So I got back last week from a fantastic trip along Quetico's western border (Namakan and Quetico Rivers). Second to last day of trip I notice a glop of pine sap on the tent's rainfly. Not wanting to make a mess, I decided to put a piece of wax paper over the sap and take care of the cleanup when I got home. Well, now that I'm home I need to get to work on it ;-)
Any recommendations for removing the sap without damaging the rainfly fabric? It's a MSR Pappa Hubba tent.

Try WD40! It works for many things. Marc

Wait for it to dry & then scrape it off with a fingernail. Or freeze the sap with an ice cube and scape it off. For the remainder, I use mineral spirits.

we use vegetable oil to take the sap off our hands after making balsam wreaths and cutting trees in the winter. not sure if the oil would damage the fly or not. but your hands will be soft!

I have used a number of things to remove tree sap from tarps and flys. you can use some rubbing alcohol or alcohol hand sanitizer, WD 40 or some Goo Gone work really well. DO NOT use Goof Off as it contains Acetone and will damage the material. If it is a large glob like Ausable suggests then do as he suggests. Then use what I have suggested to get what is left.

I have used Colman fuel and had good results.

What do you use the wax paper for.i have never thought of taking it.

quote yogi59weedr: "What do you use the wax paper for.i have never thought of taking it."

It was just the backing off of a large Band-Aid. I was looking to stick something onto the sap so it wouldn't gum-up the rest of the fly as I was stuffing it away. Just happened to have used a Band-Aid a couple minutes earlier and a lightbulb went on...

I just cleaned my CCS tarp up. Pine sap was really dripping a couple of weeks ago and tarp was covered with many spots. Alcohol and cotton balls took it right off. Gave it a wash in dilute dawn and a good rinse and hung to dry. Looks great.

Alcohol on a rag works.

denatured alcohol or white gas.

quote Laketrout58: "Try WD40! It works for many things. Marc"

+1

Rubbing alcohol has always worked well for me!

I just cleaned pine sap off my rainfly with hand sanitizer and it worked great.

quote Ausable: "Wait for it to dry & then scrape it off with a fingernail. Or freeze the sap with an ice cube and scape it off. For the remainder, I use mineral spirits."

+1 on letting the sap dry. I discovered this by accident a number of years ago when not knowing what to do about sap on a tent fly, I kept the fly in the garage. Several weeks later I noticed it was dry and scraped it off with my thumb nail. Never used nor needed solvents.

quote deerfoot: "

quote Ausable: "Wait for it to dry & then scrape it off with a fingernail. Or freeze the sap with an ice cube and scape it off. For the remainder, I use mineral spirits."

+1 on letting the sap dry. I discovered this by accident a number of years ago when not knowing what to do about sap on a tent fly, I kept the fly in the garage. Several weeks later I noticed it was dry and scraped it off with my thumb nail. Never used nor needed solvents."

That works great if it is a huge big glob of sap. Most times though it looks just like a wet spot on the tent that is sticky. With those you need to just use one of the other methods of removing it with chemicals.

Why?

quote hiawatha: "Why?
"

Why about what???

quote OldFingers57: "

quote deerfoot: "

quote Ausable: "Wait for it to dry & then scrape it off with a fingernail. Or freeze the sap with an ice cube and scape it off. For the remainder, I use mineral spirits."

+1 on letting the sap dry. I discovered this by accident a number of years ago when not knowing what to do about sap on a tent fly, I kept the fly in the garage. Several weeks later I noticed it was dry and scraped it off with my thumb nail. Never used nor needed solvents."

That works great if it is a huge big glob of sap. Most times though it looks just like a wet spot on the tent that is sticky. With those you need to just use one of the other methods of removing it with chemicals. "

Perhaps I should have specified the sap I removed 2-3 different times was pine sap which I allowed to completely dry before scraping it off. This method has worked with small spots as well - letting it dry completely seemed to be what was important. Maybe you got sap from other than a pine?

Regarding the use of any solvents. The wife reminded me I had called Eureka after having this problem the first time perhaps 20 some years ago. Their only suggestion was replacing the fly and they recommended against using any solvents.

goo-B-gone

This link uses 130 different products to remove pine pitch.

Removing pine pitch


tony

Butter of edible oils, like olive. Then you soap and water that off, but works well.

quote Lailoken: "Butter of edible oils, like olive. Then you soap and water that off, but works well.
"

no doubt that works but long ago I gave up. the entire house roof and car and truck roofs are slathered in pine sap.

Enjoy the vision of us slathering any butter on 3300 square feet of roof and then soaping and hosing it off.
Its for shedding snow load.. pitch 8 on 12.

We might be in the hospital.

Isn't it highly flammable? I bet a propane torch would work very quickly.

Hand sanitizer

quote Tony: " This link uses 130 different products to remove pine pitch.


Removing pine pitch



tony"

Thank you for the link!

quote Minnesotian: "
denatured alcohol or white gas."

I would think these will remove the waterproofing?