While detailing a customer's vehicle today I learned something that I had never tried before. The customer had sap on his hood and trunk and he asked me would I be able to remove it. Of course I told him yes. He asked had I ever used Rain-X to remove sap from the paint (and of course I hadn't). He suggested I try it to see how it works and offered to retrieve some from his garage. I told him that wouldn't be necessary because I had some readily available. To make a long story short - I put some Rain-X on one section of a MF towel, dabbed the sap with it for a couple of seconds or so - and to my surprise the sap came off as if I it was jam. Simply amazing I thought. Caution - it mitht remove a little wax, but I hadn't waxed the car yet so that was no problem. Even so, in my opinion it didn't remove any previous wax at all. I guess you never get too old to learn something new that really works. I just wanted to share this info with you guys. :xyxthumbs
Another Use For Rain-X
- Thread starter foris2
- Start date
Prometheus
Perfectionist in Rehab
Rain-X is alcohol based, so is it possible that regular alcohol would do the same thing? Maybe its the solvent property of alcohols in general that dissolve the sap?
Eliot Ness
Active member
RainX has something strong in it. A couple of weeks ago I applied it to the wife's windshield using my cordless buffer w/ 4" cyclo finishing pad and when finished just threw the pad in a Ziploc bag.
Last week I used that same pad on my DD and noticed the pad was falling apart.... took a while to get the foam residue off my windshield.
Last week I used that same pad on my DD and noticed the pad was falling apart.... took a while to get the foam residue off my windshield.
my initial thought is the rain-x worked really easily because the car had a good existing wax on it before the sap landed on it? And then the rain-x got in between it and either pulled the wax off or just seperated the sap from the wax really easily since it wasnt bonded together so well.
I'm not sure regular rain-x is the solution, at least I never had it work for me...on the other hand I've been suggesting people try rain-x anti-fog for really bad sap blotches for years.
Years ago I used to park under a tall pine tree that occasionally would start to ooz heavy thick sap. We're talking nickle-size blobs of stuff that looked like someone took a hot-glue-gun and went nuts on the paint. I tried everything imaginable (and recommended) with no real success, just a kind of gooeyer blob of crud. Finally I decided to try rain-x antifog and the stuff was like magic. A moistened towel wiped across the sap and whosh - gone - no more sap, not a trace. A quick touch up with wax and the paint was like new.
Years ago I used to park under a tall pine tree that occasionally would start to ooz heavy thick sap. We're talking nickle-size blobs of stuff that looked like someone took a hot-glue-gun and went nuts on the paint. I tried everything imaginable (and recommended) with no real success, just a kind of gooeyer blob of crud. Finally I decided to try rain-x antifog and the stuff was like magic. A moistened towel wiped across the sap and whosh - gone - no more sap, not a trace. A quick touch up with wax and the paint was like new.