Cleaning Tires

[Davis]

Looking for suggestions regarding cleaning track rubber off tires. Tools, techniques, etc.

[JohnRW]

"Warmup lap".

[charrbq]

Elbow grease and a wire brush...elbow grease, paint scraper, and hot air gun. Best, safest, and most effecient...warm up lap.

[Davis]

I appreciate the suggestions, but personally I've found it difficult to reverse (left to right) the tires and do a rebalance while the car is moving. A skill I'll have to learn.

I have used the elbow grease method. That's why I'm asking for suggestions that may make the process quicker/easier. Such as......what is better a heat gun or a propane torch? Why? I can see pros and cons for either.

[seckerich]

Use a heat gun but aim it at the paint scraper and not the tire!!

[joeg]

Yes. Heat gun and scraper.

I got into this a bit last year. The scraper is the key. I resorted to a wide wood chisel that was not too sharp.

Works well but you can catch the chopped off rubber on fire with the heat gun, so wear welding gloves when you do this and full coverage clothing and shoes.

I usually traet the cleaned tires to Formula V traction treatment too, assuming there is any around.

I crewed on some indoor midgets years ago where we would use a big wire wheel cup mounted on an angle grinder, but I thought that was a bit of overkill--besides overly noisey.

[zracre]

I bought a cheapie heat gun and it came with a scraper that attaches to the end of the nozzle. I used it on my go kart tires and it worked really good. I havent used it on my Hoosiers yet though..

[Festus E. Simkins]

I have a question. Why would you rebalance each time you swap sides? If the tire is balanced on the car "spin balance" I could understand it. If the tire is bubble balanced I think it would be OK just to swap sides without rebalancing. The warm up lap cleans up the tire and the balance should be OK unless it is flat spotted. Do others rebalance each time they rotate their tires? If you have your own balancer no problem. If you are paying someone it could get expensive. Is it money well spent? Just asking.

[charrbq]

Unless I sling a weight, I never touch them when I rotate them...usually after each day of racing I cross them. If a tire is flat spotted, rebalancing them is like p-ing in the wind. This guy, for some reason, feels he needs to rebalance them after each rotation. I suppose he has a reason that&#39;s important to him. <_<

[seckerich]

Unless I sling a weight, I never touch them when I rotate them...usually after each day of racing I cross them. If a tire is flat spotted, rebalancing them is like p-ing in the wind. This guy, for some reason, feels he needs to rebalance them after each rotation. I suppose he has a reason that&#39;s important to him. <_<
[/b]

He might mean flipping them on the rims to use both shoulders.

[Davis]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I used a cheap ($23.99) heat gun from Ace Hardware. I tried a couple of different scrapers. I found that an old 1" putty knife with rounded corners worked the best for me. Great suggestion to apply the heat to the tool rather than the tire. The rubber lifted off with little effort. Thanks!

Steve is correct. I was not rotating tires I was flipping them. I see where my poor wording..."reverse" and "left to right" caused some confusion. Sorry! It is my understanding that wherever one mounts a tire it should be balanced. Please correct me if this is wrong.

[charrbq]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I used a cheap ($23.99) heat gun from Ace Hardware. I tried a couple of different scrapers. I found that an old 1" putty knife with rounded corners worked the best for me. Great suggestion to apply the heat to the tool rather than the tire. The rubber lifted off with little effort. Thanks!

Steve is correct. I was not rotating tires I was flipping them. I see where my poor wording..."reverse" and "left to right" caused some confusion. Sorry! It is my understanding that wherever one mounts a tire it should be balanced. Please correct me if this is wrong.
[/b]

That&#39;s my understanding, too. I&#39;ve heard of people not doing so and being really upset with the insuant handling. Didn&#39;t mean to imply you were a bozo, just didn&#39;t get what you meant.

[ITC Racer]

I clean the rubber chunks off the wheel between sessions, usually, and races for sure but do not worry about the rubber buildup on the tread surface unless it is a large piece. This is especially fun at Gingerman due to the track surface and the tremendous amount of tire worms in the back section of the track- my first time there I got into the marbles on a cool down lap and thought I broke a wheel due to the car shaking so much...

[joeg]

If you go to watch a professional series where they qualify the day before and have to start the race on what they qualified with, you will see that most tires have been cleaned by "heat scraping." There must be a reason.

Actually, in a FWD car, it is the rear tires that will need the most help as the build-up stays around on the tire, probably even while in the middle of a race. Build-up can probably change the ride height very slightly and alter cornerweights.

This may not be all that critical, but I do like running on tires that look new, even if they are not.

Cheers.