To clean or not to clean ?

[bobbyraz49]

I have a 3 lane MDF track and I was wondering if it should be cleaned or not ?
It has silicone tires running on it once a week. It is "rubbered" in .
I'd like suggestion as to should I or should I not clean it.

Merry Christmas.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

My first reaction is to never disturb the rubbered in condition. Conditionally, I have to say that people put stupid things on their tires, so that is a factor. A guy used glue on my track once and I threw him out and never saw him again. I make a big deal of telling people not to do that before they are invited. I don't even let tires that had glue on them in the past run on my track. Also in the advice dept, If you run urethane tires on your rubbered in track, it cleans the track up very quickly, whether you have been using silicone or stock rubber. But it doesn't clean it the way a proper spray cleaner would (Fantastic, 409, Simple Green, etc). The traction is still there but the black marks (I personally like them), will disappear leaving, as I say, the traction behind still working for you.

[HomeRacingWorld]

A little Windex on a rag (do not spray directly on track) won't hurt a thing. Just gets up some of the dust/dirt but leaves the rubber.

I clean both my tracks this way when needed and never an issue.

[Dodgefarmer]

[chappyman66]

I have a two lane MDF track running silicones. I have a silicone lint roller that I use to clean the track before I run, unless I just ran the night before.
If you are only running once a week, there will be dust....and it's better to clean it off. The damp rag works....as does a tack cloth or a lint roller, but I can reach everything on my track.
If you can't reach it all, you need some sort of rig (or a loop of tape under a car) that will run around and clean the parts you can't reach.

[ccobra]

Out west the dust gets real bad so I spray the ol'49 chevy truck with some endust on the swifer and let it cruise around the track at 70 mph in each lane for three laps per lane. With the dust gone it seems to have more traction for the cars then. The Grand-kids like to argue over who gets to run the ol'cleaner truck.

[RichD]

Some tack cloths are coated with wax, if that gets on your copper tape you may have to clean it off with lighter fluid. There are no chemicals that I know of that you can treat silicone tires with to improve their grip. Dust will stick to silicone tires and reduce their grip, the dust can be wiped off, but it is faster to roll them on sticky tape. If the track is only slightly dusty just running the cars and cleaning the tires every few laps will remove the dust where the tires roll. Before a race we sometimes wipe the track down with a Swiffer. I use treated dusting cloths on my HO track. If you use a chemical cleaner on the track you will remove the conditioning and your grip will probably go off. If you run a car with sponge tires that have a little conditioner on them around for a few laps in each lane that will get up almost all of the dust.
If the place where your track is located is unusually dusty you might have to vacuum it, but fine dust will go through an ordinary vacuum cleaner and some of that will land back on the track. A vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter or a central vac that vents elsewhere would be more effective.

[bobbyraz49]

Thanks to all for your responses.

Merry Christmas !

[ra7c7er]

I have plastic track so my experience is a bit different. When I race I usually do a few thousand laps at a time so the track gets rubbered in well. My track also gets really dusty as I don't have any central air to remove dust from the air. I use a dry swiffer pad to get the dust off the track and in the places where traction matters I try to brush the swiffer pad as lightly as possible to not remove all the good stuff.

[arroldn]

Learned the hard way on the cleaning of my Scaley Sport. I wiped it with a rag and all my traction went away even though it is painted in the corners. Took a long time of running cars to get the grip back. Next time I will not rub as hard. Swiffer it will be.

[dreinecke]

I've only ever used a California Duster on my routed tracks. It does have parafin in the fibers but has never left anything on the copper tape or on the track. Very effective and quick on the dust. I use a DRY paper towel on the copper if it ever discolors...not often here in Colorado as it is very dry and we get little change in color due to moisture.

I don't clean my track as the rubber is down for a reason.

[mattb]

never mind

[mattb]

Routed with braid track. Unheated garage with a kerosene radiant heater or torpedo if we want to warm it up real fast. Latex paint. Silicones only, no chemicals, just clean track and tires.

I tried Endust and wasn't happy. I sprayed alcohol and wiped, but got concerned with the long term effects of alcohol on the paint .
I am trying a 50-50 mix of alcohol and water. I saturate a small towel and ring it out, then wipe the track good. It air dries in a couple minutes. On a table by the controller stations, I leave the wet towel and we roll cars over the towel to wet the tires then over a dry towel. Seems they still pick up more dust after 10-15 minutes and the process is repeated. This all works fine, but I may try a tack cloth to see if that helps out for a whole racing session.

I spray WD40 on the pickup braids to clean them and the track braiding.

[Mickey thumbs]

Wood track/latex floor paint I use a micofiber tack cloth, a trick I picked up from a woodworking site. No chemicals involved, just static charge in the fibers. Super dust removal.

[ccobra]

I guess I should further describe how I use the Endust spray. I put a light even coat on the pad of the ol'49 CO, let it dry and then run it around for three laps per lane. Aft this I notice an improvement with the cars I run of 1-2 seconds per lap. This may be due to the fact that here in the CA Central Valley is for the most part dry and dusty which will leave a layer of dust on everything. Its amazing how dirty a computer can get, I have to clean those out at least once a year and it looks like I'm blowing the dust out of a paper air cleaner that's used on my mower.

This may not work for everyone but it does work on my track and it results in the tires sticking better to the track whether they are the Scalectrix or PG variety.