I have a brand new KVD Tour rod that I haven't even fished yet. I accidentally let the foam on the butt get up against some tar tape stuff I use for work. It is sort of sticky on there and I want to get it off but at the same time do not want to damage or mess up the rod. I am always leery of using products on things like this in fear of messing it up. Anyone have something they would recommend?

Start with the basic, warm water and soap. If that doesn't work, which it sounds like it may not if it is a tar type substance, try some sort of degreaser like simple green. Still no luck, try goof off if you really want to get it off. As far as messing the foam up, I am not sure which may or may not do that.

I would try rubbing alcohol if soap and water doesn’t work. It shouldn’t hurt the Eva grip

If I'm cleaning the butt of anything my first choice is a Hand-Wipe.   If that don't work on the foam end of a fishing rod, I'd try some Goo Be Gone.  That's what I used the last time I replaced the stick on numbers on my boat.  If that don't work, maybe denatured alcohol or something like that.  Most likely there are other chemicals you might try, I don't know.

I do know that if the spot was still there after the 3 treatments mentioned, I'd have to conclude that a higher power than me wanted the spot there and then, in an attempt to achieve higher power status,  I'd have to pop a top and ponder it all.

 

I think I would try WD40.

WD40 would be my choice as well. It works really well in removing tar & other adhesives and does not cause damage. However, I would not get any on the cork if there is any, it is an oil based product so the cork will absorb it and it will be darker than the rest of the surrounding area. Spray it on a rag and apply it to the tar spot and wait for a while before trying to remove the tar. You may have to do this several times depending on the amount of tar. Once you have the tar removed, I would clean the area with Simple Green or some other mild degreaser to remove the film WD40 will leave. 

Goof-Off will melt that foam in a second.

I would hit up the tar with a hairdryer and try to use a magic eraser to carefully abrade it off, going very slowly to make sure you don’t start digging into the phone.

"Like dissolves like". Tar is petroleum - so you need to try something oil based. WD-40 is oil based, might work - but it does have many ingredients that could attack the foam.

 

Might sound funny, but this could do the trick safely.

 

Two steps:

Try any thin oil on the marks - heck - maybe reel oil! Gently rub oil soaked rag on the tar marks. Give it time.

Once marks are removed, clean off the reel oil with common detergent / soap product. Spray or anything that could be called "all-purpose".

 

Karl