Hot road tar on my car - HELP

[mikeatx]

I apparently hit some hot tar and it splattered across the back corner of my G. Its on the side of the bumper, on the body about the bumper, trunk deck and spoiler.

I scrubbed it with car soap and a soft lambs wool rag and go no where. I tried some cheap car soap and clay bar. Took it to the local car was and he tried Zaino and Zaino clay bar and still got nothing.

He looked at it real good and said it burned into my clear coat on the metal and burned into the plastic on the spoiler and bumper.

Is there anything I can do to hide this stuff? Or am I looking at a whole sand, prep, prime, paint, clear, blending thing to fix the area?

Anybody have a rough guess at about what that might end up costing me?

THanks!

[mikeatx]

Here's a pic

[mikeatx]

And another. The white spots on the tail light are from where the tar burned the plastic

[BigWill]

And another. The white spots on the tail light are from where the tar burned the plastic

Hey there Mike... sorry to hear about your experience with the tar. I can relate... it frustrates me to no end when they spray a road, and then open it before the tar has cured. I've never experienced hot tar, and I'm not sure just how you were able to drive on a section of road that freshly sprayed. The tar will generally cool pretty quickly... but that wasn't your question.

I have had great results with a liquid wax from The Wax Shop, called Super Glaze http://www.waxshop.com/ It is a Carnauba-based wax, with a solvent based agent to keep it liquid. The solvent works wonders on things like tar, gum, adhesive, etc., and the wax protects the surface. If the paint is truly burned, the Superglaze may only take off the tar, but not help with the paint. The Wax Shop also makes a very mild cutting agent for paint cleaning that works great on headlight and taillight lenses. It is called Safe Cut. I regurlarly use either that, or a mild cutting agent made by 3M on my own headlight covers to keep them from dulling, or yellowing. One of these may help your taillights.

Hope this helps.

Bill

[joe603]

You can also try a bug & Tar remover product. Just let it soak in for a few min, then wipe away. I doubt that you burned your paint.

[Badfish]

You can also try a bug & Tar remover product. Just let it soak in for a few min, then wipe away. I doubt that you burned your paint.

Thats what I used on my car when I covered the back side in a huge spray of hot tar. (Don't ask)

The spray on stuff doesn't work for crap though. I think the gooey Turtle Wax kind works the best.

[joe603]

Yup, the gel type will stay on the affected area-soaking it. I think I used the Turtle Wax one as well.

[C-Kwik]

I generally use 3M tar and wax remover. Most of these products are very similar. If it's just tar stuck on the paint, any of these will work. Being able to soak it on will help penetrate and make it easier to remove. If it damaged the urethane or paint though, there's nothing you can do to fix that short of having it repaired and repainted.

[mikeatx]

I havn't checked this in a while. I tried the Nu Finish scratch remover because it says it works well on bugs and tar. I'll move up to the tar and bug remover next.... Once I find some. The auto parts stores around here don't seem to carry any decent detail/cleaning productions. They just point me to the armor all display and tell me its the best stuff ever... I'm never sure weather to laugh, cry or put them out of their misery. lol

While I'm at it... Anybody know where I can pickup clay bar? I want to go over the entire car, but also really want to work those tar spots and see if I can get anywhere before pouring harsher chemicals on my clear coat.

I'm still pretty damn sure this stuff is burned in, but if I can get the tar itself off (The black spots), I might be able to work out the pitting where it hit. I'm thinking I could work it lightly with some compond and then several coats of a good polish like Zaino (sp?)

Lastly. Pricing for repainting and blending that area or respraying the entire car with factory quality or better? A few people have told me at least $1500 for the area/blending and $3k or more for entire car to get a factory like job.

[joe603]

I got my clay bar from Zaino brothers online. I think meguires sells a kit too...I hope your car's paint is ok.

Keep us posted.

[JHPIV]

Picked up Mequiar's Quik Clay that included a spray bottle of detailing juice for <10 bucks at O'Reilly's last week.

[turbobrian]

try "goo-gone" works wonders