The following answer is an excerpt from: www.ehow.com/how_10396_remove-tree-sap.html 1. Gather together a soft rag (an old T-shirt is perfect) and a sap-dissolving solution. You can use a commercially prepared solution designed specifically for this task ("Bug, Asphalt, and Tree Sap Remover" is how one brand denotes it) or mineral spirits. 2. Pour a bit of your sap-dissolving solution onto the rag. Hold it against the sap for a moment, then dab and rub gently, turning the rag as you go to wipe the sap off. 3. Repeat if necessary. 4. Wash and wax your car as usual.

DO NOT USE THINNERS Normaly just hot soapy water will remove i.e. washing up liquid is best, but you must polish it after.

Ok, so my first answer was a flop. Maybe this will be more helpful??? Here's the link: http://www.bmwworld.com/repairs/detailing/tree_sap.htm "To remove the tree sap from your vehicle's surface, you can use finger nail polish remover on a cotton ball. After the sap is removed, make a paste of water and baking soda to wash the affected area, then apply wax. Another method to remove the sap is to use mineral sprits (it will also remove tar). Use a soft, terry towel, or wash cloth dampened with mineral sprits. After removal, wash the car and apply wax to the affected area. Tree sap can also be removed by using a water-soluble paint brush cleaner. A common household solution is bacon grease or lard. Just rub it on, and off comes the sap. To get tree sap off of your hands, simply rub mayonnaise on them and wash it off. To remove tree sap and other substances, you can use common solvents like lighter fluid, rubbing alcohol, WD-40 or even Skin-So-Soft bath oil. The way to use those materials is to let them do their work of dissolving (in the case of alcohol) or softening (in the case of oils), enough to rub off the remaining sap. If you use the oil, wash the car afterwards to remove it. You can also use commercial wax and grease-removing products available at auto supply stores. Be sure to wash and dry the car before applying the wax and grease remover. Then dampen a clean cloth with the solvent and rub the affected area. It may require several attempts if the sap is very thick or extremely hard. The surface may appear hazy after the solvent evaporates, but a good wax application will eliminate the haze and complete the job. Removing tree sap from a car's finish is a bit more difficult than tar, as hardened sap can scratch your paint. I've found that by hand-rubbing the sap spots with mineral spirits or denatured alcohol, I'm able to easily remove the sap without damaging the finish. Mineral spirits and denatured alcohol acts as a solvent to break up and dissolve the sap. If there is a large amount of sap on the car, or if the sap has been left on the finish for an extended period of time, it can be a lot of work to remove. For these cases, you can try hitting the affected areas with a light-duty buffing compound to remove the hardened surface on the sap spots. Then you can use mineral spirits or a similar solvent to remove it. The light duty buffing compound softens the sap so the solvent can do its job. The goal is to use the least pressure possible to reduce the risk of scratching the paint. After removing heavy sap, always buff the treated areas with a good polish to clean up any marks created during hand-rubbing with solvent. The treated area must also be re-waxed. Another technique is to use orange based solvents and children's molding clay. Apply a bit of the solvent and rub with the clay. It is abrasive enough to scrub off the sap which has been broken down by the solvent. The chemicals used to remove road stains can also remove your wax or sealants. After removing tar, sap or bugs, plan to spot wax or re-wax your vehicle. If you don't have time to wax right away, use a quick detailing spray that contains wax. A quick spray wax is great for this kind of spot waxing, too. Old tar, tree sap, and paint over-spray can be easily removed with a miraculous new product called automotive clay. As you rub it across any type of surface (paint, glass, plastic, metal, rubber, vinyl) it instantly sticks-to and pulls-off all contamination that is stuck to the surface. Here's how to use an automotive clay bar: To use the automotive clay, spray a water-based lubricant on a small area of your car and rub the bar back and forth with light to medium pressure. If the lubricant begins to dry, you'll need to spray more. Clay bars are fairly sticky, and they cannot be used dry. After a few passes with the clay bar, rub your hand over the area to feel if the surface contamination was removed. Keep rubbing until all contamination bumps are gone. Finally, wipe the clay residue off with a soft terry cloth towel, and buff to a nice luster. Just like waxing, work in small areas. Check the clay bar frequently for hard particles. When found, pick them off. Make it a habit to occasionally knead and reform the bar so that a fresh portion of the bar contacts your car's paint. When you're finished claying your car, you should go over it with a pre-wax cleaner to finish cleaning the paint and restore essential oils. Then, protect your newly cleaned finish with one or more coats of rich Carnauba wax."

Try using Tide laundry soap. This is what you would use to clean the top of an RV. I am sure it will clean the sap.

First of all, realize that unless you are using a blowtorch, this is going to take a lot of rubbing and wiping, and a lot of time and elbow grease. Also realize that you are probably going to damage the paint in this area, even if it is not readily apparent. If you have a good coat of wax on your car before being hit with the sap the paint damage will be less. I've had this problem a couple times through the years and have tried a few different things. The thing that worked the best for me was LIGHTER FLUID. The kind that comes in the yellow bottles that you use to fill Zippos. Soaps and detergents do not work at all and will just cause you the put scratches in your paint in the surrounding area. Also, the temperature of the sap is important. It helps to do it on a sunny day, after the sap has heated some from direct sunlight. Squirt the fluid into a clean rag and start rubbing. Try to rub ONLY the sap and no where else as much as possible. After 30-60 seconds of rubbing, squirt the rag again in a clean spot and repeat. The sap will come off a little at a time and you are going to have to repeat this over, and over, and over again. Its a good idea to wax at least the affected area after removing the sap. ***Lighter fluid is capable of removing the paint from your car, use this method at your own risk... TOPHER, the worst type of user on answerbag is the type who just says things like "take a class in chemistry and you will learn..." with out even attempting to provide even one point to back up their argument. Please try to provide something at least mildy intelligent to the thread, especially if you are going to downgrade someone's answer. Maybe you could post some answers yourself, instead of just going around insulting people?

Sol U mel sold thru Melaleuca products. This is a company that sells all natureal products. Actually very inexpensive for most of their products. If you are interested email me at cmichelle1121@msn.com. You would be amazed at what this bottle of stuff can do! One bottle makes 24 ounces and it removes apilled paint, melted crayons, pet accidents, grease and many others! Someone wrote in to Melaleuca and said it took off concrete off their car without any damage!

I read several blogs and found that regular olive oil works incredibly well to remove sap from your car with out damaging the paint at all. You just rub lightly the olive oil on the paint with your fingers, it seems to break down the sap, wipe and repeat until it is gone. My car is quite new and the olive oil removed all traces on the sap and the paint, wax and clear coat have not been touched. I would recommend this over any chemicals.

I tried Windex window cleaner (a tip I picked up from another website) and it works well with a soft cloth. The key is also to not let the sap stay on your car for a long period of time, otherwise it would ruin the car's paint.

USE GOOF OFF 2. IT WORKED GREAT.

I do not suggest using the Method used in Canada and New England whereby one drils a hole in a tree to allow the sap to drip out. I do think this product would work though: http://www.schaefferoil.com/specialty/266_citrol.html Citrol----- Costs a lot but does work on most things.Will remove permant marker,marks. How many other products do that ?----

I just did this today and I was really scared. I'm 23 and I just bought a new car and I was really worried I would mess up the paint. I used a soft towel and put the tip of my finger in the cloth, I put nail polish remover on the tip of my finger and rubbed it into the sap. The sap came off, but somethimes I had to switch to a fresh part of the towel and repeat. Between treatments of nail polish remover I splashed water over the area to remove the nail polish remover and dried it with a clean towel. I found that sometimes the nail polish remover left a white cloud in my paint, (and I almost cried) but I went back over the cloudy bit with more nail polish remover, rinsed it, and buffed the hell out of it with a soft cloth and the cloud went away. I have to say that it was time consuming and scary but it worked for me. Take my advice at your own risk, and good luck! (The sap on my car was really baked on, and this worked.)