[SpeedFrog]

Why spend a lot of money and elbow grease on various tar removers when there is a very cheap and very easy solution? I have tried a few of these tar removers and they are - as far as I am concerned – just pure rubbish in fancy packaging.

Buy yourself a bottle of white spirit and an old (but clean) cotton rag and that’s all you’ll ever need to get rid of tar.

I’ve done it 3 weeks ago on my car that was absolutely splattered from front to back with tar spots of various sizes that would have been a real nightmare to remove with the so called and so expensive specialist tar removers.

I’ve never thought of trying white spirit before this occasion but 2 pieces of information that I accidentally stumbled across prior to that triggered my curiosity.

First of all I had a painter doing a job in the house and he told me this anecdote:

One day while he was working on another client’s house the client’s wife reversed her car in the driveway and managed to drive over a few pots of paints! He said that they were quite lucky because most of the paint landed on the cobblestone part of the driveway and they were able to wash it clean with white spirit but unfortunately there was also a bit of paint on the tarmac part of the driveway and the white spirit was just melting the tarmac and it was a real mess.

The second thing is that I bought a stone chip removal kit and they actually advise to clean the painted area where you are going to proceed with the repairs with white spirit so really that gave me a confidence boost.

Anyway, that’s the way I proceed:

• Just wash you car as normal (don’t bother drying the car at this stage) and don’t stress yourself with the tar for now.

• Once the car is clean get yourself a pair of rubber gloves, pour some white spirit on the cotton rag and start rubbing gently the tar spots. Again don’t stress yourself let the white spirit do the hard work for you; the small spots will disappear instantly but not the bigger ones; no worries just move on to the next affected area. After 1 or 2 minutes go back where you started and rub gently again, this time no spots will remain and your paint will be clean and smooth.

• Finish off by rewashing with water and car wash detergent the “white spirited” areas, rinse and dry; perfect!

Something that I haven’t done is to re-wax those “white spirited” areas but I am sure it can only be good to do so.

Also works fine on alloy wheels and chromes.

If you don’t have white spirit you can also try with petrol it works but in my opinion it is not nearly as good as white spirit since it is extremely volatile and doesn’t stay on the rag and on the paint long enough to dissolve the most stubborn tar spots.

One last word, I think this only safe on car paint with a clear coat finish i.e. most of the modern paint finish solid and metallic. If you are not sure try to rub a bit of white spirit in a concealed area; if the actual paint colour shows on the rag then forget about it.

[Wierd Bob]

Quote: Originally Posted by SpeedFrog

Why spend a lot of money and elbow grease on various tar removers when there is a very cheap and very easy solution? I have tried a few of these tar removers and they are - as far as I am concerned – just pure rubbish in fancy packaging.

Buy yourself a bottle of white spirit and an old (but clean) cotton rag and that’s all you’ll ever need to get rid of tar.
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I use an old bottle of Paraffin oil and I find it works even better than the white Spirit. If you look at most tar removers (I think I saw it on the Autoglym bottle) they actually use Paraffin in them.
Like you I would rewash the areas afterwards