Flex seal on plastic track

[viejoronnie]

I acquired a bunch of ancient Eldon track and am planning on applyingba coat of gray Flex Seal. Has anyone ever used this stuff for a track finish?

[Billy boy]

sounds interesting. take some pictures or videos of your progress. if you can build a boat with it,it should work great on plastic track.

[mattb]

Sometimes you can create a surface with too much grip. You need the amount of traction that allows a car to slide before it flips over. You may end up with a magnet effect and not have natural driving cars. Give it a shot and let us know how it works out.

silicone or urethane seems to work good on Latex, but I've always wondered if there were silicone paints that might make all tires work great or maybe some kind of rubber additive or paint you could use.

Most are satisfied with what we have used for 40 years, but there may be something better out there!!!

[Bluevista]

I never tried it, I just know that you don't want to paint the rails with it or the cars won't be go-ink so good.

A rubber surfaced track and hard plastic wheels on the cars could be a revolutionary new technique?
You'd sure save money on tires but cleaning the track would be a bear.

[viejoronnie]

I thought also it would help to cover the seams between the track sections and to deaden the clickety clack sound.

[viejoronnie]

If I put a thin barrier of something like olive oil or vaseline directly on the track rails I should be able to simply peel the Flex Seal off them after curing.

[HomeRacingWorld]

It's a waste of time sir. The "clickety clack" can be cured easily by using fine grit sandpaper or a Emory board and sanding inside the slot at the joints. But that's a part of plastic track. It's not the surface, it's where the guide is rubbing at uneven areas.

[NOBLNG]

If I put a thin barrier of something like olive oil or vaseline directly on the track rails I should be able to simply peel the Flex Seal off them after curing.

I think you might be better off to use some kind of flexible tape to cover both rails and the slot. I don't think you would want the flex seal in the groove, and cleaning the oil or Vaseline off could be a chore?

[downtowndeco]

Not directly related to flex seal but something to consider. I painted the track on my old Little Monaco layout & liked it except for a couple corners where it seemed too slippery. What I did was to brush some non-slip texture paint (like the kind you'd use on stairs) into the "groove". It helped immensely. Maybe that would be a good use for flex seal. Spot application on trouble corners.

[Billy boy]

maybe just try one turn and see what its like before you commit to the whole thing

[mattb]

Tape the rails, don't try anything else. You're not going to do a gigantic layout, are you? No need to paint between the edge of the rail and the slot. Just tape both rails and the slot with 1/2 or appropriate size tape then paint.

I have wondered about the Rustoleum spray paint that has grit in it. You cold even just add some sand blasting sand to your paint and stir often. In the pre-historic days blackboard paint was the the go to paint in the magazines. Urethane and latex seems great and is readily available and probably 75% of the guys here use that combo. Painting that old ugly track with fresh latex makes it look super.

Lot of possibilities.

[RichD]

Normally wood tracks are finished with ordinary flat latex paint, one of our tracks is finished with a two part gloss epoxy paint, but the grip on that is the same as the latex tracks. For added grip two of our tracks have an added coat of semigloss clear polyurethane in a few places. It has been reported that any sort of spray paint will improve the grip on plastic track. It has also been reported that you get more grip if you use a chalkboard paint, but I have heard that the extra grip does not last forever.