Topic: Tar Appearance Replacement Product

[Bossbill]

Every time I go to the Box store I look for new products to try on our cars.

I ventured into the roofing area to look for tar replacements (wheel well, etc) and since this product only costs $7.98 for a quart I brought it home.

First pic is of the product applied wet to a piece of scrap steel. It takes around 4 hours to dry, but I have yet to fully test its dry times under various conditions. I applied it and left it in a cold 40* shop overnight. After drying it was hard, yet pliable.

Second pic is of the product after it was allowed to dry. I didn't try a full buildup, but based on this it looks like it can go on fairly thick. It was applied by dripping it out of the squeeze nozzle.

Third pic is the product itself and a flat view of the first test.

I don't normally post on stuff I haven't fully vetted, but the initial test was good enough that you might want to test it out and see what it can do. The product is thick enough to stay on, yet liquid enough that it droops quite nicely. Plus, it's a latex base so water cleanup. I have not yet tried multilayers or spraying.

But at just $8 it's something you may want to try out yourself.

[J_Speegle]

The type of sealants differed between years and plants. back in the 80's many restorers thought they used tar based products but I believe that has been research closer over the years.  Some of the original thought that so products had tar in them was the change or yellowing of exterior color applied over them (light colors) on early cars but that belief has been dispelled

So not sure what sealers your thinking of using this in place of.  Wheel wells IMHO didn't have a tar based there that I'm aware of of if the original product did there are much better and more stable products available today.

How does it take paint - often an issue with using oil based products?

[Bossbill]

This product labels itself as an Acrylic Latex Rubber Vinyl Polymer blend.
It just looks like a tar-based product and was in the roofing aisle. I changed the subject to add 'appearance'.

I was more concerned that it had proper body, some amount of give, and was already black so it wouldn't require paint. It appears viscous enough to spray with an undercoat type gun. I'm just now testing its ability to take another coat. Paint will come later.

It reminds me of Sludge, although it is a singular viscosity without a catalyst thickener.
And available in smaller quantities for cheap. It looks just like the goop applied at the cowl and in front of the door hinges on my 67 car.

Although this post may be early in the test process, it has enough interesting properties that the experimenters here might like to give it a try.

[Bossbill]

A quick update before I forget.

I did apply a second coat and it does stick to the first coat.
Primer was applied and it does stick to the coating.

An interesting attribute of this stuff is that it in the 5 days since I applied it never got really hard. It's hard enough to stay put and offer resistance to impact, but you can dig your fingernail into it somewhat like hard chewing gum. It's only slightly softer than the now 50 year old sealant used between the taillight panel and rear crossmember/trunk floor on my 67.