ben Guerrero I am sure your joking! XD But if not then you should know that Rubbing alcohol(isopropyl) causes respiratory irritation, internal bleeding, and visual and hearing problems
Thank you for making this. Tree above my truck got hit by lightning and a literal water fall of sap is all over it. This is going to save me a lot of time.
It worked for me. I've had a problem with a cottonwood tree at the end of my driveway spraying sap on my vehicles for the last 20 years. I had tried using rubbing alcohol years ago and it worked but it would evaporate too fast. I guess the gel in the sanitizer locks it in place long enough for it to dissolve the sap better. Great job and glad I found this video.
Success! Sap stains on my car are months old. Not fresh at all. Alternated between hand sanitizer and iso alcohol 70%. Best results were when I applied hand sanitizer gel, let it sit for 5-ish seconds or so, wiped off and followed up with another application of gel or alcohol. Your gonna have to work at it but it was pretty easy. Great video - thx. saved me $ since I used what I have on hand.
I used to use just regular rainx. But when I found out that its basically isopropyl alcohol I started using straight iso. Gorked great. Till I finally cut the tree down. :-)
Just remember, alcohol can remove your wax, stripping your paint of protection. After using alcohol to remove the sap, be prepared to properly wax the area to restore its layer of protection. But yes, it works like a charm.
Chris Fix insights are great but there is a more to it in my experience. I'm a big fan of Chris's and anytime i have DIY vehicle project, i look for his vids. I bought a used car with ~150 tree sap stains. An hour in, i figured Chris had a video. Rubbing alcohol got the sap off but clouded the paint on a tan car with seemingly decent color and clear coat even with brief scrubbing. After hours of trial and error, here is what i found worked best. Use hand sanitizer (62% ethyl) to get rid of 90% of the sap. As much as I scrubbed with this or reapplied, no damage to clear coat using the sanitizer. Use your finger nail or something to penetrate/agitate sanitizer if sap is deep/think. ~1/3 of the time there was a base layer of sap residue that sanitizer would not remove. On these stubborn areas, I used a dab of rubbing alcohol on a very thin cloth. place your finger on the alcohol wet cloth to the sap for 3-5 count, then with VERY light pressure (almost none) work the cloth into the sap. Sap vanishes in seconds, i could feel it through the thin cloth. After the sap was gone, I would then immediately wipe the area with a quick detail product to get the alcohol off. I'll compound and wax after. This was best recipe. Pine tree sap on a 10-15 yr old car, decent clear base coat of paint, water beading. Good luck and I hope this helps others!
Just saw your video. I have tried and tried to remove pine sap with car wax. Doesn’t work very well. After watching your demonstration, I tried some hand sanitizer, as I didn’t have any straight alcohol. Just 65% alcohol in the sanitizer was all it took to remove the sap. One vehicle had sap from at least 10 years ago. No more!! Thank you very much for the video. My vehicles will finally look almost new again.
Not thinking I 7:58 Parked under a pine tree while at the beach. Well hubby noticed the sap on my hood and we didn’t know what to do so I’m going to try this. It’s a new car and was afraid of ruining the finish although it has a special coat.
You are the man!!!! thank you!!!!!. only good thing that came out of covid was all the hand sanitizers my dealership had bought. Just went used it on one of our cars and it came right off. Used a microfiber towel. You just saved us soo much money. We were planning on getting 10 vehicles waxed at $450 a piece to remove all the sap. Thank you again my friend.
I just tried baking soda and sprayed lowest grade vinegar on it and it was instantly gone / disolved both on window and car paint without damage. Just needs water after to remove baking powder residue. Arm & Hammer Baking Soda & vinegar are great for soooo many types of stains!! 😉
When you use alcohol on your car it'll remove all the wax layer right? So that would mean after this process you have to make sure to re-wax your car correct?
This makes sense chemically. Sap is mostly water and sugar. Water is an very polar molecule, and sugars have tons of polar groups, which is why you can dissolve lots of sugar in water. Thus, NONE of the oil-based products, which are mostly nonpolar had much of any chance to get in there and hydrogen bond with the water and sugars of the sap and dissolve them. Ethanol (in the hand sanitizer) and isopropanol (which are also mixed in solution with water) ARE sufficiently polar to dissolve sap. They also have nonpolar ends, which is why they'll clean up oils, so they might have additionally picked up any nonpolar compounds in the sap. They probably also dissolved any wax (nonpolar) on the hood as well. If you'd contained the soapy wooder or even just plain water over the sap and let it soak in, it would have also worked, I think. Heck, I bet antifreeze, which is ethylene glycol and has two polar groups, might work really well, also.
Hand Sanitizer worked like a charm!!! Just watched this video and went outside to remove a few sap spots on the hood of my car. Thank you for posting this video!!! 😊
After trying the Turtle Wax remover with little to no improvement, and after watching your video, I found that for my situation alcohol worked best on baked on sap while the hand sanitizer worked best on the fresher, stickier sap.
I used alcohol wipes on the small tree sap spots. After using the wipes, I took a piece of paper towel and dipped in a cup of soap/water to wipe off the excess of the alcohol wipe solution.
Keep in mind that alcohol will degrade your clear coat, and scar the paint once it goes through the clear coat. Chances are that the sap was removed because the clear coat that it was sitting on was removed. If you still choose to use alcohol, remember that heat will accelerate evaporation, so be cognizant of the temperature of the metal.
I made a total mess of my car yesterday trying to remove a huge, baked on bird dropping splat! If you could do a video about how to safely remove bird droppings (especially if it's been hot and allowed to dry on!) that would be awesome. Thanks Chris, another great vid
Hello sir from my experience I soak a wrag in warm and set it on the bird poop and wait a minute or so and should come right off for the most part might need a little scrubbing but it works hope this idea helps
Wow. I tried soap and water first before looking on UA-cam. The soap and water did very little. But the alcohol on a cotton ball did a whole miracle. Thanks for doing this video!
After watching your video my wife thought she grabbed Rubbing Alcohol but grabbed a bottle of Witch Hazel by mistake and it worked as well. It does contain 15% alcohol but I think the Witch part added a little magic.
Let me save you some time is was the mayonnaise, put the mayo in your gas tank it’s gonna take 3 jars and then drive around for 15mintues the mayo will push the sap through the pores of your paint
I used Goof Off from a can and took 100 dried on tree sap blobs off my painted deck. Worked great!! Disolves sap/pitch right off. Used microfiber cloths and of course you have to rub across them a few times.
Question: Does the rubbing alcohol kill the clear coat? Seeing as the car is covered in sap and you are about to put alcohol on all those spots of sap, even 1 by 1, it’s still a large covering space. Would you have to wax the vehicle again, or do a clear coat finisher on the car?
Alcohol worked great on my 92’ F-150. Was not ready for the paint to be hazy afterwards. Thankfully some scratch fix and a buffer took it right out. Thanks for the video
I just tried the rubbing alchole on my black Toyota Mateix and I have good news and bad. It took the sap off with little effort but it also took the shine out of the finish. I would say dont do it on a darker model vehicle maybe ??? Just beware that's all ikl m saying.
Adam Arsenault yeah. Prevention is key! wax wax and more wax so when you use a harsh product, you don’t strip the paint. BUT Just a little more wax over the dingy paint that you made dingy and it should shine back up
Thanks so much brother. I looked up how to remove tree sap from my trucks paint and this video helped alot. The hand sanitizer just melts it off in seconds! Cheers and thanks again!
Too much alcohol can damage your fuel system. Things like fuel lines, o rings and injectors. It's ok to use one of the 12oz bottles of fuel system cleaner that has alcohol. That's because it has a small amount of alcohol.
+Happy Fox That's why i said CAN damage your vehicle. I have repaired several vehicles because the owner used E85 gas in a car that wasn't designed to run on E85. E85 is basically moonshine mixed with gasoline. People run E85 because it is cheaper than regular gas. not knowing is the damaging effects E85 will have on a vehicle that was designed to run on it.
Thanks for that. My kid who doesn't give a sh-t, parks right under a friends giant pine tree and I need to remove. Most of those will work somewhat if you take your fingernail or an old credit card or something to get down in to the sap glob, as it hardens on top. Alcohol does seem the best though.
Thank you. Hand sanitizer gets the task done magically! I tried many stuffs from Home Depot but they did not work well. A friend of mine suggested to use acetone but I am afraid that it will damage the paint. To me hand sanitizer is the perfect choice for the task, cheap and effortlessly.
I watched this video and gave my daughter the hand sanitizer to try to get all the old, dried, built up tree sap off her car and she said it worked so well!! She literally used a shop towel and rubbed it in and all the sap came right off!! She was so excited bc she's tried so many other ways. Thank you for this video🤗
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cheers Chris... over 6 years later and this video is still helping people like me clean up tree sap from their car. many thanks buddy!
I like that he shaked the rubbing alcohol even though it’s literally just rubbing alcohol
shook brev
It is 70% solution, so alcohol and water.
Shaken, not stirred.
His point is that he shook it and didnt rub it 😉 😆
Alcohol solves everything from depression to tree sap apparently
LOL!
But won't using alcohol on the car's paint damage the clear coating, especially on a Prius where the coating is special?
@@blasphemous24 hmm, you could use a gaff taped razor that you use over a sapped area presoaked with simple green
Lol
Nope! Just tried Isopropyl Alcohol on a Treesap "drunk" 18 year old Volvo V70. Can say it didnt manage to remove anything! My guess is the sap have been on the finish way to long i sun & cold as i live in Sweden. Guess what the outcome becomes...
Chris. I want to seriously thank you for this video. I had my car inspection yesterday and clearly the guy had a little trouble applying the new sticker. Using alcohol easily removed the excess goo. Best of all, it cost me nothing. You saved me $6, $7 or more from buying something that clearly would not have worked well. Thanks again!!!
Wow 😅
Oh wowowowow
Good thing I watched this before covering my entire car with peanut butter and mayo
Trying to make a sandwich?
I tried it yesterday with lots of elbow grease. Got lots off but one huge blob still sits. Should have done UA-cam 🤦♀️would have saved me tons of time and work!
@@junipercook9061 Yea at the end. The best solution I found was just plain old elbow grease. None of these products really helped that much to get off whatever sap was on my car. I probably lost some clear coat to the scrubbing too.
@@zhaneranger damn!!! 😡
Try fluffernutter 🤣
You're a saviour! I've been working on my car for hours with Pine-Sol and it's working but it takes a long time & I'm exhausted. I'll be headed to town shortly for hand sanitizer & isopropyl alcohol. Thanks a million!
Pine Sol does not contain any pine oil at all, Use 15% PINE OIL cleaner.
As a detailer for 12 years, I've found that the isopropyl content in hand sanitizer works best as well. The higher the isopropyl content, the quicker it works. Hand sanitizer is your best option because of its consistency. It doesn't run quickly when applied allowing it to soak into the sap. Regular rubbing alcohol tends to dry quickly and can run off of the sap. Hand sanitizer is the best!
Does the alchohol do any damage to the paint?
@@AlexAbatecola1 I wouldn't use super high concentrations of it but the diluted stuff is safer and works good for prepping a panel or whatever.
@@AlexAbatecola1 I've heard rumors that it does, but no test that I have done has proved to be dangerous to the paint. It tends to evaporate too quickly to cause issues. It will however remove any protection that you have previously applied to the paint. You'll want to apply protection after cleaning the area. Sorry that it took so long to respond. It never notified me.
hand sanitizer uses ethyl alcohol- drinkable alcohol. But rubbing alcohol uses ISO-propyl alcohol, which is a poison to our bodies.
@@Greggg57 You're right about most hand sanitizers using ethyl-alcohol, but many also utilize isopropyl as well. Regardless of the type that you choose, the outcome is likely to be the same. However, I personally choose to use sanitizer with isopropyl content due to the safe history of recorded use on automotive paint. I have used ethyl-alcohol sanitizers and have had zero negative experiences with it, but I don't want to pass information on that I'm not 100% positive about, which is why I specifically mention isopropyl alcohol. If you choose to use ethyl-alcohol sanitizer, use it at your own risk. If you have trouble finding isopropyl options, Aloe Vera and Isopropyl Alcohol makes a great sap remover.
Okay. Dear Chris you may not read my comment but I will leave this anyway. I watched this video 7 years after you made it and I was so impressed I went to the store the next day and purchased some hand sanitizer. I am not lying when I say it actually worked!!! I tried DW-40, Goo Gone, and Nu-Buff and nothing worked. I watched several other videos but yours seemed pretty authentic. Just a regular bottle of hand sanitizer. I just thought it would be a little more concentrated because it is a gel. You should have seen my face when the sap almost just melted away. Not all spots will just melt away. Some spots you have to put in some elbow grease into it but I had just purchased my car a few month before and a storm blow tree sap all over my new car. Then it baked in the sun for a couple of weeks(do not judge me people) 😢 Anyway after I watched this video I went to my nearest store and picked up a bottle of hand sanitizer. People it may take a couple good washes and buffing but it is all totally worth it when the sap is all gone. Thanks Chris your a life saver👌😊
I just used the same today, and OMG it works perfectly. Hope he sees this too
IKR...wonder never cease to amaze👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Chain saw on the neighbor's tree worked best for me.
I have a 50 foot white pine near the street. The neighbors have learned not to park under it!
@@miningcamper Pine trees should be eliminated like mosquitoes. Not sure why we continue planting pine trees in residential neighborhoods and especially near parking lots. It's all a conspiracy with the car companies!!!
Oh, how I wish I could!!
You could use the chainsaw to take the tree sap off the car
....or a box of matches and some gasoline
I had huge amounts of tree sap on my hood that had been there for about a week, sitting in direct sun. I went out this morning and sprayed a mixture of 3/4 white vinegar and 1/4 water, waited about 1 minute and wiped it off easily. Also works amazingly well on baked on bugs on the windshield.
With the peanut butter and mayonnaise you could make a car sandwich lol. I just used a wet paper towel and sprayed a little alcohol on the paper towel and the pine pitch came right off. So you don't have to use straight alcohol.
Yes I'm replying to a three year old post - to thank you for the idea - white vinegar and water worked great for me today, followed by a wash and rinse with soap & water. Thanks!
@@rhodysweet I'm going to try that out. I have this crap all over my car.
Sorry Chrs. I tried the 70% isopropyl but it just smeared it and enlarged the stain. The only thing that completely removed the sap was acetone. A little dab on the tip of a rag, a little rubbing, and...gone. follow with a cleaner spray and you're done! No damage to paint on a 2009 Cobalt.
this worked better than alcohol or acetone! ty
A rag dampened with alcohol worked wonders! Thank you for expending your valuable time and assisting the rest of us!
Thanks for a great comparison test. The reason hand sanitizer works best, particularly on sap or bird crud that has been baking in the sun for a year or more, is that the gel holds the alcohol in place and really lets it soak in while you put it on other baked-on globs you have let accumulate. Leave it alone and come back in 45 to 60 seconds and the crud wipes right off. Hand sanitizer is about 65% alcohol, which explains its power. The rubbing alcohol from the bottle just runs off if you pour it directly on the sap or crud, and putting it on a rag and wiping doesn’t put enough alcohol on the sap to let it soak in and dissolve the crud..
Good call!
Cheers!
that’s a great idea
Now I don't have to spend money to have someone else do this for me. :') You have no idea how much this helped me.
I watched this video, but it was my wife who showed me how to get the sap and baked on dirt on my ‘98 Chevy Pickup. She sprayed the hood with Windex…..let it set for about five minutes….she wiped it right off! Then she came back as I was using the Windex, she had mixed up a spray bottle of Dry Wash, mixed with a couple tablespoons of white Vinegar…….wow, that really made it come clean without laboring. I like Chris’s videos, he has helped me out some much, but wanted to offer these two things to help.
Thank you. You don’t know how much this helped me.
Agree with your assessment-alcohols seems to work the best. Ethyl alcohol will dissolve sap and not the paint. Works amazingly well for cars. My experiment with iso-alcohol proved it was more harsh and dissolved the solid stain on my deck.
Great video. No BS, great camera work and very helpful. Thank you.
Based on the video, I tried rubbing alcohol. Absolutely worked. I had Georgia pine sap on my Jeep Grand Cherokee from several months ago. Worked like a charm. Alcohol all the way.
Awesome! Glad to hear it Ken!
Thanks, I just tried 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol and it did work to remove the sap entirely. I did read in other places that it's likely that the rubbing alcohol will also remove some finish on the car so you should probably follow up with cleaning the area of the remaining alcohol and wax it.
Yessir! Def clean and wax the area after you clean it.
You are so smart Chris! Great to see a hard working, smart chap nowadays. Pretty rare.
Thanks for saving me money and time. Hand sanitizer works 100% perfect and took about 3 seconds.
Thanks man! You are a life saver. For two weeks I've been trying to remove the sap from my hood. The hand sanitizer worked perfectly and without almost no effort.
Awesome Martin! Glad the video was helpful!
@Drivetime Josh 😂
@@chrisfixHey CrisFix! could alcohol damage the clear coat or paint?
BEST ADVICE EVERR!!! i have tried everything over the past few weeks. sap came right off my car with a little scrub
Okay so I have some thoughts....I had alot of sap on my car recently. Not a couple drops, but the entire passenger side was covered, windshield included. So I jumped to this video, and I used the 70% isopropyl alcohol, the bug & tar brand, as well as goo gone. And even after all three, it was still extremely difficult to remove. I'm surprised my fingers haven't fallen off quite frankly. I tried two different methods. The first day I pre soaked the car, sprayed bug & tar on each sap stain, let it soak into the sap, and then I used a micro fiber towel with the rubbing alcohol each time I scrubbed a spot. That method didn't remove it very well, even with just the rubbing alcohol. So the second day, I bought goo gone and soaked each stain with it, on top of soaking it with bug & tar, then waited again, and I used paper towel and it worked alot better. Idk if it's a different type of sap, some weird mixture I did wrong, maybe the fact it was hot, but I would reccomend the goo gone over the rubbing alcohol any day. I could tell that the consistency of the goo gone was more oily and helped the sap slide off quicker. I'm glad that it worked for other people on here but I never want to remove sap again, If anything I want to murder my neighbors for having a sap tree.
Paper towel on paint?!?! That's a bad idea, amazed Chrisfix hearted this.
Isopropyl Alcohol for sure. I used to be a detailer for a car dealership and that's how we removed it. Stuff works wonders!
+jdmcknig You got it!
+jdmcknig i use that to remove adhesive
204_df not at all. We used it on a lot of different makes and models and never had issues with the paint.
What would you suggest to remove crazy glue from car paint. Previous owner glued door edge protectors.
5 years later and this video still saving lives. Moved to a new apartment complex and got sap all over the hood and windshield. Poured rubbing alocohol on it and it came right out. Thanks ChrisFix
I've found that brake fluid works the best for removing sap from my truck (it also removes the paint!)
Wow awesome
Brake fluid??? That's the bitch method... I use razor blades... Never failed me ;-)
Sean T. I found break cleaner works the best
Break fluid just strips my paint especial on my race shifter kart!
oh hell no
This is the best video on testing many different products. I needed this to get sap off my mom's windshield. Thanks for the great content!
+Jursaw Thanks a lot! I will have a video next week on how to actually remove the sap!
Amazing! Alcohol actually works! Tried everything else, including Stoner Tar & Sap remover, with no success. I keep rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle for cleaning the inside of my windshield (as per Chris' recommendation). Worked perfectly! Thanks, Chris!
Working in forestry, getting sap all over your hands is a daily occurrence. What I use is simply hand sanitizer so my choice is either the hand sanitizer or the rubbing alcohol.
+Travis Judd Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Thx
Thank you for doing this test! I’m not too surprised about the alcohol working, but am concerned it will damage the paint and clear coat.
Really surprised that rubbing alcohol is recommended. On a dark color it left terrible white smears that were very difficult to remove. I think it damages the clear coat.
I agree!!
I've been struggling with tree sap for 5 years on my RV, nothing has been able to remove it! I grabbed a bottle of Joe Sani hand sanitizing gel! Looks like new!!!! I am so excited! I haven't seen it like that in 5 years! I thank you and I will follow and share!!!!
Glad the video was helpful!
i learned something. I bought that sap remover too. It sucks. Im going to try this rubbing alcohol asap. thanks.
Chris, I know alcohol seems great to remove sap, but I suspect too strong!!! It's good for paint prep at 10-15% according to one source. I'd say this will heavily fog the clear coat and require polishing to restore. You can't tell that on a white car very easily, try a black one. Thanks for all the great videos!
Exactly what happened to my friend's (black) car. He tried with alcohol to remove some really tough sap and he unfortunately worked to hard and scratched the coat. Although he removed the most, we can see also the sap stains embedded in the car paint.
We tried a quick one-step polish with medium pad and medium compound, but although it reduced scratches a little, it's still "foggy" coat and the embedded stains are visible. We'll try with different mixes next and more rounds to cut more and see if that helps removing the embedded stains.
Hand sanitizer ruined my dashboard, be very careful with it.
The hazing is most likely the alcohol lifting any sort of wax but not removing it. The spray wax from a self-service or drive through wash is the worst offender. If the clear coat on your car is in tact, even 91% alcohol won’t lift it. I’ve used 91% alcohol as a final surface prep prior to application of vehicle graphics for 25 years. As long as surface is free from dirt and wax there is no hazing.
I’d suggest a thorough washing of vehicle to remove haze and dirt then applying a good wax or ceramic coating.
Thank you so much for the video.I have now successfully removed the dreaded tree sap from our car, I used alcohol hand sanitizer and it worked perfectly.
Chris, your videos are fantastic
something that works well too in a pinch is naphta/zippo lighter fluid as it is a apolar hydrocarbon just like tree sap
I suspect naphtha works better than alcohol. Alcohol will most certainly fog the clear coat.
Thx
Gasoline, then quickly rinse/wipe with a diluted IPA wipe down.
Thank you so much for your video! The hand sanitizer worked perfectly to remove sap from my car.
Great Job!!
Awesome
The hand sanitizer works perfectly, I highly recommend to remove tree sap.
My car lives under a pine tree right now so I'm really happy to see this video! Thanks Chris!
Glad the video was helpful
Finally something that wd-40 can't do
He didn't put wd in hot water then he do job.
Dude
I tried WD-40. What a mess! Like alcohol, it created a film of sap all over my windows. I had to keep cleaning, then I had to get the grease from the WD-40 off the windows. That tooka lot of time and elbow grease, too. Use A 15% pine oil cleaner like Chris if you can find any. LESS THAN 15% doesn't work well.
@@bobbiec6924 go to a hardware store and get a razor for glass and once u see sap on there DO NOT use your windshield wipers or it will need to be replaced and it will spread it all over the glass but when u get a chance use a razor to get it off when it comes to glass
No... i sprayed wd 40 on my dead granma and she didn't come back to life
The hand sanitizer worked great!!! Thank you so much! Video was very informative and saved a ton of time money and frustration!
Thank you. This worked on my 2018 silver Nissan Sentra. It was covered in sap and I was heartbroken. I wasn’t able to remove it and it was getting baked in. It was on there for couple of months. I bought 70% hand sanitizer from Walmart, Equate brand and it took some elbow grease but it came off. Thank you so much, you’re the best!!!
Glad the video was helpful!
You use alcohol in so many of your videos, I'm starting to think you have a serious alcohol problem.
Rubbing alcohol(isopropyl) is different from normal drinking alcohol (Ethanol)
But I get the joke =P
Ovais Saand drinking gasoline additives whuut?
Ovais Saand oh shit are you serious? dude i get drunk either way!!
@Ben Guerrero I am sure your joking! XD
But if not then you should know that Rubbing alcohol(isopropyl) causes respiratory irritation, internal bleeding, and visual and hearing problems
i was joking lol relax... your a good person thank you...
Bro, thanks a million!!!! You literally saved me hundreds of dollars!!! Keep up the good work!!!
Thank you for making this. Tree above my truck got hit by lightning and a literal water fall of sap is all over it. This is going to save me a lot of time.
Thank you so much for this video! I had a lot of tree sap on my car and was getting frustrated. Now I know exactly what to use! 😊
It worked for me. I've had a problem with a cottonwood tree at the end of my driveway spraying sap on my vehicles for the last 20 years. I had tried using rubbing alcohol years ago and it worked but it would evaporate too fast. I guess the gel in the sanitizer locks it in place long enough for it to dissolve the sap better. Great job and glad I found this video.
Success! Sap stains on my car are months old. Not fresh at all. Alternated between hand sanitizer and iso alcohol 70%. Best results were when I applied hand sanitizer gel, let it sit for 5-ish seconds or so, wiped off and followed up with another application of gel or alcohol. Your gonna have to work at it but it was pretty easy. Great video - thx. saved me $ since I used what I have on hand.
I've always used hand sanitize but it was great to see it proven out as one of the best options. Thanks.
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
I used to use just regular rainx. But when I found out that its basically isopropyl alcohol I started using straight iso. Gorked great. Till I finally cut the tree down. :-)
I used a hand sanitizer yesterday and it was unbelievable. The sap came off easily with not a lot of effort. Thanks for the video!
No problem
Just remember, alcohol can remove your wax, stripping your paint of protection. After using alcohol to remove the sap, be prepared to properly wax the area to restore its layer of protection. But yes, it works like a charm.
Donut jelly works great on cop cars.
Haha LOL
LOL
+DawnPatrol Hah
Lol
sounds funny but true
Chris Fix insights are great but there is a more to it in my experience. I'm a big fan of Chris's and anytime i have DIY vehicle project, i look for his vids. I bought a used car with ~150 tree sap stains. An hour in, i figured Chris had a video. Rubbing alcohol got the sap off but clouded the paint on a tan car with seemingly decent color and clear coat even with brief scrubbing. After hours of trial and error, here is what i found worked best. Use hand sanitizer (62% ethyl) to get rid of 90% of the sap. As much as I scrubbed with this or reapplied, no damage to clear coat using the sanitizer. Use your finger nail or something to penetrate/agitate sanitizer if sap is deep/think. ~1/3 of the time there was a base layer of sap residue that sanitizer would not remove. On these stubborn areas, I used a dab of rubbing alcohol on a very thin cloth. place your finger on the alcohol wet cloth to the sap for 3-5 count, then with VERY light pressure (almost none) work the cloth into the sap. Sap vanishes in seconds, i could feel it through the thin cloth. After the sap was gone, I would then immediately wipe the area with a quick detail product to get the alcohol off. I'll compound and wax after. This was best recipe. Pine tree sap on a 10-15 yr old car, decent clear base coat of paint, water beading. Good luck and I hope this helps others!
Thanks Chris, Exactly what I experience using washer fluid for winter that contain 80% of ethanol. Really effective removing sap.
You know it will be a good day when you turn your computer on and hear," Hey, guys, Chris Fix here...."
+Mdelta2000 haha, this comment made my day! Thanks bud!
Just saw your video. I have tried and tried to remove pine sap with car wax. Doesn’t work very well. After watching your demonstration, I tried some hand sanitizer, as I didn’t have any straight alcohol. Just 65% alcohol in the sanitizer was all it took to remove the sap. One vehicle had sap from at least 10 years ago. No more!! Thank you very much for the video. My vehicles will finally look almost new again.
Is mayonnaise an instrument?
not patrick
tree sap removable
"No Patrick, Mayonnaise is not an instrument. (pause) Horseradish is not an instrument either."
Man-naise a bucha people here tonite
Well try squeezing empty mayonaise tube 👌
Not thinking I 7:58 Parked under a pine tree while at the beach. Well hubby noticed the sap on my hood and we didn’t know what to do so I’m going to try this. It’s a new car and was afraid of ruining the finish although it has a special coat.
Just be gentle and you'll be good! Let me know how it goes!
You are the man!!!! thank you!!!!!. only good thing that came out of covid was all the hand sanitizers my dealership had bought. Just went used it on one of our cars and it came right off. Used a microfiber towel. You just saved us soo much money. We were planning on getting 10 vehicles waxed at $450 a piece to remove all the sap. Thank you again my friend.
Thanks for the tip i just used the Hand Sanitizer and it worked like champ
I just tried baking soda and sprayed lowest grade vinegar on it and it was instantly gone / disolved both on window and car paint without damage. Just needs water after to remove baking powder residue. Arm & Hammer Baking Soda & vinegar are great for soooo many types of stains!! 😉
When you use alcohol on your car it'll remove all the wax layer right? So that would mean after this process you have to make sure to re-wax your car correct?
That would make sense.
Exactly! Alcohol is not meant for vehicle paint
Thanks for posting and saving me the time and money of trying commercial products.
Little did he know that COVID-19 would prevent you from getting hand sanitizer.
Or even rubbing alcohol!
Should have bought it in 2015 when Chris did this lol.
9 months later and they’re practically giving it away. My employer has given me a bunch. Now I have a use for it!
This makes sense chemically. Sap is mostly water and sugar. Water is an very polar molecule, and sugars have tons of polar groups, which is why you can dissolve lots of sugar in water. Thus, NONE of the oil-based products, which are mostly nonpolar had much of any chance to get in there and hydrogen bond with the water and sugars of the sap and dissolve them. Ethanol (in the hand sanitizer) and isopropanol (which are also mixed in solution with water) ARE sufficiently polar to dissolve sap. They also have nonpolar ends, which is why they'll clean up oils, so they might have additionally picked up any nonpolar compounds in the sap. They probably also dissolved any wax (nonpolar) on the hood as well.
If you'd contained the soapy wooder or even just plain water over the sap and let it soak in, it would have also worked, I think. Heck, I bet antifreeze, which is ethylene glycol and has two polar groups, might work really well, also.
im going to try lighter fluid, hand sanitizer and anti freeze today on my car.
Thank you !
Hand Sanitizer worked like a charm!!! Just watched this video and went outside to remove a few sap spots on the hood of my car. Thank you for posting this video!!! 😊
Can confirm rubbin alcohol did wonders for my car. The kids now call me Sap Blaster
Haha I'm sap buster !!!! 😂😂😂
Thank you for this video! I tried the hand sanitizer and it worked perfectly fine. Tree sap gone in literally 5 seconds.
Alcohol worked for pine tree sap...thank you so much! You're the BEST!😘
4:20 I thought mayonnaise was an instrument :3
4/20
24/25
Oh Patrick... ⭐
i like these videos where you compare products
+Bee Y Thanks for the feedback! That is good to know!
After trying the Turtle Wax remover with little to no improvement, and after watching your video, I found that for my situation alcohol worked best on baked on sap while the hand sanitizer worked best on the fresher, stickier sap.
Nail polisher remover. #1 HANDS DOWN! This from personal experience!
John Smith Didn’t damage the paint?
Amazing Chris!!! Thanks so much, the alcohol was awesome 👌 😀 👏
I used alcohol wipes on the small tree sap spots. After using the wipes, I took a piece of paper towel and dipped in a cup of soap/water to wipe off the excess of the alcohol wipe solution.
Keep in mind that alcohol will degrade your clear coat, and scar the paint once it goes through the clear coat.
Chances are that the sap was removed because the clear coat that it was sitting on was removed.
If you still choose to use alcohol, remember that heat will accelerate evaporation, so be cognizant of the temperature of the metal.
Correct, if you allow it to sit and do its damage. Used sparingly and quickly it shouldnt do any harm.
I made a total mess of my car yesterday trying to remove a huge, baked on bird dropping splat! If you could do a video about how to safely remove bird droppings (especially if it's been hot and allowed to dry on!) that would be awesome. Thanks Chris, another great vid
Hello sir from my experience I soak a wrag in warm and set it on the bird poop and wait a minute or so and should come right off for the most part might need a little scrubbing but it works hope this idea helps
Wow. I tried soap and water first before looking on UA-cam. The soap and water did very little. But the alcohol on a cotton ball did a whole miracle. Thanks for doing this video!
Glad the video was helpful!
Try blinker fluid, actually dose work
Nice try. You didn't specify the left or the right. How are we supposed to know?
I'm not taking a dose of it lol
if you get pitch on your hands when cutting wood alcohol takes it off like water
+bill baranko awesome to know!
After watching your video my wife thought she grabbed Rubbing Alcohol but grabbed a bottle of Witch Hazel by mistake and it worked as well. It does contain 15% alcohol but I think the Witch part added a little magic.
Let me save you some time is was the mayonnaise, put the mayo in your gas tank it’s gonna take 3 jars and then drive around for 15mintues the mayo will push the sap through the pores of your paint
:o
Thanks, Chris! Just what I needed!
I used Goof Off from a can and took 100 dried on tree sap blobs off my painted deck. Worked great!! Disolves sap/pitch right off. Used microfiber cloths and of course you have to rub across them a few times.
Question: Does the rubbing alcohol kill the clear coat? Seeing as the car is covered in sap and you are about to put alcohol on all those spots of sap, even 1 by 1, it’s still a large covering space. Would you have to wax the vehicle again, or do a clear coat finisher on the car?
WD 40
Too quick!
+Linus Schneider Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! You got yourself a ChrisFix Bumper Sticker. PM me your address to send a sticker!
It never knew I got the same as you but at least I'm right
lucky
nice bro nice.
Alcohol worked great on my 92’ F-150. Was not ready for the paint to be hazy afterwards. Thankfully some scratch fix and a buffer took it right out. Thanks for the video
youtube really trynna get us to go back to the old days
Juannntx the good old days 😎
Is mayonnaise a sap remover? 😂 I’m glad I can make myself laugh.
yes my tuna sandwiches work every time.
Yes Patrick, mayonnaise is a sap remover
Mayo removes water stains from wood, let sit for 3 to 5 min, then work all that oil into the wood.
If the stain is too old it won't work though.
I got rid of the sap I was married to but it didn't require mayonnaise. Or maybe he got rid of me with the alcahol.
Loving you right now... Spent an hour and got no where... Watched your video.. went outside with a little of isotropic... And boom!!!
I just tried the rubbing alchole on my black Toyota Mateix and I have good news and bad. It took the sap off with little effort but it also took the shine out of the finish. I would say dont do it on a darker model vehicle maybe ??? Just beware that's all ikl m saying.
The alcohol can also remove the wax, so that is why it took off the shine. So just apply some wax after and you'll be good.
Adam Arsenault yeah. Prevention is key! wax wax and more wax so when you use a harsh product, you don’t strip the paint. BUT Just a little more wax over the dingy paint that you made dingy and it should shine back up
But won't using alcohol on the car's paint damage the clear coating, especially on a Prius where the coating is special?
blasphemous24 try use hand sanitizer than wipe off the hand San don’t let it eat up ur paint. It work very well.
Thanks so much brother. I looked up how to remove tree sap from my trucks paint and this video helped alot. The hand sanitizer just melts it off in seconds! Cheers and thanks again!
It's definitely alcohol. Cleans everything including tour cars fuel system
its you
Nah
Too much alcohol can damage your fuel system. Things like fuel lines, o rings and injectors. It's ok to use one of the 12oz bottles of fuel system cleaner that has alcohol. That's because it has a small amount of alcohol.
Seafoam doesn't have a lot but even though it's all petroleum products, it's some strong ass stuff
+Happy Fox That's why i said CAN damage your vehicle. I have repaired several vehicles because the owner used E85 gas in a car that wasn't designed to run on E85. E85 is basically moonshine mixed with gasoline. People run E85 because it is cheaper than regular gas. not knowing is the damaging effects E85 will have on a vehicle that was designed to run on it.
Thanks for that. My kid who doesn't give a sh-t, parks right under a friends giant pine tree and I need to remove. Most of those will work somewhat if you take your fingernail or an old credit card or something to get down in to the sap glob, as it hardens on top. Alcohol does seem the best though.
I use a razor blade to get the clumps of the sap off, then pine oil, then wash with Dawn in hot water. Rinse.
Thank you. Hand sanitizer gets the task done magically! I tried many stuffs from Home Depot but they did not work well. A friend of mine suggested to use acetone but I am afraid that it will damage the paint. To me hand sanitizer is the perfect choice for the task, cheap and effortlessly.
No.1 sap remover, a different parking spot...
+JustinBieber your name neither...
Makes perfect sense. Justin Bieber doesn't make sense!
Good one 😂
no, thats prevention, not removal.
+wobbly sauce Definitely best to say away from pine trees!
Was there alcohol (Still at the beginning) If there was than alcohol works the best
70% Alcohol works best..
Thank you Chris!
"The best product is alcohol"
-ChrisFix 2015
See my comment above. Alcohol did't work well for Chris, either.
Alcohol did in fact work very well!