The great Aussie road trip is a tradition for many families and the Bowden’s are no exception. We travel countless miles each year, whether it be heading away for a holiday or running to an interstate race event with one of the cars on-board the old race transporters. Two of the most annoying things we face are tar flicking all over the cars, from the seemingly never ending road work projects. Then the relentless kamikaze bug attacks that rip into our cars leaving a scene that looks like some type of doomsday massacre.
The old Moffat F350 loves a bit of Bug and Tar product after a long trip.
We had tried quite a few different Bug and Tar products, to but were never really happy with the ease of use or overall results they would give. Some notable rejects actually damaged the cars paint with harsh chemical concoctions, eating away at more than just the bug or tar splat marks.
So we began playing away with numerous formulations devised by our local chemists, who understand us in trying to find something that was giving results, not to the detriment of any surface it was used on. After a good period of evaluating and numerous rejections, we finally came up with this little beauty of a product we call Bug and Tar (A lot of deep thought went into that name) .
Basically it fits all of what we needed, being highly effective in removing bugs splatter marks as well as tar and heavy oil based grime, all the while not damaging any painted surface it is used upon. (We even tested by spraying onto our cars and leaving it for days on end, with no damage occurring).
TAR AND ROAD WORK MARKS
It just loves to work away at tar residue that usually coats the lower fringes of most vehicles. Spray it directly to the surface and then watch it slowly melt away the tar dots in front of your eyes. Leave it for 5 to 10 mins then get a wet microfibre wheel cloth and wipe it off, revealing the beautiful clean surface underneath.
You would have all noted Green's Tuf as the car on the label right?
KAMIKAZE BUGS
Bugs are removed just the same, with the more intense strike marks sometimes needing an extra good wipe down with a wet cloth in the most extreme circumstances. Chris actually found these extremes on a 3400km jaunt to Melbourne and back , when he found some biblical proportion locust swarms living on the Newell Highway in country NSW. When he returned home the white hire van was a mess! I quickly saw the opportunity and set to it with the Bug and Tar product on one side of the car. After 15 minutes I had the entire grill, lights, windscreen and white paint looking like new again. We returned the van to the hire company that way, with half perfectly clean and the other looking like a disaster zone. I am sure it would have left the companies car cleaning team wondering “what the”.
The before and after shots from Chris's big 3400km round trip.
(Note; those dots on the after shot above are stone chips, Bug &Tar cannot remove them!)
RACING RUBBER
We have also recently found that after a big weekend at the track, the Bug and Tar will remove rubber marks from your paint, quick and easy. We get them on our cars after racing, mainly from other cars flicking the hot stuff off their tyres marking our paint.. Pretty stoked to find this out!
HOW TO USE IT
It’s all pretty easy, firstly we recommend that you wash down affected areas with our Auto Body Gel wash then rinse off and chamois dry. You need to make sure the area is clean, to minimise the chance of rubbing dirt or any other contaminates into and thus scratching the paint.
Put some gloves on, then spray the Bug and Tar direct onto the affected surface. Leave it sit for at least 5 minutes for most normal situations, ten minutes or longer for more heavily affected areas. Then you can either hose it off with strong water pressure, or wipe it away with a wet wheel and lower body cloth. For extreme cases you might have to give it a second go, concentrating your efforts on the most heavily marked areas. On Tar especially, you will be amazed to watch it slowly dissolve away, can be quite dramatic on a white or light coloured car as marks you were not even sure if they were tar tend to be removed as well.
Serina happily cleaning down our F-350 after a trip away.
FOR HARDER TAR
For old tar deposits that have dried out on your paint (usually takes many months for this), we find our Fine Clay Bar works great at removing them quickly and easily. Another tip to remember is to remove bug stains as soon as possible. The acids in bugs attacks your cars paint, eating into and etching it badly. Keep a bottle in the boot of the car and we will never have to worry about that happening. We have also found that the Bug and Tar is quite good at getting rid of fresh sap and oily grime.
Those black streaks are tar being melted away, quick and easy after using the bug and tar.
GIVE MORE PROTECTION
After using the Bug and Tar you will be removing your wax, it leaves a beautiful, non greasy finish but your protection from more bugs and tar is now gone. So give the paint another quick coat with our Auto Body Wax. Waxing really helps with protecting your paint, in that it slows down the chance of etching that can happen from fresh bug splatter and makes them a hell of a lot easier to remove.
You can get our Bug and Tar at AutObarn stores nationwide, as well as our selected independent retailers which can be found on our stockist pages here. Likewise, you can find Bug and tar on this website by clicking here.
If you have any questions always feel free to contact me via email dan@bowdensown.com.au or call our office on (07)5445 6065.
Love your car,
Dan Bowden
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