I just bought a truck that came from Eastern Oregon and looks like it spent some of it's last years parked below a pine tree. The hood and cab are covered with small dots of tree sap.

Any thoughts about how to remove it without damaging the paint?

 

Mineral spirits works great!!

 

WD-40 should work also.

 

Yup and yup. But the paint may already be damaged. That sap is some crazy stuff. But you can rest assured that neither Mineral Spirits nor WD-40 will mess with your paint.

 

Coleman camping fuel will cut the dickens out of the stuff also, Don't buy Coleman brand, look for cheaper brands, same stuff

 

I had some sap crap that, I had to use a razor blade scraper to get the shxt off. It wasn't from a pine tree, kind of looked like a cotton wood. Anyway, I kept the paint wet with water as a lube not to scratch the paint. This tree was oozing sap on a very hot day of 106* when i first noticed it. Damn it's on two vehicles at that. I moved into this house in the on set on winter just a few trees in front and a long the driver way. Well when summer came and so did the sap out of the leafs when the wind blew.I tried W-D40 didn't work as this stuff was like baked on.. I fixed the one tree that caused the problem. Fixed it up right up with some round up. worked for me..
orich

 

Careful, some solvents will bleach the paint. Ford offers "Tar & Oil Remover" but kerosene works just as well.

A clay bar will remove all sorts of stuff: Concrete, bird poop, tree sap, jacaranda blossoms, pollution, et cetera, but you have to use a clay bar with lubricant like Mother's or Meguiars qwik detail.

And...this has to be done in the shade on cool sheet metal or glass.

 

WD40 works great on the pitch on the glass and the chrome bumper and alum grill. Thanks for the hint.

I tried it on paint with not such good luck. I spent about 2 hours on the hood this evening. This stuff is nasty. Thankfully the truck has a canopy and it's not on the inside of the bed! Cab roof is tomorrow mornings project before it gets warm and after the ice makers get a new batch of ice made.

So here is what I ended up doing after attempting to use WD40 and some "tar remover" I had around without great luck on the paint. I experimented a little and decided that this is what I needed to do. First I washed the hood. Then I waxed it with cheap wax right over the pitch. I then formed a ring of towels around the outside of the hood. I then went inside the house and got all the ice we had. I dumped the ice on the hood one side at a time. I then took a razor blade and scraped off the pitch after moving the ice to the other side. With the wax the blade slid quite nicely. Before the wax on the hood it didn't slide as well. After the hood dried WD40 cleaned up some of the remaining sap.

I have to thank my wife for the ice idea.

Sadly, my hands are now covered with pitch.

 

I just tried the water as a lube using a razor blade after it cooled down tonight and it worked great. Something tells me that come daylight there will be a little buffing to do to remove the scratches.

 

Any reasonably good solvent should cut through sap. I've used Coleman Fuel, 190 Proof pure grain alcohol, Isopropyl Alcohol and Acetone.

The key is to use something that won't hurt the paint underneath. Test the solvent on the paint in a discrete place, so the spot might not be noticed.

Now on MY truck, I want something that will remove the sap, the paint, the primer and the rust!