How to get Tar off

Road tar is soluble in petroleum solvents eg kero, petrol, diesel. The trick is to find a solvent that does not attack the paint. Suggest that you try any of the above on a bit of paint that is not too obvious. If that solvent does not affect the paint it will take the tar off with a padding process. ie plenty of solvent on absorbrent cloth and hold against the tar. Gently wipe off. Some years ago I used a chlorinated solvent, Genklene or chlorothene, to clean tar off car duco. It would be worth trying on the BT. Can be purchased as a clutch or brake cleaner, comes in a spray can. Talk to people at Repco, Autocheap etc. John

When I was working for a well known oil company we supplied a "bitumen cutter" to road makers etc. It was just straight distillate (diesel). This would dissolve the tar well but I would still have reservations about the paint if used repeatedly. The paint on the sheets of our van is very thin (50-80 micron) as a comparison my F250 is 180 micron and painted ally tinnies about the same as our BTs.
Most van builders I thought used Mineral Turpentine as cleanup on the panels. I've used turps to sand panels of cars before painting in my younger days so it should not hurt the paint. Another product used in the panel industry even now is a product called Preparation Solvent or prepsol (dulux). This is wiped over the panel just before undercoating etc to remove waxes and silicones to stop fisheyes appearing in the top coat. I have used this product over a car to remove old wax to prep paint before correction.

Most car accessory places stock this prepsol ...they call it wax and grease remover (1 L tin).
The official blurb .... WGR is a pre-painting solvent base cleaning fluid ideal for the removal of wax, silicone, grease, decals, tar and other residues and contaminants from automotive and other surfaces prior to the filling, sealing, priming and top coating.

WGR should be used between sanding stages of a repair including work on bare metal, body fillers, primers and any other process where ultimate cleanliness is required.

My preference would be to use WGR ... then turps... then diesel. After cleaning I would rewax the front of van as the wax gets stripped along with the tar. A good wax coating usually using a wax paste stops the tar (bugs) adhering so much in the first place.

If you really want to get sore arms try waxing a Bushtracker !!!! <smile>

Anthony

I've seen an Amway product in a spray can that came out as a tacky film that smelled of orange peel work on tar if you left it on a while. It was in a red can if I recall & was supposed to be non-aggressive and specifically designed for getting off road muck. Don't know if its still available, but this guy even used it on his overalls that had tar spots before putting them in the wash. Talk about the Great Unstainer! Might be worth a look. Griff (PS if anyone gets hold of some - let me know if it works, OK?)

We have a pump pack product called "Nature's Easy Clean" which I think we purchased at a van show some time ago. It is based on natural fruit extracts and smells like oranges, we always used it to clean off old sticky tape that was hard to remove. It states on the pack that it can be used for removing tar from duco. Unfortuantly the last of the contents are coating the shelf in the laundry as I found it lying upside down, I have not seen this product on sale for a number of years, but the Amway product sounds similar. Another thing Barb uses to remove sticky items is eucalyptus oil, I think that you will find that this does the job of removing tar. Paul & Barb.

To Paul & Barb
Try a product called "De-Solv-it" available in most large hardware stores.
It is quite possibly the same stuff, a clear citrus based product that will remove almost any sticky residue including the stuff left by sticky tape.
It will even peel off those horrible gas warning labels over your stove.
Turist