The Opponent

I would say that this is the victim, but after working at it, I felt like I was the victim.

Rough Work

Here you see the beginnings of the rough work. Chipping and scraping away at tar that has been in place for probably 37 years is no easy task. At least I had the advantage of the fact that 37 years makes the tar very hard. Had it been softer, this could have been a much worse job...

Rough Work Done

I left the fenders this clean, and then moved on to the chemicals. Were I to do it again (and I hope I never do!), I would clean the area up as much as physically possible first. This is not good enough...

The Contenders

These are the nine chemicals I chose to try out for tar removal. Some were my idea, some were suggestions that my brethren at MiniMania made. Note the safety goggles and chemical resistant gloves. These are the bare minimum safety tools to use. I will be purchasing a respirator with chemical canister filters.

The Playing Field

I drew a grid on one of the front fender wells, and each chemical was given its own square. Applying the chemical to the rags seen in the previous picture, I rubbed each chemical in for 20 seconds and reviewed the results.

Teamwork

Here are the chemicals with their respective rags. The rags started out pretty dirty, so don't let the amount of grime on them fool you...

The Results

Amazingly, almost every chemical used had very good results. The two worst were the TSP and Nitro Helicopter fuel. The three top contenders were Jasco Adhesive Remover, Napa Auto Gasket Remover, and Klean Strip Paint Stripper. Laquer thinner, Goof Off, and brake cleaner all worked extremely well, but they were so volatile that they just dried and re-deposited the tar somewhere else (or evaporated from the rag so quickly that the rag was quickly dry). The brake cleaner was convenient to get into the nooks and crannies and clean them out, though. For ease of use, the gasket remover and paint stripper worked well, but you use a lot of the material. Jasco, brushed on with a cheap chip brush from Harbor Freight seemed to be the clear winner in this.