Pine tree sap... ceramic coating and PPF

[James44]

Some advice please ....

Our front drive is completely covered by the canopy of protected trees, very large pines and a 120ft Wellingtonia!

As you'd expect the tree sap and pigeon poo comes thick and fast. Our prides of joy are garaged and its just our everyday car that takes the hit. The hit is severe, real thick globs of sticky tree Sap. Wax doesn't help at all. It doesn't come off with hot water and soap. We've tried the commercial 'tree sap' type products and they don't really work either.

To get it off I use the nail polish and baking soda technique, it works well but does leave feint marks in the paint work. From a distance its fine, but up close you really can see it.

We've upgraded our everyday car to something a lot more expensive and nicer and would like to protect the paint if we could.

My question is will a ceramic coating or PPF help at all? My guess is that either could cause more harm than benefit. I guess we'd still need to do the nail varnish trick and that would then remove the ceramic or PPF underneath leaving the car looking worse.

Any thoughts or experience in dealing with heavy pine tree SAP wrt to ceramic protection or PPF?

Many thanks

[_Hoppers]

My wife's car gets a coating of sap in the summer from our tree. It's not heavy sap but Bilt Hamber's Surfex HD removes it.

[Belle427]

Ceramic will help but regular cleaning so it doesn't build up too much is the key.

[Iceblue]

Don't waste your money on ppf as the tree sap will damage it just the same and will be even harder to remove as you can't use solvents on it, have you thought about purchasing a car cover.

[James44]

_Hoppers said:

My wife's car gets a coating of sap in the summer from our tree. It's not heavy sap but Bilt Hamber's Surfex HD removes it.

thanks, I'll try that

[James44]

Iceblue said:

Don't waste your money on ppf as the tree sap will damage it just the same and will be even harder to remove as you can't use solvents on it, have you thought about purchasing a car cover.

Its a big car, an X5, so quite a bit of effort to get cover on and off, plus its in daily use so not really feasible.

We've looked at lean-tos and car ports, but logistically difficult to do.

[Summit_Detailing]

Belle427 said:

Ceramic will help but regular cleaning so it doesn't build up too much is the key.

This...regular cleaning is the key, a coating will make it that much easier.

As a previous poster mentioned SurfexHD or a citrus based cleaner like Gtechniq W5 will make short work of the sap.

Cheers,

Chris