Tar Covered Subaru BRZ

**PurpleTowel** · 08-06-2018, 11:06 AM

This is a chaser to the thread that was created here: Bug and Tar removal about mass tar & bug removal, and the results of a project that I knew was coming in for quite some time. This was a bad one, and something I wanted to use as a crash test dummy for tar removal options. This is destined to be a track day only car, so while it's not perfect, it's pretty darn close to it after a days worth of work.

I have never had a car that had tar on it that I couldn't handle. A trick my dad taught me when I was a kid was gasoline on a rag. It's served me well for many years for tar removal. I haven't ever seen anything like this, though.

Here's what came into the garage on Saturday morning...

It was on every panel of the entire car—including every wheel and the roof of the car. There was also road striping paint, bugs, track rubber and a fairly heavy concentration of rail dust, too. I had almost 2 hours into just the tar removal on the wheels alone.

I had prepared for this car by making sure I had a whole arsenal of products to experiment with: Stoner's Tarminator, mineral spirits, kerosene, gasoline and even Goof Off. This car had been driven through road construction last fall and had this baked on sitting outside for a good part of the time since then.

The short story is, the two best chemicals for tar removal are kerosene in a spray bottle and Stoner's Tarminator. The Tarminator removed spatters in almost half of the time, with a lot less effort. Spray it on and watch it literally melt off of the car...

Nothing else worked like that. I actually ran out of Tarminator about 2/3rds through the project and finished up with kerosene, which worked admirably. I did a final wipe down of the whole car with kerosene and a clean towel and it nicely cleaned up any remaining brown staining or residue.

Once the car was clean of tar, it then needed chemical decon to get rid of the rail dust. Under everything, the paint was horribly stained from who knows what, but everything but the tar. It need a lot of work, but all things considered (and the softness of Subaru paint), it didn't have a lot of swirls or scratches. On pass with Jescar Fine Polish and one pass with Jescar Powerlock+ and the car looked better than new. It also received some fixes to damaged and delaminating clear bra, as well as a nice SiO2 coating on the head and tail lights.

The owner was so excited when he picked it up, he feel in love with it all over again.

**cullen2505** · 08-06-2018, 11:14 AM

Great job transforming the car. Love the fact that they had a clear bra and then decided to cover it with tar. Glad to hear the Stoners Tarminater was so effective.

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**Belo** · 08-06-2018, 12:30 PM

holy cow, that tar was insane. what did you decon with prior to the menzerna or did i misunderstand that?

**PurpleTowel** · 08-06-2018, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by Belo

holy cow, that tar was insane. what did you decon with prior to the menzerna or did i misunderstand that?

CarPro chemical decon followed by a wipedown with a Nanoskin pad. It needed everything thrown at it and more.

**fly07sti** · 08-06-2018, 01:36 PM

Nice save! Not sure if you’re aware, but Stoner sells 5 gallon pails of Tarminator. A lot easier than buying individual cans of the aerosol.

**PurpleTowel** · 08-06-2018, 01:44 PM

Yeah, I didn't know. Good tip. A 5-gal bucket seems a bit like buying 5 gallons of mayonnaise for the house, though. A 1-gal container would be perfect.

**Mantilgh** · 08-06-2018, 02:57 PM

Wow!!!

Thanks for the write up.

**Dr Oldz** · 08-06-2018, 03:03 PM

Wow awesome work! That tar was rather nasty. One thing on the forums I sometimes forget is that we are from all over. I feel that is why some products work better for some people and not for others. Guess all tar isn’t created equal. Again great work!!