Gasoline!

Boomyal

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Aug 16, 2003
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It's fun to rediscover old tricks and techniques. I bought a 2006 Explore a year and a half ago. It desperately needed to be detailed, especially on the outside. The wheel wells, the running boards and rockers and the chrome wheels were spattered with hardened road tar. I do not know how long ago it occurred but it has least been on it since I bought it. Along the way I tried various things to remove the tar but they were so tedious that I never made much progress.

Now I had the time and desire to get to cleaning it up. I started by using hydrogenated kerosene (spray engine cleaner). It was working but was still very slow and tedious. I came in an googled "remove road tar" and ended up on a forum where a poster talked about gasoline.(all amidst predictions of doom from some other posters)

Bingo, I knew that but it had been so long since I did it, it never occurred to me. I got a rag and a little plastic tub and started with the wheels. The tar just dissolved. I then moved on to the paint. One pass with a wet rag, wait a few seconds then go back and start wiping. The tar just slid off the paint. In short order I worked my way all around the car. Slick as a whistle now.
 

robert graham

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Great!....but keep a water hose and fire extinguisher handy just to be on the safe side!...
 

MTboatguy

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Just remember to wax those areas that you rubbed with gas, or you will be leaving the finish open to pretty quick oxidation.
 

jkust

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I remember back in the day when you could make your otherwise bad condition paint on your decent condition car shine for a day with WD40. Funny you mention this...after as many trips we take to the cabin the road tar is nearly impossible to get off.
 

hungupthespikes

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Sep 25, 2009
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What??? never heard of a kerosene bath? We would walk around the car with a very wet rag then again after the tar had a chance to soften up.

White gas worked (as you found out), regular gas had lead back then so not as good, it would gray/cloud even strip the paint.

Of course back then most driveways were gravel/cinders so no biggie on stains, even helped on the weed control.

A big no no now, as well it should be. Not good for the well/ground water.

I wouldn't hesitate to add some kerosene to the water bucket today, if I got caught on a fresh tar and chip back road.

huts
 

MTboatguy

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We have to regularly wipe our cars down around here, most of the gravel roads get "Oiled" in summer to keep the dust down, so you end up with a oil/dust mixture on the sides of your car and when it rains it really turns into a mess.
 

Boomyal

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Great!....but keep a water hose and fire extinguisher handy just to be on the safe side!...

Well didn't go that far robert as I only poured a 1/4 of a cup in the tub, at a time, but I did hang the rags on the side of the utility trailer out on the side yard.
 

Boomyal

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I remember back in the day when you could make your otherwise bad condition paint on your decent condition car shine for a day with WD40. Funny you mention this...after as many trips we take to the cabin the road tar is nearly impossible to get off.

I tried WD4o, jkust. It might have worked better on fresh tar but would hardly dent this old, hard stuff.
 

Limited-Time

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Mar 30, 2005
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Just remember to wax those areas that you rubbed with gas, or you will be leaving the finish open to pretty quick oxidation.

+1 on that!! Made that mistake in NE Ohio back in the day. De-tared the car with gasoline in the fall and did not rewax. One winter of road salt and calcium chloride turned the car into an instant rust bucket. :facepalm::facepalm::mad:
 

gm280

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Jun 26, 2011
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Boomyal, I learned some decades ago that the normal Tar Removal sold in stores was basically mineral spirits. If you would look at the ingredients on those labels, it would actually say mineral spirits. And so I could buy a gallon of mineral spirits cheaper then their Tar Remover. And that is what I used. It dissolves tar and road grim like magic and doesn't strip all the waxes and such. That is because mineral spirits has an oily quality to it. However, I did rewax all the surfaces anyways. Mineral spirits is not as flammable either. JMHO!
 

Woodonglass

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Dec 29, 2009
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BBQ ligher fluid does a pretty good job of dissolving tar too an it's not quite as flammable as Gas!!!:eek:;)
 

Boomyal

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BBQ ligher fluid does a pretty good job of dissolving tar too an it's not quite as flammable as Gas!!!:eek:;)

As a distilate, I think bbq lighter fluid is pretty close to kerosene. I did try Gunk Engine cleaner because it was close to kerosene and it was hydrogenated to make it stick around on the surface longer. It worked but not near a quick as gasoline. Maybe if the tar had been fresher, the kerosene solutions would have worked better but this tar had been on the Explorer for a minimum of a year and a half and possibly a lot longer.

As far as flammability goes, I would pour about a 1/5 of a cup into a little cottage cheese tub and dip my shop rag in it as I went along. There was not much there to be a fire hazard not to be excessively vaporous.
 
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82rude

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When I worked in the local steel mill they used to oil the roads regularly as dust control .Well the stuff would get all over my truck and it hardened just like road tar..Anyways the guys at work gave me a spray can of this stuff that took off the petrotec as easy as could be .Spray on and wipe off ,that simple.Safe for all finishes also .I will try to get the name of the product and get back to you if I am able.As a stop gap ive found that PENETRATE works really well.
 
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