Recently, I joined a slot car club called IMAR (Iowa Model Area Racers). There are ten classes with very few minutes between heats for maintenance. Racing at home, I always use a paper towel and butane or Tiger's Milk to clean my tires before each race. In the club this takes too much time and is a hassle. One of the club members showed me a very neat tire cleaning station made with a slot car base, copper tape, velcro, a 9 volt wire end and two 9 volt battery holders.
The slot needs to be extended using a dremel or exacto knife and a narrow slot needs to be cut perpendicualr to the guide slot for the copper tape to go in and fold under the base. The velcro used on the tire cleaning station is the soft side of the velcro. Velcro spacing is determined by the widest track width of your slot cars. The 9 volt terminal end, battery holders and velcro strips can be bought at most electronic stores. Clear cellophane tape was put over the soldered wire ends for protection. Battery hold downs were glued in place using Goop. The extra battery holder is used to hold a spare battery. The battery holders hang down below the bottom edge of the base so wood dowel legs (not shown) were added.
Here's a pic of the tire cleaning station being put to use on a Slot.it Nissan. This is the way to clean your tires for club racing and home use too. Its fast, easy and there is no mess to deal with.
