Road Tar Mess

A

autobritemike

New member
Hey Guys,



I am a new user to this site. I have been working in the detail business for 16 years, and have seen just about everything.



I had a Lincoln Mark VIII in the shop this week that had a form of road tar that i have never seen before, and the customer must have left it on the vehicle for at least a year because it was as hard as epoxy, in fact I can't completely rule out that it was in fact something other than road tar.



It was dark brown in color and was sprayed behind the tires front and rear. It was completely hard, Road tar is usually Soft, especially when hit with a solvent.



I tried every single product i have in the shop. I started simple with kerosene then mineral spirits then naphtha. That didn't work so i progressed to more aggressive solvents including acetone and laquer thinner. The thinner had an effect, but required too much harsh rubbing and would damage the paint.



After using solvents, i tried the blue and red clay from Clay magic...no luck. I tried scraping it off with plastic razor blades, once again this sort of worked but require a lot of pressure and was damaging to the paint.



Through a combination of clay, laquer thinner, plastic razor blades and some serious buffing I was able to remove it from the rear fender, but it took 3 hours for that panel alone.

Has anyone ever encountered anything like this?



Mike

Autobrite Car Care Center
 
It might actually be epoxy. They sometimes use some sort of an epoxy/glue to glue down road stripes and markings instead of paint them on.

p.s. Welcome to the site.
 
It might be epoxy, but i've never seen epoxy this heavy before. The entire bottom of the drivers door from the molding down and the rocker is covered with a thick layer of this stuff. After the customer picked up his vehicle and i explained that i would have to try again another day, and charge much more, i had a brainstorm about using a pinstripe removal wheel. I don't know why i didn't think about that before.

I will let you know if that works...I hope so, or it is going to take a whole day to finish the job. Thanks for your help!
 
AutobriteMike said:
It might be epoxy, but i've never seen epoxy this heavy before. The entire bottom of the drivers door from the molding down and the rocker is covered with a thick layer of this stuff. After the customer picked up his vehicle and i explained that i would have to try again another day, and charge much more, i had a brainstorm about using a pinstripe removal wheel. I don't know why i didn't think about that before.

I will let you know if that works...I hope so, or it is going to take a whole day to finish the job. Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

I am willing to bet that if this stuff is that hard that the wheel will wear down before the mess. But keep us posted!
 
I wonder if it was the epoxy that they use to glue reflectors onto the road. Since you said it was on the driver side. I know here they put them in the middle of the roads on the yellow lines and it helps alot at night.
 
The Customer Swore that he picked it up on a specific road that was being worked on in our town. He said it was just a normal tar and chip job, which is common in this area. I called the public works dept. for our town, and they sent a guy down to look at the vehicle, and he could not identify the material.

The stripes are all painted on our streets, no reflectors, so he must have picked this up somewhere else and just didn't realize it was on his vehicle, even though it stands out like a sore thumb!
 
Welcome to Autopia, Mike! :welcome



I’ve had nasty experience with tar, road paint, and concrete. Clearly you’ve tried everything in the arsenal, but I believe the key to your mess is a professional, non OTC, solvent blend.



FK 714 ‘Solv’s It’ Wax, Grease, and Tar Remover - my favorite. It’s super effective and can remedy some of the toughest problems like road paint and tar, industrial adhesives, heavy grease, and rubber. I’ve also used 714 to remove rubber undercoating from suspension components and bed liner spray.



Another option is Valugard’s New Car Prep [which doesn’t receive much recognition]. It’s not as potent as FK 714, but by and large also a very good product for removing adhesives, tar, paint, etc., etc.



Finally, consider a commercial grade, citrus-based solvent [if available in your jurisdiction – it’s not VOC compliant:xyxthumbs].



Good luck.
 
Second on the New Car Prep safety solvent. Spray some on and let it soak for a while. Stoners Xenit might help or tarminator.
 
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