InspGadgt

Hey everyone...thought I would bounce this off you people and see if anyone has any ideas. We have a track where the seal coat is wearing off. We spray the track every race day with sugar water for grip but probably 2/3rds t 3/4ths of the track the asphalt just absorbs it because the seal coat has worn off. So we get good grip in a few select places...and pretty poor grip everywhere else. For reasons we don't need to get into right now...we really can't put down a new layer of seal coat. We need a temporary solution. So can any of you think of something else we can spray down before the sugar water so that it doesn't just get absorbed? Or maybe something that can substitute for a seal coat for a few races.

Ideas?

SWTour

iTrader: (9)

...wonder if something like THOMPSON'S Water Seal would work...

niznai

Car underbody sealant, maybe not the fish oil type (or maybe that's even better for longer lasting)? Might get exxy though.

rack

iTrader: (68)

Try VHT Track Bite Compound it will give you more than enough traction. You can find it at your local speed shop.

InspGadgt

We thought about VHT...but the track is outdoors in a park area so there are a lot of leaves and stuff blowing around. We're concerned that it will get a lot of stuff stuck to the track. Also it is pretty hard to find in Hawaii since we have no full sized car track out here and most places don't like to bring it in because it ships hazmat.

InspGadgt

I really appreciate the suggestions guys...please keep it up. I'll be looking into several things trying to figure this out.

CraigMBA

iTrader: (22)

What formula are you spraying with now, and how many gallons of it are you using?

Jorge T

iTrader: (14)

Are you using sugar and water or grape/orange soda? I used to use orange soda and it worked better than sugar water. Also used a mixture of corn syrup and water but for some reason orange soda always worked better and lasted longer.

InspGadgt

We are using 1 gallon of strawberry punch syrup to 4 gallons of water. We have a cart with 2 of the large water cooler bottles hooked up to a pump and 2 spray nozzles. All in all we go through 20 gallons of mixture to coat our 120'x75' track. We've tried various sodas and found they just don't work as well. If we increase the amount we use or strengthen the mixture then we start having issues where the cars come off the track with sugar glazed tires.

I was kind of thinking on a more household product that could be sprayed down right before the sugar water to keep it from soaking in rather than an alternative sealant. But I can't think of anything that would work.

Mr RCTech

iTrader: (2)

We use a 100% Acrylic exterior house paint (black) with play sand mixed into the paint.

First, Pressure clean the track and apply to the surface with rollers.
There will be no need for sugar water mix again.

Works great.

InspGadgt

I was wondering if a paint and sand type mixture would work...That sounds relatively inexpensive and might be worth a try. What ratio of sand to paint did you use? Have you tested it with foam tire cars like 1/12th and WGT? Also the track is open to the public on non-race days...will the hard drift tires mess it up if they run on it?

Mr RCTech

iTrader: (2)

It works very well.
We did it about 6 years ago at MTR in a park on one basketball court.

We used foam tires and rubber the traction was awesome.

We mixed the paint in a new 32 gal plastic container with a few bags of play sand.
Used a drill and a paint mixing tool.
And used paint rollers.

You can't mess the surface up.
The sand finished is encapsulated into the paint surface.

dun4sho

iTrader: (13)

Future floor polish

Jorge T

iTrader: (14)

if paint is an option, you can get drive way sealer for at about $20 a 5 gal bucket vs $90 for a 5 gal bucket for latex paint.
Each bucket covers about 350 square feet.

InspGadgt

That's an interesting idea...I think that would temporarily seal the pores in the asphalt...but I'm not sure the sugar water would stick on top and might be more slippery. But this is more along the lines of what I was hoping to do until we could put down a proper sealant.

That is definitely more affordable.