[dwightschrute72]

Hi,
I recently noticed after a car wash that I have quite a bit of tar on the side panels of my mazda3. After checking the forums here people mentioned using "goo gone" which I purchased and cleaned 1 side of the car. However , what I have noticed is that there are still very very tiny rust sort of colored dots that are still on some parts of the panel. I'm assuming that these are tar marks but they don't seem to come off very easily ( some of them didn't seem to want to come off at all ). I must scrub and scrub and it takes forever just to get one of the marks off. Any tips on this ? Are they indeed tar marks or could it be rust ? I wouldn't think so because the car is a 2006.

Any tips would be great !!!
Thanks
Jason

 

[mshu7]

It's hard to say what the marks are, however, I think claying would be your best option. You can pick-up some Clay Magic at your local parts store.

Also, do you use a bug & tar remover when washing your car? If not, I'd pick some up. Stoner's Tarminator works great. Although, if you use any strong cleaners like that be sure to follow it with a coat of wax b/c strong cleaners will remove any existing wax.

 

[Makeshift]

sweet this just saved me a post! i was wondering the same thing. i tried scraping a little bit off with plastic razor blades, and i got exactly only a little bit off.

 

[HouRman]

You have to saturate it with tar and bug remover (like tarminator).

My directions:
I spray it till it's saturated, then let it soak for 5-10 minutes. Then I wipe it down gently. Then resaturate it, let it soak for 5-10 minutes, then wipe it down.

If you scrub you are most likely putting small scratches in the paint. Also be careful with any types of scrapers and such.

Multiple applications of tar and bug remover should eventually remove the tar since it will dissolve. If you don't want to buy tar and bug remover you can try WD-40 since it's a similar chemical.

The rust colored dots can be removed using "clay" or possibly a paint cleaner. Clay would probably work best though. What those are, is basically either brake dust or rail dust (tiny specks of metal, that have rested on your paint, and then the iron in those specks have rusted leaving a tiny dot of rust). This is on top of your clear coat and is bonded very well to it that soap can not remove it. So it's generally best to use a physical "abrasive" type of treatment which would be "clay" to remove it.

 

[dwightschrute72]

Thanks for all the responses. Where is a good place to get the clay and are there better brands ?

 

[drdellorama]

get the meguairs clay at pepboys or walmart
mothers clay is also good

i also find that goo gone didn't work on my car to remove adhesive. i bought some 'goof off' at lowes, which work way better to remove those stuff.

 

[mshu7]

Clay Magic is good also.

 

[Makeshift]

you can also buy bug and tar protectant apparently, too keep it clean once you have removed the tar and bugs or whatever. i accidently bought some of it while trying to buy the remover. im not shure if it does any better of a job than just using wax...it says it stays on for about two weeks.