Chevy Avalanche

Hi all!.....I had a customer come in the other day that tried to remove tree sap from his 08 Avalanche tonneau cover. He used some sort of solvent and a brush. The spots left behind show no evidence of tree sap but have left him with light colored spots. I'm not too familiar with these plastic type covers and and looking for advice. Not interested in painting or the Gator Skin at this point. Some have suggested ICE car wax or FUTURE floor wax. My Auto Magic guy says I will possibly have to use one of their trim stains/paints to correct and paint all of the panels to get everything to match. I tried using basic water based trim shine and it covers the spots until rinsed off.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2010 12:40AM by Bigkahuna66.

You do not know what kind of solvent that he used. In any case, solvents will bleach color out of plastic, vinyl, etc.

It sounds like this is what happened with your customer. You will probably have to recolor the entire cover to eliminate the spots.

Regards

Well thanks for you input Bud. I was able to get upfront first hand look at the damage today. There are half a dozen spots on one panel. I suggested the Gatorback stuff and even called the company. Neil at Gatorback told me I could do one panel but thought it might not blend in with other two. He suggested coverage on all three to make them look uniform. 3 cans for about $100. Expensive I thought right? Well today I called the dealership to find out if he could purchase just one panel. Yes, you may at $790.34...oh plus tax. Well, at customer request, I applied some Back to Black by Mothers. We'll see how long that product stands up.

All of this has me questioning the cleaning process of sap or tar off of the Avalanches back cover. I certainly don't want to make the same mistake. What could I use to clean the sap without "bleaching" the cover? The owners manual says to use car wash soap and water, but lets get real, that ain't gonna cut it.

By the way some personal thoughts. What has happened to this sight? A year ago there would have been fifty responses to a thread and fifty more started in a matter of a couple days. Granted, it gets a little repetitive but there is such a wealth of information on here.

You can use turpentine which is made from pine tree sap and/or alcohol. Neither should damage plastic, but always test to be sure.

To remove the tar and sap from the tonneau cover, I'm guessing that a vapor steam cleaner would do the trick. Failing that, I'd try very hot water with car wash soap. Agitate with a fabric softener sheet such as " Bounce " brand or with a 3M Dobie scrubber. Watch to make sure these things aren't scratching the surface.

Doug