How to Remove Asphalt from Your Car Paint Finish

Asphalt—Philippine roads are riddled with them. You can even find them on parking lots, walkways, and other types of pavement where vehicles usually pass. It’s widely used because it’s waterproof, non-slip, long-lasting, easy-to-maintain, and affordable.

Unfortunately, it’s prone to melting under extreme heat, after which it becomes extremely sticky, and once your tires run over melted asphalt, the sticky, stubborn substance will somehow find its way onto your car paint. If the asphalt hardens on the surface it’s stuck on, it can be a challenge to remove.

Asphalt (also known as road tar or bitumen) often accumulates on the lower part of your cars, behind the wheel wells and front portions of your doors. In extreme cases, asphalt can even be found on the grille, windshield, hood, and roof of a vehicle. If you’ve tried removing asphalt from your car using normal car cleaning products, then you know how persistent it can be. The good news is that with a little know-how, you can get rid of asphalt quickly and even prevent it from coming back.

Step 1: Don’t rely on home remedies

It’s so easy to post information online, and so when you search for ways to remove asphalt, you’ll be bombarded with solutions that range from the sensible to the absurd. You can use fairly strong cleaning agents such as kerosene, turpentine or paint thinner, but these have the potential to harm your car’s finish if you’re not careful. They may even affect your health. Other remedies recommend the use of normal household cleaning items (fabric softeners, bath oils, fabric softeners, and just about everything you can find in your kitchen), and although they seem safer, there’s no point considering them, as they don’t work.

Step 2: Buy a commercial tar remover

The easiest way to remove asphalt from your paint finish is to use a tar remover. These contain the aforementioned chemicals, but diluted and combined with lubricants to make them safer to use than their raw counterparts. Normally, all you have to do with a tar remover is to spray it on the stubborn asphalt, wait a few minutes or seconds, and you can then simply wipe the tar off with a clean, dry cloth.

Step 3: Protect the paint

Once the offending substance has been removed, use quality automotive body work shampoo. The best car shampoo products can lift off dirt and trap it, effectively preventing even the stickiest substances from latching onto the surface of your vehicle. After shampooing, apply quality car wax to create a protective barrier between your car’s paint finish and the environment.