Slot car cleaning and maintenance guide to help keep your car running smooth and so we don't burn the electric motor out.
If you have followed along before you will have already likey check out my review on the Carrera Car of Tomorrow NASCAR.
Car
When it comes to the car I am going to fix I actually have quite a few that I was able to pick up I a lot of cars. One of the cars in this lot worked great from the box but the other 5 Nascar style cards need a ALOT of work.
Ryan Newman
Like with all my slot car posts I will explain a little about the car or driver first. This car is Ryan Newmans rookie of the year car.
Newman has led over 4,850 laps and his 51 poles are the ninth most in NASCAR history. He was named the Cup Series rookie of the year in 2002 and won the 2008 Daytona 500 and the 2013 Brickyard 400. He has finished inside the top 10 of the final Cup standings on seven occasions; including a second-place finish in 2014, and has qualified for the NASCAR Cup playoffs on nine different occasions since its inception in 2004. He was also named NASCAR Driver of the Year in 2003.
Prior to his days with Stewart-Haas, Newman drove for Roger Penske to begin his stock car career, one that would start in the ARCA RE/MAX Series back in 2000. He won three of the five ARCA races he entered that year, and eventually made his Cup debut at Phoenix that same year.
Source
Car Maintenance
When it comes to the car maintenance list you have a few things you need to get working in tip-top shape to allow the old cars to run and not get burnt out.
- Clean Old Fur.Dust, Dirt From the WHOLE car
- Oil Gears and Motor
- Replace Cracked Tires
- Clean Body
Tool List
- Brushes, like a few NEW paint brushes
- Hobby oil
- Screwdriver ( Starhead, Flathead)
- 99% ISO alcohol
- Rags( Paper Towel)
This is a basic list to get the car running, this is not a tuning list that will come in a later post.
The first thing you are going to do is take all the screws out from the bottom of the car, this is going to allow the chassis to come off the frame to allow access to the gears and motor.
Once you have the chassis away from the frame you will now be able to take the brush, I like to use a fine tip paintbrush so it can get in the small spots and get the dirt out. Most times if you are running a plastic track or keeping up with regular maintenance your car will not ever get as bad as these ones.
Now that you have taken the time to clean all the old dirt out with a paintbrush( Mainly getting the big fuzzies and clumps) you can take a small amount of ISO and another brush and rub a small layer on the body and chassis to allow the build-up that wasn't just wiped away to come loose.
You can now take a small rag and dry and wipe away the dirt, Your car should now start to look much cleaner and have a lot less build-up of crap.
Once the body and chassis are clean with dust and rubber we can now focus more on the gears and motor. With the rear axel on almost all the 1/32 scale cars I have taken apart you can remove it to do more maintenance on it.
The gears on this car are not as bad as I would have thought but it was still full of dirt and an add a small amount of oil to that and to the motor to allow for it not to burn out.
With the inside of the chassis and body all cleaned up and the motor and gear all oiled you are now able to check on the tires. With this car and the fact, it was been around for about 15 years likely more the tires are quite cracked and just wore out. I don't have any of my replace meant tires yet so I have taken tires off another NASCAR ride that is damaged and requires maintenance.
With all the inside maintenance done you are ready to put this ride back together. I know you are waiting to give this ride a drive but let's take 5 more mins and give the outside a nice clean and shine with some 99% ISO. This is quite easy all you have to do is take a small amount of ISO and put it on the end of a rag and give the car a nice wipe, This will help pull off any more dirt.
With that, I am also planning to build myself a small tire wall with broken or damaged ones. The Carrera tire walls are going for around $100 CDN and I am thinking I can build one far cheaper with broken old tires.
