Cleaning Your Rcs

[Percymon]

No doubt a bit of a stupid question, but are there any tips for cleaning cars after running ??

I took my son's new Rising Storm and my restored Manta Ray to the local playing field (damp after the sno melt but certainly not what i'd call muddy) the other day, ran them for all of 25 minutes and was horried at the state of them afterwards.

The Manta Ray chassis tub at least saved some ingress into the top of the chassis compartment, although exposed motor is plastered in mud

The Rising Storm was a mess - mud and grass clippings all over the motor,esc and radio gear, mud around the servo cam, grass clippings lodged in the wheel hubs inside the wheel rims. Battery tray and battery plastered in mud due to open nature of the chassis. Having spent 7 hours over Xmas building it, including aligning all the screw heads with each other (saddo!!) its rather disappointing to find i'm having to strip it all down (including motor out to clean underneath) after 25 minutes run time. Perhaps i should confine him to dry tarmac from now on ! Or maybe wrap the chassis in cling film next time ??

[kaiser]

i blow them off with compressed air. that removes the majority of debris.

then i'll go over the shocks and other parts with a toothbrush to knock off the rest of the gunk.

i don't use water or chemicals. the only time i'll use a chemical is when the car is stripped and i can get everywhere.

[tamiya monkey]

if its just a little mud i normally let it dry then brush it off with a cut-down paint brush, if ive had them in alot of water, then i normally take out the bearings and soak them in a little oil, if just damp spray with wd40, as for motors i dont normally bother, i have plnety of spares lol, maybe spray with a pcb contact cleaner or auto electrical spray and then a drop of oil on the bearing on either end of the motor.

[Meakz1973]

I find that Simple Green spray is the best. Smells good too!

get the worst off with a stiff small brush, spray liberally with simple green. Let it sit. Blow it off using air compressor if you have one. I bought mine to use with an airbrush that remains sitting its box but the compressor has been brilliant for cleaning dirty cars.

I also spray down with denatured alcohol then maybe WD40 and blow most of it off and wipe down. I'll WD40 bearings and nooks and crannies too.

I'm someone who likes cleaning and polishing parts so this is all good fun for me!

[candre23]

I find that Simple Green spray is the best. Smells good too!

I'll second that. Simple Green is the duct tape of cleaning products - It's good for pretty much everything!

[dan12]

I just use a good old simple paint brush and some dry silicon spray on the plastic parts, it gives them a nice shine and also keeps the metal parts pretected.

Air pressure is another one if it gets real dirty.

[mike_o]

If it's really bad, I take out electronics, motor/gearbox, ball bearings and dump the rest in the tub. I wash with soap and mildly warm water. I then shake dry it, wipe it with a dry cloth, and put it in the oven on 50'C with fan. The metal parts (screws) get to soak in WD40 and dried with paper towel. I wipe the electronics and motor with an old cloth.

I'm careful to soak the bearings in WD40, as I feel it draws dirt into the bearing, rather than washing it out...

It takes forever, and makes me re-think where to drive next time, but it feels good :-)

Compressed air would be nice, but I normally don't have access to that

[chris350z]

Take the shell off chuck in a tub full over warm soapy water. Blow down the rest of the car, then wipe with powerful degreasing wipes, Toothbrush the shocks. Wash the shell with washing up sponge.

Then assess the damange, cry abit , Then oil all bearings.

[Will16]

i blow them off with compressed air. that removes the majority of debris.

then i'll go over the shocks and other parts with a toothbrush to knock off the rest of the gunk.

i don't use water or chemicals. the only time i'll use a chemical is when the car is stripped and i can get everywhere.

+1

[dan12]

Take the shell off chuck in a tub full over warm soapy water. Blow down the rest of the car, then wipe with powerful degreasing wipes, Toothbrush the shocks. Wash the shell with washing up sponge.

Then assess the damange, cry abit , Then oil all bearings.

I use dry silicon lub for my bearings, it works good!

What does everyone else use?

[taliesin]

Shell goes in warm water [wife's kitchen sink usually].

Gunk and dirt are why God made air compressors and/or canned air. Knock the worst off with a brush, blast the rest. Oil the motor bearings. Good to go.

If it got seriously wet/muddy, then a partial strip down may be in order but not for general running. By seriously, I mean did you spend most of a battery pack seeing how big a mud puddle you could drive through before having to fish the R/C out with a stick.

Personally, I hate mud bogging for exactly that reason - it really does require a good strip down and maintenance. Not worth my time, but I've sure seen people have a good time doing it. If that's your gig and you're good with the clean-up afterward, Mud On brother!

[Percymon]

Had it been mud bogging i wouldn't have minded so much, but given it was just a wet football pitch with worm casts it was a bit of a shock to see the result of 30 minutes running.

Thanks for all the tips, the best one seems to be don't run it unless its bone dry - no wonder there are so many shelf queens

[SteelRat]

Had it been mud bogging i wouldn't have minded so much, but given it was just a wet football pitch with worm casts it was a bit of a shock to see the result of 30 minutes running.

Thanks for all the tips, the best one seems to be don't run it unless its bone dry - no wonder there are so many shelf queens

Don't be afraid of a bit of mud.. good grief, most of the parts are plastic, and the metal ones can be cleaned fairly easily. Even in bone dry conditions you're still going to get the car covered in a surprising amount of dust, but that's what these cars are DESIGNED FOR! The only way you can guarentee running a car without it getting dirty is to run it indoors on a varnished wooden floor, and if that's your bag, then why not give the Mardave cars a go or Tamiya touring cars? Running an off road buggy outside, irrespective of the weather and expecting it to stay relatively clean is a bit... "unrealistic" at best.

[Percymon]

Running an off road buggy outside, irrespective of the weather and expecting it to stay relatively clean is a bit... "unrealistic" at best.

I accept the wishbones and wheels getting muddy, but i wasn't expecting to strip the chassis tub of all electronics and clean them up - the bodywork did very little to keep debris out. Perhaps i should try some foam strips between the body shell and the chassis. I'll certainly be doing my best to cover the mutlitude of holes in the battery try next time too.

[stokie1]

I accept the wishbones and wheels getting muddy, but i wasn't expecting to strip the chassis tub of all electronics and clean them up - the bodywork did very little to keep debris out. Perhaps i should try some foam strips between the body shell and the chassis. I'll certainly be doing my best to cover the mutlitude of holes in the battery try next time too.

Hi Percymon

i too recently acquired a df02 and have found it gets absolutely soaked including radio gear, motor, everything - but it still works - what have you found is best from the advice received thus far and have you managed to keep the dirt out with your foam and hole plugging etc

i have to say other than the mess it is an awsome bit of kit - very fast striaght out of the box - i do hope they are rugged too as mine has been cart wheeling over jumps ...