Checking Cars for Graphite/Removing Oil
FOTF Saturday, 12/10/2016
The LJLRC is planning to check most of the cars that will be in the finals at the December meeting tomorrow. For the Race Committee members who will be involved with checking them (possibly myself included), is there a kind of graphite that is not sparkly? I recall once pulling a lot of dark stuff off of a car once, but I don't think it was sparkly like the graphite I've seen since. Also, what other colors besides black might graphite commonly be? Is it all sparkly?
Another question: is there any way to really remove oil from a car? Unfortunately, a fast original Redline I recently acquired has turned out to have oil on it (even if not on all the wheels).
Thanks for your help!
Discussion
Brakefluid_Tracksurgeon 3/14/17
Dishwashing liquid will remove graphite.
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There are different types of dry graphite, the biggest difference is it's refinement and use of molybdenum. The standard graphite is less refined where you actually see the shiny fragments of graphite. The fragments eventually get crushed into tinier pieces during the action of rolling. "XL8R" brand graphite is a more refined, like a powder, where the fragments are too small to reflect light. If you're doing visual inspections, you'll probably need an illuminated magnifying glass to spot any tiny black specs around the axle area(check both sides of the wheels).
You'd need some kind of solvent to remove oil, but obviously not something strong enough to damage styrene plastic. You might try applying some diluted isopropyl alcohol with an eye dropper. It should be able to break down most liquid lubricants and then evaporate before harming any plastic surfaces.