Last night I pulled down some 70's wood panelling. I thought it was
just tacked up (it was very loose) but had several lines of this black,
tar like adhesive. It had defied my attempts at removal with a putty
knife and sand paper - any suggestions?

wrote:
Last night I pulled down some 70's wood panelling. I thought it was
just tacked up (it was very loose) but had several lines of this black,
tar like adhesive. It had defied my attempts at removal with a putty
knife and sand paper - any suggestions?

You will have to scrape it off. When you do that you
will damage the surface of the dry-wall, so you will
have to go back over it with a thin coat of dry wall
compound. After you get the surface nice and smooth you
can prime and paint. It is a lot more work taking
paneling down than it is putting it up.

Good luck
Bill Gill