restoring silicone tires

[351c]

Hey guys here is my situation, I have over 300 slotcars I know the tires are cheap
to some extent but thats a lot of money. I do buy new ones when I get a new car
but when my club starts racing a car I have'nt used in a while this can get a little pricey.
Any tips I would be very grateful
Thanks Mike. :text-thankyouyellow:

[dw5555]

I didn't know silicones went bad. :think: I have my slot cars from the 60's and the sillies are still soft. I did clean them with wd40 and they grip as well as they did back then...bad :lol:
Dave

[351c]

My cars set out my enclosed garage so they are subject to temp changes
and they fill like they dont grip like they should. I have use wd 40 and even lightly scuffed them.
and they seem to work good for a while.
thanks :)

[docdoom]

If they take a scuff then there not silicone tires you have on.never seen a silicone tire dry out. You most likely have rubbers tires on. I COULD BE WRONG would not be the 1st time for that. Just ask my wife. :lol:

[mikeinclover]

[mattb]

Some of the 60's silicones do get hard and dry out a little and lose grip. Some of these tires made by individuals today are made form many kinds of silicone, so it's hard to make a blanket statement about new tires. Most silicone will stay pliable and sticky, but I guess you have some that temps and humidity and type of silicone don't mix. I would just not buy that brand again.

They can be sanded, but it is a slow process. Urethane does sand pretty easy and I see lots of guys that don't know the difference when they buy them or make them! I wouldn't think WD 40 would help at all. maybe something like MEK would soak in and soften, but that is just a guess. You can buy a silicone thinner from Smoothon which would soak in and soften, maybe even ruin a tire.

For sure store cars so they are not flat spotting the tires. A small wood block under the chassis, a kids lego, whatever you have that will work.

[351c]

The tires are all the major brands, the silicones will scuff but it takes for ever.
The wd 40 does work but not all of the tires. I hope somebody would have some secret
sauce or something.
thanks Mike :D

[RichD]

Some of the older silicone tires like the AJ's from the '60's and the Indy Grips from about ten years ago used a different type of silicone from what is used by the major makers today. The older type is far more fragile, but I am not certain that the actual grip degrades with time. The tires are more likely to get chunked, torn or just worn out before that might happen. The newer type of silicone is far more durable, I have cars with those that are 10 years old that I race on a regular basis and the grip is still great.
Silicone tires are fussy about running on a dusty track. Dust sticks to silicone tires, if you put a car with clean tires on a track that is even slightly dusty you will get a few fast laps, but once the tires get coated with dust your grip will be greatly reduced. You can wash the tires to remove the dust, it is not necessary to use a solvent, water with a little dish washing liquid or surface cleaner in it works well. The quick way to clean the tires is to roll them over sticky tape. Since the tires pick up dust a number of cycles of running the car and cleaning the tires will eventually clean the track surface, at least where the tires roll. Wiping or vacuuming the track before you run your cars is helpful, but it will not remove 100% of the dust.
There are no RTR slot cars that I am aware of that come with silicone tires installed, they are all some sort of rubber. For a short time Slot.it cars came with a pair of S2 silicone tires as spares.
Rubber tire often harden with age and sanding them can help to restore grip, as can treating them with 3in1 oil or NSR tire conditioner. I do not know of any chemical treatment that improves the grip of silicone tires beyond simple cleaning.
The tires on all of my cars have been glued to the wheels and trued using a machine. Just running the tires on sand paper will not make them perfectly true.
I do not recommend using MEK on silicone tires, I have done some silicone chemistry in the lab. MEK is a solvent for silicone, if you soak your tires in it they may be damaged.

[351c]

thank you Richard D :text-thankyouyellow:

[slothead]

Silicone tires work best on my oval which has a slick, hardboard, surface to simulate dirt track racing. Yes, dust has a huge effect and cleaning the track is key to most cars having decent traction. My top class of dirt modified cars use very wide silicone over foam tires, most of which are over 10 years old and still have incredible grip. These are from Professor Motor.



My other classes of dirt cars also have silicone tires, Maxx Tracs or Indy Grips, but there's no comparison with the silicone over foam tires. So, obviously not all silicone tires are the same. After a decade or more, the good ones are still amazing and the others are okay, with no degradation noticed. I clean the lesser ones with lighter fluid and it helps a lot, for a few laps.

Slothead

[mattb]

Protrack uses a softer sponge than H&R and a few others and the coated tires do work much better than doing other brands of tires. They are clearly superior to any solid silicone tires, inlcluding the H&R factory solid silicone tires. We have some cars that run an hour or two every week and the silicone does wear thru and then we recoat them with silicone and when needed sand them down with sandpaper on the tire razor. Yes, they do sand smooth with sandpaper. . I have tried Jelclaw 1/24 slip on silicones and found them lacking. The coated Protrack will run circles around any other tire except glue and sponge (yuck) what a mess). This all refers to 1/24 or 1/32 1/8 axle tires.

There are several cottage industries making slip on silicone tires and urethane tires for 1/32 plastic chassis. I'm sure they all use different rubber compounds. There are hundreds of different silicones available to mix and numerous shore ratings. They are not all the same.

The MEK may actually soften and freshen up your dry silicone tires if you just do a burn out in the stuff and then run the car!!!! I wouldn't soak them!

[351c]

Hey guys thanks for the info, I run on a Carreratrack we have a club that trys to run at a different house
every month. thanks again
Mike