[Slotspeed]

I was lucky to recently pick up some Ninco track at a good price, alas because it was slightly rusty.

Bad move some might say, but I’ve been looking out for some for a while and the price was very good.

I have some recent experiences cleaning up some rusty machine tools with good results and thought I’d see how this track would go with a clean up. My experience with Ninco prior to this is limited to inspecting a commercial 6 lane plastic track that I almost purchased several years ago. I remember that it was also a bit tired, quite wavy and the finish of the rails I remember was a dark grey lustre, the original plating long gone. So I decided if I could get my recently acquired track to a working standard I’d be happy, even if it wasn’t pretty and shiny.

I decided I’d take the least invasive approach and rather than sand or linish that I’d use scotchbrite and leave myself the option of going harder later if that didn’t work out. I tried both vinegar and rust converter and the vinegar worked just as well with some caveats.

My process was as follows...

1) brush white vinegar onto the top of the rails, avoiding the inserts/connecting tabs at the ends as it turns out the acidity has an adverse affect on these. Repeat coat after about 20mins and 40mins

2) leave for 90 mins

3) use domestic grade scotchbrite to remove rust. For heavy pitted areas use a machinists honing stone to make the surface smooth. Avoid rubbing the plastic with the scotchbrite which actually isn’t too difficult

4) very weak dishwashing liquid/water mix to remove the gundge

5) few drops of inox mx3 on the corner of a scotchbrite pad to polish rails.

6) wipe off excess inox, and anything that has made its way onto the plastic

7) inspect and make sure nothing acidic is in any of the plastic, and that everything is clean and dry (use clean rag)

8) test!

My test so far is only a small amount of track in an oval but it seems to work fine. No signs of corrosion after a few days but it’s early days yet, I’m not sure how much maintenance will be required and I’m thinking a wipe down once every week or two with a couple of drops of inox mx3 might be enough to keep it working but we will see.

I’d like to hear from anyone who may have been in this situation and if you have a better way of dealing with this issue?

A photo of a treated track section:

 

[McCrash]

I've had the same problem with some ninco track I've bought and the majority of it I've gotten it reasonably well cleaned up using just a track rubber. Like you, after cleaning up the sections of track, I've used inox to try to prevent it going nasty again. Every time I put a car on the track I put a few drops of inox on the braids to keep the rails conditioned and or put a few drops on the rails, roughly every 3rd of the way round my track and send a car round to spread the inbox around. Been OK so far after a few months, so fingers crossed for you!

I've 6 pieces of track left that are quite severely corroded and the track rubber isn't so effective. It's cleans up so much but the deeper parts of the corrosion it won't lift, so I might try your way to clean those last few up so I have some spares then.

 

[Slotspeed]

I was careful trying not to let the vinegar penetrate the gaps between the rails and the plastic. But some will make its way in there regardless. It might not matter much but I'm not sure. Rust converter was less liquid so less of it went down the cracks. Hard to know what is the best way but I'm going to keep using the vinegar for the rest of it as its less acidic. I did rinse in water afterwards so its probably fine. Blowing out with compressed air might be good but I didn't feel like starting the compressor up so I just let it air dry.

 

[McCrash]

Just have to try things and see how it goes, some ideas are better than others. All comes down to how badly corroded the rails are. Some are not so bad and come up real nice with minimal effort. If you can get the track in a state that can be used, it's a win 😁👍
Some still look scruffy no matter what you do unless you go aggressive with cleaning them, but it gets risky then unless you have spare ones.

 

[MALAFAMA]

Years ago I bought about 10 second-hand tracks at a market at a very good price, they all had rust, but there were 4 that the rust was even stuck to the plastic, it occurred to me to disassemble the rails and I found more rust (in the internal part of the rail) sand with a very fine sandpaper (quite a while), lubricate with WD40 and still no traces of rust.

All tracks are made in Spain, not in China, I don't know if they are of better quality...

 

[McCrash]

The thought of any rust underneath the rail hadn't occurred to me... I'm not brave enough to find out either 😁😁😂😂
Sound like oil and fine sandpaper are the way to go on the worst pieces I have, cheers! 🙂👍

 

[Slotspeed]

Mine I’m pretty confident are good apart from the very top surface. Maybe someone previously got over excited cleaning them with something abrasive and then left them in poor environmental conditions. I know that underneath they look like new, very shiny. I did avoid using sandpaper and stuck with the hone/oilstone for the really bad spots as I only wanted to take the high spots off from the pitting and let the acid/vinegar chemically treat the low spots/cavities as some of the plating is probably still there and so will continue to provide some level of corrosion resistance even if it doesn’t look pretty. Malafama, your experience is encouraging that they might still be serviceable for some time to come, thanks for the input. I probably won’t remove the rails, looks too hard to get them seated back in there level with the plastic. I have done this previously however with Carrera track which was fairly easy as the plastic in that system is quite a bit more rigid.

 

[MALAFAMA]

I could say that it is easier to put them on than to remove them, I invite you to try it, you can also clean the track with soap and water easily.

Here I leave a link that, although the process of how the rails are removed is not seen, it can be seen that there is nothing that can spoil the track.

Cut slot tracks

 

[Slotspeed]

Just have to try things and see how it goes, some ideas are better than others. All comes down to how badly corroded the rails are. Some are not so bad and come up real nice with minimal effort. If you can get the track in a state that can be used, it's a win 😁👍
Some still look scruffy no matter what you do unless you go aggressive with cleaning them, but it gets risky then unless you have spare ones.

Just backtracking a bit... I may yet need to try some things and become a little more aggressive as you suggest. Some of the worst pieces came back with minor corrosion after a week and a bit. I treated particular spots with rust converter, which killed the rust but the rust converter leaves a tough gummy protective layer which probably isn't great for a conductive rail. It was quite a bit of work to get it off with the domestic scotchbrite, so I may have to try something else. Either a longer soak in the vinegar (so I don't need to use the rust converter) or go more aggressive with a light wire wheel or something like that. Thinking longer soak in vinegar will be better, but that means removing the rails (thanks again for the linked photos Malafama) or another thought was to soak some sponges in white vinegar, leave them sitting on the rails overnight, maybe taping up the contacts on the ends so as not to damage them (learnt experience from leaving them in the white vinegar for too long as per point 1 in the original post)

 

[beardy56]

One product worth looking at one you have removed the rust is Track Magic, it's designed for model railway tracks and acts as a cleaner and protector. I've only used it on copper tape and brass rails and it worked very well at slowing down the surface tarnishing.

 

[Slotspeed]

Sounds great! Available from many suppliers around here, might be worth the try. Just spent some hobby money so may have to wait a little while but thanking you.

 

[McCrash]

I hope you manage to find a suitable solution, it's not a straight forward problem. I'm not sure if ninco track is like scalextric track being nickel plated and once that's been removed, your problems multiply.
I've cleaned some pieces up with oil and a light sanding, So far so good. I've purposely kept 1 piece un treated with inox after sanding in the house to see if it rusts again.
Will remember the other suggestions, might have to resort to more drastic measures in the future

 

[beardy56]

If all else fails you can always copper tape the rails.

 

[Slotspeed]

I'm pretty confident I can resurrect it. Having resurrected machine tools that were red from rust and having been left out in the rain by a previous owner. And they came up looking fine. Admittedly that was mostly cast iron, but some of it was steel.

I also think back to the commercial Ninco layout that I almost bought from a slot car centre a few years ago. I don't think there was any plating left at all. It was all a dark grey lusture, nothing like what it looks like when new. But regular use must have kept it corrosion free.

Thanks for the thoughts guys.