# Cleaning pick up shoes



## SuperFist (Aug 7, 2005)

*When you're buffing up your pick up shoes with a wire wheel,
take a Q-Tip and cut off the end and stick it under the pick up shoes.

It holds them up so you can really get down on them,
and the wire wheel won't be worrying away on the chassis.

If the Q-Tip is too thick just flatten it out a little with a pair of pliers.

And always spin the wire wheel towards the rear,
so the pickup shoes don't come unhooked and go flying.

* I wish I would have cleaned my fingernails before I took these pics.
I feel like such a dirt bag.*


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## T-Jet Racer (Nov 16, 2006)

Did you realy need the pliers.....


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## SuperFist (Aug 7, 2005)

T-Jet Racer said:


> Did you realy need the pliers.....


Some Q-Tips are thicker than others.
The ones I have there are pretty thin.


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

> And always spin the wire wheel towards the rear,
> so the pickup shoes don't come unhooked and go flying.


The only issue with this approach is that any little pieces of wire from the wheel, shoe metal, and dirt that come off of the wheel will be directed towards the motor. Trust me, you do not want any wire or metal dust in your motor. The problem though is that the pickup shoe hanger system on G-cars (and LL-T cars) is rather flimsy, so like you said, doing it the other way will likely sling the shoe across the room if you are not careful. Tyco style hanger systems are not similarly affected. What I do with the G-car is hold the car such that my thumb is both blocking the shoe from flying and elevating the shoe so I don't need to put anything under the shoe, all while trying not to polish the skin off my thumb. I use a polishing wheel for "on the car" cleaning, not a wire wheel. I do polish the shoes with a steel wire wheel at low speed on a battery powered Dremel with the shoes off the car. When you polish the shoes off the car be sure you polish the hook area at the rear of the shoe and the underside of the shoe where the shoe spring makes contact with the top of the shoe. Polishing and deburring the underside of the shoe is important for Tyco/Wizzard/SIII style shoes. Likewise, polish the hangers. When cleaning and polishing shoes and hangers make sure you don't create any ridges. This is usually not a concern with wire wheels but the polishing wheel can create a ridge if you lay it on too heavily. I actually try to polish all sharp edges or burrs off the shoes (top and bottom) with a very light pass with the wire wheel or polishing wheel. This is important with Tomy track because of the z-bends on the track rails. LL cars seem more prone to getting hung up on the Tomy z-bends and sometimes just taking off an edge on a shoe can make a big difference.

This all applies to TJets and AFX cars too.


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

Is this the only way to clean pick up shoes? What if you do not have a dremel?

I remember as a kid using a pink eraser with the shoes removed and erasing the black marks. Is this still a good way to clean them? 

Thanks!
PD2:thumbsup:


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

Use a fiberglass scratch removal pen, available at most automotive supply store...your shoes will thank you for it. :thumbsup:


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## JordanZ870 (Nov 25, 2004)

A few strokes of an ink eraser does it for me.
I use one of the TMs extra fine emry boards to knock the burrs off of the edges. 
No distorted shoes, no flinging parts, and no band-aids! :thumbsup:


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

Agreed but watch for the fibres getting into ya skin!


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

> I remember as a kid using a pink eraser with the shoes removed and erasing the black marks. Is this still a good way to clean them?


Sure, that will work too but pen erasers leave less residue. Whatever it takes to remove the black gunk is fine.



> No distorted shoes, no flinging parts, and no band-aids!


Dude, what are you using to clean your shoes, a stone grinding wheel from a grist mill? The polishing wheel I use is a rubbery sort of thing. I believe it was designed for cleaning jewelry. Works well and does not distort the shoe in any way. Well maybe if you put the full weight of your body behind it and it ground on it with a 35000 rpm Dremel it may get to moving metal around. I use a battery powered Dremel that takes 4 AA batteries and is green. It was designed for cleaning golf shoes or something like that. I found it at the Po for less than $10 on closeout and it has served me well. 

I use the small 2 mm fiberglass scratch brushes for cleaning my comms but I rarely it on shoes because of the mess. The micro fine fiberglass particles that come off of these will no doubt lead to some horrific and debilitating lung disease later in life, but what the heck, they sure do put a nice shine on soft metal and are almost a poor man's comm cutter. In fact, these brushes (or pens) don't actually remove scratches, they induce scratches, albeit very fine ones that mask larger scratches in matte finish metals. They would not work well on a glossy finish metal. These tools are also excellent for prepping metal parts prior to soldering.


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## T-Jet Racer (Nov 16, 2006)

I like to use super fine sand paper and when the shoe starts to get a grove I use a thin fine grinding stone on the dremel till it just disapears. I have also used scochbrite, it works good too and no residue. If you can find a pen eraser with grit or buy the dremel wheel that is basicly the same material thats a home run also. When you are done canned air is good to clear out any debris. Just my opinion.


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## SuperFist (Aug 7, 2005)

This has to be done quickly.

You only have 2 minutes between heats to move the controller, get the car, change the lane tape, clean the tires, clean the pickup shoes, maybe oil and use com drops, put the car back on the track and get ready to race.

There's no lollygagging.


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

Great suggestions guys! Thanks! Ink pen erasers seem to be a great manual way to get those shoes clean.

I like what T-Jet said about removing the grooves - great idea! I was always just focused on removing the black arching marks - removing the grooves brings the shoes back to their original state. 

SuperFist,

Sorry about taking the post down a different trail. I don't race yet (our track is in the midst of being built) so I did not think about the quick cleaning and prepping that needs to be done in order to get the car back on the track and ready to go. The Dremel seems like the way to go to get the car back on the track in less than 2 minutes. I could not imagine scrubbing away with an ink pen eraser. HAHAHA!!

Thanks again!
PD2:thumbsup:


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

I find a slight groove to be better, anyone else?


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

We regularly clean shoes, oil, change lanes and stickers, etc....in 90 seconds. Speaking from plenty of racing experience, the fiberglass sticks are much faster to use and less destructive to your setup than a dremel. :thumbsup:


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## afxgns (Jul 6, 2006)

SwamperGene said:


> We regularly clean shoes, oil, change lanes and stickers, etc....in 90 seconds. Speaking from plenty of racing experience, the fiberglass sticks are much faster to use and less destructive to your setup than a dremel. :thumbsup:


I havn't used a dremmel to clean shoes for years. I'll vote for the pen. 

Tim


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## RiderZ (Feb 19, 2007)

*!!!*

The pen by far is the easiest !!!


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

If you have a Sharpie and a fine hone, you can visually see the damage done by various methods (assuming you've got a well-dressed shoe to start with). With typical pressure, abrasive wheels of any sort are far and away the worst thing you can hit a shoe with. Not only do they create various divots across the contact patch, on thin shoes I've measured an almost instant 10 degree temperature increase inside of 10 seconds of "cleaning" with an abrasive wheel. Worn-in wire brushes aren't too bad. I think Scotchbrite wheels would be ok but don't have one left to test with, their downside is they fling alot of dust as they quickly wear out. The "pens" do no damage. One tip with the pens though...lightly blow across the shoe as you clean, not down at the shoe which pushes the air into the car's body and could cause any fiberglass dust to come back at you.


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

All interesting ideas. However, I use some of the copper cleaner my wife had for pots. To remove the grime or whatever you call it, I dip a QTip in the cleaner and the shoes and plates come clean. Now this doesn't remove the guide makrs that develop from running the chassis, but it's easier than grinding away with the dremel. Just another option.  rr


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I have a polishing wheel, which is an eraser type of material, brass brush, steel brush, and a couple of fiberglass scratch brushes (these are a generic product used in jewelry restoration and electronics) in my box. I pulled some cars out of storage, some of which have really old shoes along with some newer stuff to compare the method. When I clean shiny zinc plated shoes like you see on JL and LL cars all methods remove the black marks from the shoes. The scratch brush however transforms the shiny shoe into a matte/brushed surface with a visible "grain" if you use the brush in one direction. When I use the polishing wheel the shoe remains shiny. I don't see any gouges or material distortion on the shoe when viewed under magnification. If I go back over the "grained" shoes with my low speed Dremel with the polishing wheel I can't get the "grain" out. I don't think the grain will have any adverse effect on the shoe. 

I'm using a battery powered Dremel on low speed, which is rated at 6000 rpm. It's very tame. Results with old silver Tuffie shoes and copper SG+ shoes all exhibit the same pattern. The scratch brush is, however, much better for cleaning out the grooves on grooved shoes. I think all of these tools have a place. I'll give the scratch brush a try during races and test & tune sessions to see if it makes a difference. 

I very rarely clean my shoes or oil my car during a race. I think most people over-oil their cars to the extreme. Nothing worse than getting on a track and seeing an oil slick halfway down the straight in front of the drivers stations. At the last enduro we ran I don't think we oiled the car (SS) more than once an hour, if even that often. Higher downforce cars Poly-Mod, RO, Unlimited, etc., and cars with plastic motor bushings may need more frequent oiling.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

I like the eraser material be it a hand block or dremel wheel type. 

Back in the stone age I used the old school pens with the gritty ink eraser that tore your test paper...basically the same stuff as today's modern abrasive erasers. I still like them because they are a simple precision instrument and are easy to weild. It should be noted that all these gritty erasers are not created equally and care should be used to select something with a very fine abrasive. The bright boy eraser that looks like a griddle cleaner should not be selected! LOL. Fiberglass gives me the "heebie jeebies" or I'd probably use the modern pen as well. 

IMHO shiny/polished shoes are purely an aesthetic thing and havent seen a whole lot of benefit for the extra effort. Regardless of how purdy they are the contact patch gets re-scratched in a few feet if your running on rail.
This is not to say that buffing you shoe hangers isnt absolutely a good idea but polishing the contact patch is futile as they run down in the dirt.

Bottom line is that the shoes are what is considered a normal wear item. The idea is to make NWI's last as long as possible. The cleaner they are the better the contact and the less the arcing and wear. So I clean lightly more frequently. Like washing yer hands before meals is a good idea...but a french manicure is not really necessary to get chow in yer pie hole. Uniform fine abrasion in a north to south direction gets it done around here. 

Duff from yer shoes gradually wearing blows on the track or directly on your tires, both via mechanical action, abrasion; and arc blow, ash. Either way yer tires pick this schlock up and smear it across the rails and track in a repetetive cycle. Combined with Exxon Valdez oiling habits as "Too" mentioned and silicone debris, this "track tar" fouls everything it comes in contact with. Fouled shoes are just a fact of life. Obviously correct geometry and spotless hangers are the primary consideration with pick ups, but clean track surfaces really help minimize cruddy shoes. I generally go with a light swipe on your shoes when ya clean your tires... seems to keep the crud from getting baked on.

A proper power supply seems to lessen the "schmootz" factor. When I upgraded amps and cleaned up my DC all my cars ran cooler, had cleaner comms and exhibited noticeably less burn/blow on the pickups.


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## T-Jet Racer (Nov 16, 2006)

You have to remember that shoes are a consumable item


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