How To Help? Removal of Clay

[mrlexan]

Can anyone recommend a process and/or cleaner or the removal of hard packed clay (not fresh) from rubber tires? I have some set of YZ10 tires, with one run on them that I am having a hard time making them look new. Most of supplies are in storage..... I tried 409, didn't really get the results I was looking for. Suggestions please. Thanks gents.

Jay

[Halgar]

Go to the auto parts store (Walmart and others carry it too ) and pick up some Westley's Bleche-Wite (white bottle with yellow/blue label ). I've never used it on RC's, but use it all the time when washing my 1:1 truck. It works great to strip off all the dirt, road grime, and the silicone tire shine from the tires. I also use it on the floor mats with equally good results. It's great for removing road tar and oil that get's picked up when crossing newly topped asphalt road ways, chewing gum, and other nasties.

My suspicion is that it will work great on your clay problem. Let me know if you try it and how it works for you.

[mrlexan]

Thanks Halgar, I will give it a go.

More suggestions are welcome.

[Halgar]

You're welcome.

[Mr2.4T]

That stuff works great. It cut's everything. It will even bring all the white RC10 parts to life, just don't let it get on any aluminium that isn't clear, or powder coated.

[RC10Nut]

I use "Simple Green" it does a great job keeping my tires clean (foam ones too). Will leave em tacky.

[Eau Rouge]

Simple Green, a bucket of water and a scrub brush. It's what we use on dirt oval tires and it works better than anything. They'll look like new when you're done.

Unless you have white walls, there's stuff out there better than Bleche White.

[Halgar]

Unless you have white walls, there's stuff out there better than Bleche White.

Such as? I found it when I needed something stronger than soapy water to wash the tires down. It was the cheapest thing on the shelf at the time and worked great.

[Eau Rouge]

Any biodegradable degreaser, like Simple Green, SuperClean, Oxyclean/OxySolv, Zep, Citra-Solv, Bi-O-Kleen. Any mild cleaner/degreaser works well, and without doing any damage to our tires in the process.


Specifically, Simple Green works phenomenally on rubber tires. Not only is it a cheap, great household cleaner and degreaser, but we've been using it for over 20 years to clean and SOFTEN rubber tires for racing. Some local clay tracks ONLY allow Simple Green as a cleaner and traction compound.

Bleche White is a strong alkaline, very similar to bleach. It contains Sodium Metasilicate and Sodium Hydroxide—neither are particularly paint, rubber or human friendly. It will turn rubber tires chalky gray after just an one or two uses, as it literally eats the waxes and carbon black from the rubber. What comes next is premature drying and accelerated deterioration from ozone and any UV.

Stick with Simple Green, a scrub brush and water for cleaning rubber tires, and your skin, lungs, rubber and plastic will all thank you for it.



But then again, if Bleche White floats your boat, don't let me stop you.

[Halgar]

Thanks for the info. I would rather use something more environmentally friendly, no to mention safe for my own contact, than BW, I've just not put effort into finding something else. My experiences with SG leave much to be desired. First experience was trying to wash down smoke and soot during a restoration project. All it seemed to do was move the grease and oils of the soot around, it didn't cut or clean them from the surfaces. I've tried it on a few other things since with equally dismal results, however, I will take your advice and give it a shot on the truck tires, if it does the trick I'll start using it (even have some on the shelf ) instead of the BW. I'll also look into some of the other bio cleaners you mentioned.

Thanks again for the info.

[Eau Rouge]

In my experience, SuperClean and Simple Green are the only cleaners I keep in the shop anymore. SuperClean is VERy corrosive to skin. Wear gloves if you need to have any prolonged contact with it. It will remove all of the oils from your hands in only a few minutes of contact.

Simple Green has its uses and place in the shop. I don't use one cleaner for everything, but SG for cleaning rubber and foam tires works perfectly.

[Halgar]

One of the guys over at Clodtalk is a bike fanatic and recommends a citrus degreaser that he uses for cleaning bikes and parts, as well as rc's. The Citra-Solv sounds about right, but I'm not sure if that's what he uses or not.

[mrlexan]

I got down to using only CLR (not sure about it's corrosiviness) and Simple Green, with the occassional use of WD-40, as seems to remove tape goo the best. I just need to make time to go get some new supplies. Really have not had the need til now.... just got a new toy to tear apart.

[Halgar]

with the occassional use of WD-40, as seems to remove tape goo the best.

Lighter fluid works well for removing tape residues, don't know how it will react with annodizing and such, but it should be fine on plastics. It has to be cigarette lighter fluid though, BBQ fluid doesn't work. Paint thinner does a decent job on sticky things and is friendly to most finishes and surfaces.

[RC10Nut]

with the occassional use of WD-40, as seems to remove tape goo the best.

Lighter fluid works well for removing tape residues, don't know how it will react with annodizing and such, but it should be fine on plastics. It has to be cigarette lighter fluid though, BBQ fluid doesn't work. Paint thinner does a decent job on sticky things and is friendly to most finishes and surfaces.

Another good one "GOO GONE" works great for removing tape glue from just about everything.