2012 Volvo C70 - Tar Removal

[KMG]

So I received a phone call from one of my friend's mothers in a panic. She was following a construction vehicle on the highway and it had threw tar all over her car. She wanted to know what she should do, so I told her to drop the car off at my place as soon as she gets off work. Having not seen any pictures or anything I was not sure what to expect when I would get home, either way I figure the sooner I work on it the better when it is 90-100 degrees out.

Before Pics
So here are a few picture before I started doing any removal work on the car. While it did have a decent amount of tar on it, it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-eEp-y9Mqppk/Vc5DKfHzbaI/AAAAAAAAD6A/oXqgOMpEgEo/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0852.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QNRqOEqdcv8/Vc5DKbzlfwI/AAAAAAAAD58/ZHOeOEPXwPU/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0842.jpg
streaks of tar on hood
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-CrWvMSeBdHw/Vc5DKXzVsUI/AAAAAAAAD58/azbIfpUkybI/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0843.jpg
streaks on the front bumper along with a large amount of bugs built up
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-O1onlacRBQA/Vc5DKUos1zI/AAAAAAAAD6A/aspGCuNFC24/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0845.jpg
tar on the driverside of the convertible top
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1BRnx6wIOnU/Vc5DKXxb5TI/AAAAAAAAD58/KyCcDtAMoM8/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0846.jpg
more tar on the driverside of the top
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-LS6UWqfhY5M/Vc5DKatn_9I/AAAAAAAAD58/zU-QHqb5uRg/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0847.jpg
tar and other road debris built up on the front fender and door
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Qy7qrP6Fa1U/Vc5DKTa-hrI/AAAAAAAAD58/W58UN8cdNzc/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0849.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mV_32ZhXM1E/Vc5DKXprmqI/AAAAAAAAD58/rZwRgY4lQao/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0850.jpg
one area of the tar that was on the windshield

Wash, Decon and Removal Process
I started out cleaning the wheels and tires as usual, and followed that up with a strong foam pre-soak and let it dwell for several minutes.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-xu2kHQCpkps/Vc5DKZF23xI/AAAAAAAAD58/Fsy1ClSodJ8/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0854.jpg

I then started the tar removal process
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vvPL5h5Gov4/Vc5DKU0_jnI/AAAAAAAAD58/kyMfjM2Xrio/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0855.jpg
this picture show Tar-X breaking down the streaks on the hood
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-S0XnhZ4QWwc/Vc5DKXixevI/AAAAAAAAD58/40T9f5huTDk/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0856.jpg
another picture of Tar-X on the front bumper

After going around the whole car and treating all the areas that had tar on them, I proceeded to do a 2 bucket wash on rest of the car.

This was followed up with the decon, starting with Iron-X.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Hn6tc56CY0E/Vc5DKfKZz8I/AAAAAAAAD6A/c8ZmZ-Pqo3Q/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0858.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oaPTW9lFSiw/Vc5DKYh9PxI/AAAAAAAAD58/dIuWw9tR6mA/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0860.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bI3QDXPAvAg/Vc5DKfjFtiI/AAAAAAAAD58/L7nsepXMEiE/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0861.jpg
The entire car had quite a bit of iron deposits on it. After being thoroughly rinsed of the Iron-X I went over the car with my Nanoskin Wash Mit for one final wash.

After being dried the car was pulled inside. Knowing that the car is doomed to a life of tunnel washes, I decided to just do a quick polish to just clean up the surface a bit without going overkill on chasing all the defects. The paint was in pretty rough shape as the car really isn't very well maintained.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mHfLFg7OD48/Vc5DKcyTYYI/AAAAAAAAD6A/FXoP2tf3x4Q/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0863.jpg
lots of swirls and RIDS on the trunk lid
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mHfLFg7OD48/Vc5DKcyTYYI/AAAAAAAAD6A/FXoP2tf3x4Q/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0863.jpg
more swirls and RIDS on the side of the convertible top

This was my first test spot, using Optimum Hyper Compound on a white LC flat pad with my Rupes 15.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u-VLREGV130/Vc5DKZwQZpI/AAAAAAAAD58/XDl1r75PW64/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0866.jpg
I was not overly thrilled with how it looked following this test spot, so I stepped up to an Orange cutting pad which yielded much better results.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7ByW54BHcZc/Vc5DKQYu1II/AAAAAAAAD58/U5GPWn0pKo4/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0868.jpg
before picture on the side of the convertible top
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-h9SVn4ru82A/Vc5DKbzw52I/AAAAAAAAD6A/jLiiOy4L3ic/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0869.jpg
after picture of the same spot

Final Product
The car was the sealed off with Hydr02 and I did a quick cleaning of the interior as it was quite messy also.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-khXmCDPFd2A/Vc5DKZICexI/AAAAAAAAD6A/jR_XQpkh6IY/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0874.jpg
the front is now nice, clean and shiny
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wR5l4XhXWYs/Vc5DKRwr3dI/AAAAAAAAD58/j5FMsaXRZKg/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0871.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aZwedllbtI8/Vc5DKaUg8_I/AAAAAAAAD6A/ie2rykUMTQM/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0888.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-YWl3tNABD2k/Vc5DKcLQXHI/AAAAAAAAD58/NB3rWOfkp08/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0881.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_v8wgwWTWtk/Vc5DKSDk-YI/AAAAAAAAD58/pFljE14HxEE/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0889.jpg

A few interior shots
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dkj-U7UiaKc/Vc5DKauPXZI/AAAAAAAAD6A/B1kT8pzLdag/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0886.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uhj6SyvX3Sc/Vc5DKeWEOZI/AAAAAAAAD6A/jvJdfh0tJ4g/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0880.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6lhCpCr3Bew/Vc5DKVeKbjI/AAAAAAAAD58/mdAGRxe7Lrg/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0879.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-rAqdGP-7tNo/Vc5DKcpjmvI/AAAAAAAAD6A/079KtZxHm1k/w1316-h875-no/DSC_0876.jpg

And that is it for a fairly quick and simple job. Thanks for taking a look!

[richy]

Looks great now; nice job!

[Mantilgh]

Nice job! Looks like you went above and beyond.

I like the pics of the TarX working, pretty cool. Good thing she didn't have the top down.

[Hoytman]

That Tar-X really surprised me. I don't have it and have never used it, but it will be on my list.

[KMG]

Tar-X is a great product as are most of the other CarPro products. Depending on how heavy the build up of Tar is you might need to go over it a few times to fully remove it. It certainly made removal quite easy though and saved a lot of time removing it.

[ResQRy]

Worked well. Looks great!

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Nice save!!!! Megs #7 is great for removing road tar as well.

I try to explain to folks the hell their daily driver goes through, especially here in New England.

Condensed traffic, winters that drop 4' of snow, chemical compounds on the road to melt the snow/ice and turn it into a salty chemical mess, over spray from the guy in front of you, roads constantly under construction (scored sections of highway), then the frost-heaves, along with the massive potholes... The temp pothole fixer patches that come undone and contents are hurled at your car from the guy in front of you, the construction trucks... List goes on and on. My daily driver has had the windshield replaced twice already. And people don't understand why my Mustang is a garage queen... (barely ever driven only between May and Nov).

[xtina]

I never understood why people never take car of their expensive vehicles.