Road Runner Nest

I'm getting pissed, angry, bent out of shape, ticked off, at the previous owner of my satty project. He loaded up the trunk area with what appears to be roofing tar. Everytime I think I've got it cleaned up, I find another damn nook and cranny filled with that stuff. I'm running out of mineral spirits. It's been a week of scraping, scrubbing, and stripping and I'm running out of patience.

I was reading Red Rocket's Satellite restoration site and he faced the same thing, a roofing tar-like substance in the trunk. He had it in the trunk extensions and I'm having a hell of a time getting that crap out of the left extension.

Is this common practice? If so, is there anything besides mineral spirits that'll get that crap out of there? I'm so close to primering and painting the interior, but I'm not gonna until that tarpit of a trunk is completely spotless.

God I hate the previous owners of my car right now. . .



Okay, I feel much better now. ..

the stuff in my trunk wasn't really tar -- it was still pliable and wet, but really sticky - i wiped it up and called it good, since the sweet 80s red carpet mat in my trunk was covering it anyway.

whenever (maybe in 20 years) i can get to a real resto, i think i'm going to be using bedliner/undercoating in the trunk, under the hood, and the interior, so that's my solution (more looking at durability, ease of maintaining, not worrying about scratches, etc.)