Trunk Tar/crud

[bmwstephen]

This was from a 2004 Honda CRV. There were no history of spills or rust on the car...

Does anyone elses trunks look like this? Any idea what that crud baked into the sound deadending is and best way to clean up?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170328/d3161a1c029ec8e1362fd1d94a397cfa.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170328/ad53bed9f6d5aaace7fb0079a0cf154b.jpg

[Mantilgh]

Is it not wanting to come off?

They can get surprisingly dirty without ever even opening them up.

Just looks like random dust/dirt. A stiff brush and a shopvac followed by some APC and a brush.

[Setec Astronomy]

Is some of that on the side just seam sealer that got in the wrong place? In the tire well, is it possible you've got a leaking tailight that's responsible for that rust? I've had to fix two Asian cars that were leaking water into the trunk.

[bmwstephen]

Is some of that on the side just seam sealer that got in the wrong place? In the tire well, is it possible you've got a leaking tailight that's responsible for that rust? I've had to fix two Asian cars that were leaking water into the trunk.

If it were a leak, I expect water to collect as there are no drains in the area. But the entire area was dry

[JustJesus]

When I finally went to detail my hatchback area of my daily driver, I was really surprised at how nasty it was. I'm the original owner and haven't had a spill, but somehow the rear, under the tire, and other hard to reach areas, it was filthy. Don't have pics on me now, but I was wondering where all of that crud would have come from. 3 hours to clean up that hatch area, using vac, APC, towels and brushes.

No sound deadening material, so I didn't have issues there

[bmwstephen]

Thanks again for the advice guys. Worked great https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170416/6200a4861f69ca242801c9b0f8a54698.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170416/f84281f502796749c7da8eb08f095ff3.jpg

[Setec Astronomy]

Great results--what did you do?

[bmwstephen]

You will want the car to sit in the sun a bit so the tar becomes soft and pores open up.

Then I sprayed down the area with APC and used a nylon brush to foam everything up and to loosen the really stubborn embedded dirt and sand in the tar. While it was wet, I used a microfiber towel to pick up what I could. Did this process twice...

Then I switched to a soft bristled brush kick up any remaining grain dirt or sand and vacuumed at the same time.

Hit it with one more step of APC and microfiber towel to ensue it was all clean.

Applied some spray wax for peace of mind so that next time any crap sneaks in there it wont stick