How can I remove road tar from paint

[PaulE]

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.

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by PaulE

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.

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

[redeye280z]

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.

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by Gilles

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

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!