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I've noticed that after a couple of days that the tires seem to lose grip. A light scuff on the sandpaper helps but I was wondering if there is a better, less abrasive way to clean tires. Soap + water, alcohol, bleach?

Thanks
Randy

I like Lighter Fluid (naptha) to clean tires. No drying out, just dampen acloth, wipe tires to clean, then again to dry.

Silicones (which most of my cars have) will pick up dirt almost like magic......when racing at our groups track I used to keep a piece of inside out duct tape wrapped around some cardboard and would roll the tires across that between heats. Alternatively, the damp rag route seems to work well; if you get 'em too wet just do a quick "burnout". :auto-layrubber:

Thanks guys. Never thought of Naptha. Burnouts!!! Ya I like them, I've got a "couple" of time slips on my 1;1 car.

if your in a spot, a little spit and your Tee shirt will work :mrgreen:

Some urethane formulations do not like naptha and shellite/fuellite. Water is as good as anything else. I too like the sticky tape method for a quick clean.

The cleaning technique that you need to use depends on the type of tire that you are using. Silicone tires mostly just get dusty and the quick way to clean them is to roll them over sticky tape. I buy extra wide duct tape and tack that to a board. After a while the sticky surface will get clogged and I just put a new piece of tape on top of that.



You can also do the tape trick with rubber and urethane tires, but you would be better off washing those because they can get coated with something that is not removed with tape. For urethane tires water with a little dishwashing liquid in it works well. You can tack some microfiber cloth to a board, squirt the solution on that and roll the tires. Rubber tires can get coated with rubber, that tends to happen a lot more with front tires, naphtha is good for removing the coating. Always avoid strong solvents, they may damage the tires and they are often toxic as well.

I made a tire cleaning station using a teck block [simular to RMin above] powerd with a 9volt battery and using some velcro [the fuzzy side] glued down where the rear tires would set. Then add a few drops of Mura's Tiger Milk, set the car on the teck block witch sets the rear tires in motion and spin on the Tiger Milk soaked velcro thus cleaning the tires. Any extra solution left on the tires can be removed with a roll over a clean lint free rag. This works great for foam- rubber-and silicone tires, Haven't yet tried this on urathane tires as of yet.

Thanks for all the response, these are all great ideas. I am using rubber and urethane tires on a plastic track in an unfinished basement. With silicones "track cleaning" properties I would probably end up cleaning the tires every 1/2 doz. laps or so. :lol:

Thanks Again
Randy

Aren't you running in NINCO track?

Just curious.

Wow a lot of food for thought here.Thanks for the vids RM.

Harry, I'm running in Go.

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3548

Last fall I rewired a power connection to get rid of that red lump on the controller and ended up with a braking system .

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=836.

I mostly run by myself, so as a challenge I run against the clock and am trying to obtain some consistent driving skills (which appear to be very elusive) :lol: . I generally get my best times on a freshly prepped car, but after a while the car slows down and tends to deslot a lot more easily on the corners. When I scuff the tires the car handles better and the times pick up somewhat, but now I have had to reset the magnet on one car as it would sit there and spin the tires and require a slight push to get it going. This got me thinking that there must be a better way to restore performance and try to obtain some consistency in my lap times.

Thanks for such a great site and all the help.

Randy

Caig rubber cleaner works great. It doesn't dry out or abrade the rubber. Newest formulation isn't flammable.