I parked my car at work this week while i had their van to do call out with. While it was parked there, a tree had deposited a nasty substance all over my paintwork! Does anyone have any ideas what it is or how it comes off?
Its looks like it has been raining lightly and has covered the car in tiny droplets which are hard and appear to quite well stuck to the paintwork!
Has anyone had this happen and if so how does it come off??
I need some help please gang, im pretty pissed of about it

It sounds like is just tree sap. I would think just normal soap and water would make it come off.

yes it is tree sap. my office is in a residential street in brighton and the road is lined with trees (very pretty) but a complete knightmare for ur car. Get it washed off sooner rather than later though.

if u dont it will damage your paint on the car, as my dad fund out when his red car turned to pink!!!!!!! the sap ate at the paint and the sure gard thing and that was that

I know the feeling, just had to get the ST mopped this morning and it's only two weeks old!!!!!!!!!! I'm never going to get a black car again. But it does look good when clean and scratch/swirl free.

Got the valeter at work to do it for me, it came off ok he said. Looked like a too much hard work for me in this weather. Well worth the money, shes looking good as new again, tyres blacked the lot!
Thanks though guys.

Great to hear you've got it sorted... i was going to suggest giving it areally nice hot wash with really nice hot water and then a polish over to get everything off and it shiney again. Since u've got it done theres no worry!!!

God, don't talk to me about tree sap! I have to park under trees at work (I got moved from the covered parking... ) and pretty much every day I return to find the roof, windscreen and bonnet of the car covered in both sap and bird shit. I'm having to put it through the car wash about twice a week at the mo (fortunately my local Shell have got a deal on where you get the top programme for £3) but its still a pain in the ass. I'm considering buying a car cover just to try and keep the paintwork protected.

If you want to protect the paintwork then you dont want to be using a car wash on it. Millions of little scratches after using those things

Handwash all the way!

Nah, modern car washes are fine, I've been using the same one for a couple of years now without any problems. I can't be bothered to spend 4 hours washing it by hand, particularly when the weather is like it is at the moment!

I might buy a Karcher though, then I can just blast all the crap off as soon as I get home.

Yeh the pressure washers are great

Nice and quick with little effort which is important when its so hot! like now...

Guys, little effort... i cannot believe you dont want to clean ur cars... i have cleaned, Tar removed, T-cut, polished car+windows, vacced and sprayed with all my cleaning stuff for 4-5 hours each day over the weekend and i will do it any weather... hot or cold.

Dont use a car wash as little fragments of sharp grit etc gets stuck on the cleaning whizzy things and puts nice fine marks all over your car...

I love cleaning my car in the hot sun, makes it so much more relaxing with the radio on, chilling out and seeing the car sparkle!!!

I only clean my car by hand...

Made the mistake with my first black fiesta mk5 of putting it through a car wash and it never looked the same in the sun / bright lights again. All tiny little scratches.

But I dont think there is anything wrong with a pressure washer for home use? That isn't going to mark the car at all, and will help take a little bit of effort out of the whole cleaning process

FiestaRS, why r u now called "dog"!?

Chris - honestly, you should see the state of my car after the end of an average day, I'll try and take a pic but its normally covered with at least half a dozen separate bird shits. They're not little ones either, I swear half the birds round Southampton have got diahorrea!

Its like I said above though, modern carwashes are fine, I used the same one for a couple of years on my 206 and there were no marks on the paint whatsoever. I have better things to do, frankly, than spend half my weekend cleaning the car...

yes the seagulls here are pretty horrific, they have luftwafer air raids periodically!
I know, I spent an hour and a bit washing my car the other week and i honestly cant be arsed to do it too regularly.. im trying to convince myself that it looks cool when all dirty lol

Every once in a while I will clean it by hand but, apart from the wheels, I find the car wash does just as good a job. It also costs so much more to clean the car by hand too. You know, by the time you've bought your car shampoo, car polish, wheel cleaner, tyre cleaner, back to black stuff, interior wipes, screen wipes and all the other nonsense it adds up to like well over a year's worth of car washes but only lasts half as long. Buying the posh brands, Meguiars or whatever, is even more expensive too. I've got better things to spend my money on as well!

buying all those products would be expensive, but why bother when you can get your girlfriend to spend hours washing it and washing it and washing it lol. (thats a joke naturally).

anyway.. you forget, mine is a company car, so I can buy the shit hot stuff then charge it back to the company. as long as I attach the receipt

they pay for even products to clean it?!?!

I'd love a company car... One I can use to get to and from work, they pay all the servicing / tyres, and my ST mileage would stay low mmmmmmmmm

yes they pay for anything to 'maintain it' in a reasonable condition. so screen wash, shampoo, polish, sexy girls to rub it down (oh maybe not..) lol and tyres (£120 a corner aren't they?), insurance, servicing.

ill shut up, maybe im making u sick lol

i do have to pay out more income tax though..

Sweet. Yeah. My manager has a company car, and he says that it's well worth it, as he does even more miles than me!! About 30k a yr... Drives a Scenic diesel. He said if you hardly do any miles, then you would lose out, but because he does mega miles, it works out better for him.

yeah, I mean the thing that makes it good value for me is that due to doing 26k a year I need a new car, I cant get a used car cos mileage would be horrific by the time I got to like the 3rd year (have to keep co cars for 4 years) and of course they pay my insurance, which despite my ncb, on the ST would be in the region of £1k a year. Then there is the no hassle of worrying about budgeting for tyres (which I get through at an alarming rate), brakes and so on. If I take the car cash allowance - that is £300 p/month (net) , plus Id save £55/60 a month in tax to gordon brown.. so 360 a month to buy a decent car, maintain it and insure it, is pants! so its a good deal. plus if I do crash, my company pay my insurance excess so..