Back in the good old days DuPont made something called "Prepsol" used by auto body shops for removing all wax, tar, etc. from panels prior to painting and sold by auto body paint supply stores. I think it was discontinued quite a while ago due to volatile organic compound issues - too bad because it worked really well. Nowadays if I have a lot of tar to remove, I use OOPS or Goof-Off, these smell similar to Prepsol to me and are available in paint stores, hardware stores, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. They are advertised as dried latex paint removers. With a soft cotton cloth, I have found them to both work fine for removing tar from autos without affecting paint.

Lighter fluid

After countless hours of trying and having tried countless products I am at a loss. I wasn't able to get any of the tar off didn't even manage to stain the rags being used. I have a friend who is a bodyman I will see what he uses in his shop to tackle this problem.

Are you sure it's tar?
 

That's weird that nothing has worked - are you sure it's tar and not some black paint that got splattered on your car? Let us know what you find out.

Mix bar keepers friend with some Polish and try that. There's a polish made by pb blaster that works really well with this combo.

Ordinary mineral sprits. Soak a rag and tape it on there for a while like a bandage. Soaking, not rubbing , is likely the best fix.

Just a thought - are you sure you're dealing with tar spots and not paint chips or something else? My daily driver had a new front bumper cover painted and installed after a fender bender. I do 600 miles of commuting a week and the bumper cover has dozens of tiny stone chips - little black dots where the paint is gone. From a few feet away they look like tar spots, but up close you can see that they are very small indentations where the paint is gone and the black plastic underneath is exposed. I've never had tar so baked on that nothing would at least soften it and put some smearing on the rag and spirits I used to remove it.

Paul,

Wow, 600 miles a week! Congratulations..
I commute about 250 and thought that it was too much.

Next time you paint your front bumper you may want to consider a clear brs, it helps a lot to protect the paint

It's definitely road tar. The underside of the rear bumper has tons of it stuck to it. I must of ran over a very fresh patch and never noticed it when it was fresh. Now it's really hard and doesn't soften up at all. As soon as I have a chance I will go see a friend of mine who has a body shop and see what he suggests.

I was re reading all the suggestions and I believe it is not tar. I am pres of our Boro and in charge of our streets and we use a crack filler that is some type of synthetic mixture in place of tar and once dry cannot be removed. If that's the case id try 1500 or even 2000 grit wet/dry paper and water and carefully try to wet sand it off. With 2000 its pretty hard to go through the clear coat. When I do chip repairs I fill them in let dry and the paint repair is then standing much higher then the original finish. I wet sand usually with 2000 sometimes 1500 to knock it down then 2000 to blend then I machine buff it all even. This system may be your only recourse if you have tried all the chemicals that do not eat paint as it appears you already tried.

Thanks for the congrats, not an award I ever aspired to. This is a great job and hopefully my last one, only bad thing is the commute. If I ever get the bumper repainted, I will go for the clear coat. But this is a 2012 Acura TL I bought in 2013 with 9,600 miles - it now has over 80,000 miles. Barring any fender benders, I don't foresee any bodywork to clean it up. The windshield is also filled with tiny specks that are a pain when driving into direct sunlight - but I'm waiting for a real stone to take the windshield out before replacing it, cause I know if I do it preemptively then that rock will find my new windshield right away.

Rufcar, thanks for that info on the new crack filler!

Were you able to remove any of the so called tar?.

I haven't been able to remove not one spec of it. I will try to go see my friend at his Bodyshop this week before I take more drastic measures. I am not comfortable water sanding the paint myself.

Sorry for the long delay I have been quite busy. I finally got around to see my friend who is a body specialist. We tried many things and found the only way to get it off was some really abrasive compound. I haven't gotten around to doing it yet but it seems to me like it's a harsh solution to this problem. Has anyone used compound to getting tar off the car?

I replied earlier but try mixing a compound or Polish with a Powdered form of bar keepers friend. It's abrasive without scratching. Just took a bunch of tar off a different car with this very mix...

I just installed a replacement rear bumper cover on my 2001 S. The underside on the right and left corners on the replacement were covered by tar spots. I used McGuires Paint cleaner. Took it all off and it looks great.

But it sounds like your tar is really baked on if all the things that others have mentioned won't work.

If it were me, I'd use Ronsonol lighter fluid on a soft cloth. I keep a small bottle under my kitchen sink and another small bottle in the top drawer of my toolbox. It's great for removing adhesive residue, wax pen markings on thrift store items, etc. Kinda like Goo-Gone on steriods. I just ran out yesterday and bought a large bottle at Walgreens (I refill the smaller bottles from the larger one). Lighter fluid won't hurt your paint, but it will definitely strip off any wax, so be sure to wax after you're done.

Yep, probably NOT simple road tar (mostly bitumen), which many cleaning products will remove. I got the following linked stuff on one quarter panel of my Mercedes a few years back when the wheel spit it onto the paint:

http://sealmaster.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/CrackMaster544.pdf

I had to use heat and kerosene to soften it enough to scrape off with a nylon blade. Then used rubbing compound on an orbital buffer to get the rest. It took several coats of paste wax and wool buffing to bring the finish back to almost new.

If somebody finds a better way, please post it in this thread.