Removing Tar from Your Car

Anyone that has ever driven down a road that was being worked on can attest to the fact that tar can be, and is, an extremely annoying and costly thing to remove from your car. Unfortunately, if you do not remove the tar from your vehicle, then you are running the risk of having a severely damaged paint job, not to mention that it doesn't look attractive in the least. Here is how you can remove that tar stain from your vehicle, with little or no damage at all, using some common household materials.

Items:

• Clean rags
• Soap and water
• Peanut butter (creamy not chunky), butter, vegetable or olive oil
• WD-40, kerosene or mineral spirits

Procedure:

1. After you have gathered your cleaning materials, you are ready to begin. Start off by cleaning the area that has tar. Use soap and water to thoroughly clean the area. Make sure that you use gentle, but firm pressure since you do not want to damage the paint job of the car or truck, not to mention causing any gouges into the fiberglass.
2. Once the area has dried it is now time to apply the "lifting" agent. Surprisingly, any of these household items work, and work really well. Just use peanut butter (creamy not chunky), vegetable oil, or vegetable oil on the tar, and let it sit for 24 hours. This is going to soften the tar enough that you should be able to remove by simply wiping away with a soft, clean rag.
3. If the above does not work, then it is time to move onto drastic measures. Use either WD-40 or kerosene (yes, kerosene—so no smoking while doing this!) on the affected area, and let it sit for 5 minutes on the tar.
4. After the 5 minutes have passed you can now wipe away the tar with a soft, clean rag until the tar is gone. As you do this, do not be surprised if you notice that any wax you have applied to the car has come off. The kerosene and WD-40 are "de-greasing" agents, and these have a tendency to remove wax. If this happens, you are going to need to reapply the wax to the affected area(s) so as to bring your car back to its former glory.