Ok, somewhere along the line someone put some asphalt goop on the trunk floor and I am having a hell of a time getting it off. Wire brushing the trunk just moves this stuff around.

I need to get rid of this crap before laying down some Rust Encapsulator and then the spatter paint.

Anyone have any ideas?

wild guess here, but paint striper and a putty knife?

try a 3m stripping wheel. you can get them in the tool department at menards.

Man, you're not going to like this but.... heat gun and a scraper is all I can think of.
You might try just scraping it off without heat. It may stick together and peel off easier.

Go steal your wifes spray n wash from the laundry room. been using it for many many years to remove tar off stuff like my feet at the beach and off the cars and shoes...

I think what Joe said (past experience).

Dont bother with sanding, wire wheels..they clog up within a couple seconds
Had a similar problem on a Bradford restore on inside of side door panels.
In the end I did it the lazy way.
I got a knife and sliced it, criss cross. Then made up a mix of kero, degeaser, and old thinners, poured it in...like puddles of it, then sealed...in this case, close the lid, and leave for a day or 2, preferably as long as possible.
A scraper then removed most.
What was left used a heap of kero and rags untill wiped clean.

I used Meguiars Degreaser for the first time this week and it is the strongest stuff I have ever used. I cut it 4:1 and it really worked well. I could send you before / after pictures of my frame from earlier in the week but don't know how to post them here. It is sold to body shops.

All excellent ideas. Thanks!

I tried this from Eastwood and it wasn't much help.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=1684&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=1208&iSubCat=1209&iProductID=1684

I might stop at Home Depot and pick up some enviro friendly paint stripper and see how that goes.

Under Gone will do what all the other chemicals are gonna do..... turn it into a gooey, runny mess that you'll spend hours trying to get up and out of the trunk. You could lay a bunch of those diaper-like pads in there afterwards to soak up the goo I suppose.

Under Gone foams up, like oven cleaner. If the gunk in the trunk is more than a film, it's gonna take 20 cans. I used it in my wheel wells to get the residue off after I scraped all of the undercoating off first. You'd have to empty a few cans of that stuff in the trunk and let it sit for a long time. Then you'll be left with a gooey soup. I also tried it (tonight as a matter of fact) on the adhesive and goo that's left behind under the rain gutters after you take the weatherstrips and weatherstrip trim off. Didn't work too well except on the thinnest film.

I suppose you could buy a cheapo wet-dry vac and suck it out, then throw the vacuum cleaner away.
;)

Just plain Kerosene will cut about anything that is petro-based,and it is cheap compared to the other stuff.

Why do people spray this junk on these beautiful cars? I once spent a Saturday cleaning the same crud off a firewall.

Oven cleaner worked the best by far of the chemicals I tried (which were many),..even better than paint stripper. I used Zep oven cleaner purchased at home depot. 2 cans should be plenty. Then I used a couple of plastic scrapers also from the Home Depot (paint dept) to remove the crud.

Good luck,..let us know what worked for you.

I've never tried it but a lot of people have said the same thing Straight-line.... I'll have to give it a shot the next time I do a project.

If I read Funk right, this tar gunk is IN the trunk. I'd rather spend hours scraping it off dry than turning the trunk into a boiling caldron of fumes. If it was on the underbody, it'd be a different story.

I used a small putty knife, then kerosene to wipe the remaining residue off. Then some 2" 3M discs to buff everything out, then black rust encapsulator.

Joe is correct, it's inside the trunk. I am going to give the Zep a shot today.

Karosene is the best, especialy for the residue that is left. It is cheap and it is better than collecting bottles of useless cleaners to find out that none of them work.

I'm telling you... go to a hardware store and pickup a couple 3M stripping wheels. There are about 3" in diameter, an inch thick, with a 1/4 shaft to chuck it in a drill or a die grinder.

It will take ANYTHING off, not clog up, and leave you with clean shiny otherwise undamaged steel.

I used to have the same thing and i found that everything clogs up untill you get the majority of the stuff off. I used heat (torch) and a scraper and that did the trick. Then use a stripping wheel to take the rest of the stuff off.

I have to admit that as nasty as the stuff was the Tar worked well, the majority of the areas that had it on my car were protected pretty well

I have a commercial engine/parts degreaser here, tried it on a Bradford door. yesterday...these Bradford doors are from 1947 to 1952 so the tar is very old and dry, a big ask for the product
Worked real good, a little better than my kero/thinners mix.
Cutting the surface to get penertaion makes a big difference.

PS I used the degreaser on the shower walls in the bathroom...cut thru with a quick wipe...my son works in a very greasy enviroment so the shower gets in rather a bad state quickly.

The one JimM suggested didn't work. It cogged up. I picked up a couple of cup brushes for the drill and they work pretty good.

The magic tool that takes most of it off is a 1" and 1/2" wood chisel. It seems the previous owner had laid that asphalt crap over the splatter paint. The chisel is able to get under the spatter paint and zip it right off. Then I go back over the areas with the cup brush.

It's a good thing I decided to tackle this project as there is a bunch of surface rust under the splatter paint.

I wonder if I can use some of that POR15 putty to smooth out some of the pitting???

I will post some pictures of one side done when I get a chance.

If you get rid of all the rust in the pits, then prime it well, I don't see why you can't fill them with that putty.
POR Putty literally cures as hard as a rock, unlike Bondo or typical fillers.

Maybe putty over the Rust Encapsulator?

I'd put the por putty down first, right on the holes, but if you clogged a 3m disk, maybe you shouldn't listen to me.

It did man, I am telling you. I will send it to your for your inspection. :)

And I didn't clog it. The crap in the trunk clogged it.

That's some serious crap, man... I did most of the undercarraige and firewall with those things, they eat undercoat for lunch!

I used the POR putty with their fine hair fiberglass to fill in the holes and pits on mine chris and it worked great, smooths out when first applied, wet your thumb and slide it around to push into pin holes and depressions, it then dries very smooth and not alot of sanding before painting and spackle.
That spackle will cover the 'sins' easily.
:) Pics in my website of my trunk mess.

I want to preface my comment with the following...

GAS TANK OUT OF CAR!!

I used a propane torch to heat the blade of a metal paint scraper and pushed it thru the asphalt material in my car. It was by far the easiest method and get the bad material out without adding any additional carcinogenics to the mix. I had this junk in the wheel wells and trunk of my first 69 camaro.

In the wheel wells I sand blasted and it came off fairly easy too.

Good Luck

Chris, am I right in assuming that this tar is IN the trunk, not under it?

Yes Joe, IN the trunk. I have moved on from the "how to get the crap out" to making it look purdy before spraying the splatter paint.

The spatter paint will make it look purdy, you just gotta seal it up so it won't corrode anymore...

Ya know, to do this right, you needa pull the tank and dot he bottom too...lmao!

fill in the holes and pits
Mine just has minor pitting.
Holes:
Remove tank, if small holes, mig fill back to good steel using a brass dolly under where welding and grind off
Pits: Fillers will eventually crack..as I still had good steel thickness I cleaned and used a commercail rust kill. We have an enamel based paint here called "Hammerlite" used for commercial electic motors, pumps, trailers. It sticks to anything and has a huge impact/chip/sealing/chemical resistance and flex.
I sprayed the interior boot with this..let cure for a couple weeks then laid carpets. Fleck paint can be sprayed over before full cure.
If laying carpets is the pitting an issue?

It's only an issue cuz I know it is there. :D

LMAO... I know what u mean
Wen I started to do the big rebuild 20 yrs ago, my objective was to have a daily driver, that with a Saturdays clean up would stand up in a show in shine.
Then one day I was about to start to fill and clean up welds in the subframe. I actually had the grinder in my hand. I then thought , "what the hell am I doing?...I want to drive this thing, if I get down to this detail I will hardly ever drive it, cause it will be a show car"
So I turned the grinder off.
The firewall compound joins are like factory, I have a few pits under carpets..But I know they WILL NOT get worse...The interior is mint, the body is straight, the paint is good (thu a few stone chips low from radial tyres, and the small odd car park door chip)
What I DO know is If at anytime in the future, myself or someone else whats to spruce up to a mint gargage /show/orginal matching numbers/handbook/protecto plate car...EVERYTHING is there to do so and ready to go.
It is very easy to loose sight of the orginal objective in the middle of a resto...
U see where Im coming from?