Painting Carrera Track

I had been looking for information about painting Carrera track, found a few resources, checked some forums, and read some conversations. So now I'm trying it.

1:32 Track Pieces I'm Going To Paint:

12 Straights [including power straight]

8 1/60 Curves

4 1/30 Curves

These are not set up in a permanent layout, but are used for multiple designs and are routinely stored away when not being used on the rug.

Since the 50's, slot car track has always been black [or some form of deep deep gray] to resemble asphalt. After seeing some great paint jobs that used lighter colors to look like concrete, I thought I'd give it a go. I've always felt it was easy to lose the cars on the dark track, especially black cars, and especially if you're a rug racer [which I currently am due to my living with my wife in a small apartment]. I've read that painting Carrera track can give it more grip as well. More on that later.

I went to the hardware store and picked up some latex all-purpose paint. I wanted something light grey so that the cars would show up easier.

At the store I also bought a 4" wide foam roller, a small tray, a roll of masking tape and a touch-up brush. 

Before doing anything, I had decided that I wanted no traffic lines, so I colored them in with a black Sharpie. This is a purely subjective thing. I'm sure if one was properly inspired, one could tape over each line and still paint the track, but I don't want lines. It always made the track seem too busy. Carrera is big, beautiful track, and that's especially brought out by painting. 

I was unsure what to do with the Carrera logo and the Start/Finish line. I considered painting around the logo, but it was a bit more complicated than I was ready for. So I used a standard black Sharpie and inked over the logo [sorry, Carrera] and let it dry. I decided last minute to keep the Start/Finish line, and taped over it for painting.

Sorry, big red logo. I'll make it up to you somehow, Carrera.  

Once I had blacked-out the things I wanted to paint over, I cleaned the track and laid my tape. After little bit of trial-and-error around the curves, it laid down nicely. Since masking tape isn't very laterally pliable, I had to do a fold-over in the curves, folding the tape onto itself a little bit every few inches. This kept the rails covered and made things go quickly and smoothly.

All taped and ready for trimming. It took about 45 minutes to tape all the track. I considered painting individual track pieces, but decided that doing it in larger chunks would give me a bit more control over the paint flow.

If I was going to change anything, it would have been the width of my tape. I deliberately chose a width just wider than the rail, but the lack of extra tape made the trimming take a bit longer than I hoped for. With extra width on your tape, you have more tape making a connection to the track, so there's less chance for it to tear or pull away while you're cutting. Plus, it gives you a bit more to work with than what I had in the picture below.

Probably the most painstaking part of the whole project is the tape trimming. I used tape just a bit wider than the power lines themselves. Once it was laid, I trimmed the edges with an Exacto knife. There were some mistakes, but the nice thing about working in the masking tape medium is if you screw up, lay down more tape and do it again. Overall time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

A word about painting: I'm no master. To me, the most daunting part of the whole project was the worry that I was going to permanently screw up my track. I thought of experimenting with a single piece, but then decided that it wouldn't give me enough perspective to tell if it was worthwhile. There was no other thing to do but to go for it. After all, I can always get more track.

Once I finished trimming I cleaned the track again and started painting. I used a weatherproof latex paint in "Silver Grey". I chose the color so darker cars would be easier to see, I chose latex because it can take a beating, and since this is a Carrera track, there will come a time when it'll be set up outside in the garden.

Painting was much smoother and quicker than I expected. I used about 1/8th of the .75litre [less than a quart] can. A little more paint than would fit in a Dixie cup. I chose a roller instead of spray for the practical purposes of doing this in the living room of my apartment. I didn't want to be remembered as the guy who asphyxiated painting his slot car track. I've got grander schemes planned.  Total time: about 35 minutes.

Carrera track is quite receptive to paint, and there were no issues or problems. Because I was painting the track in assembled chunks, I was able to use longer strokes, and I think it helped with the uniform color. It would have been a pain in the butt to individually paint each piece. Glad I was mostly thinking at that point.
After rolling the coat on, I went over it with the roller dry, and it helped further work the paint into the track surface. The original surface texture can still be roughly seen, but I couldn't get a good shot of it with my camera. I expect that the surface will have quite a bit more grip. This is a good thing, as I'm running without magnuts.
I also made a conscious decision at that point that I wasn't going to paint the sides of the track. I don't know why...probably convenience.

End of the 1st coat. 

I let the first coat dry for a few hours and applied the 2nd coat. The first coat had darkened a bit as it dried, but still looked like concrete. The 2nd coat retained the original surface texture of the track. I'll leave that to dry overnight and, if all goes according to plan, take off the tape and go racing.

End of 2nd coat. Leaving to dry overnight.

Next day. Now comes the part that I thought would be oddly satisfying, yet became uniquely annoying: taking off the tape. I started with the U-shape piece, and the tape came off in little slivers. It took over an hour to get all the tape up off those five pieces. I found that if you cut with the Exacto blade down the small crack on the outside of the rail, it frees the tape up from the paint/track. Once I did this, the tape started coming off in longer, more satisfying strips. I recommend the cutting down the crack prior to taking the tape off.

Closer view of the track texture. The only way I was able to see proof of previous traffic lines was only when I looked at the surface under natural reflected light [as above].

After 3+ hours of tape peeling, I finally had a pretty well finished product. I realized that if I take apart my track before peeling the tape, the whole process is easier. This required me to cut the tape at the section breaks so it wouldn't tear away. Once disassembled, it was much easier to finish. There were the occasional slip-ups and mistakes, but a little bit of touchup paint and a little more time with the Exacto blade and it'll be just right. I needed to touch up six pieces, so I did that and will let them dry overnight. Until then, I made a little oval out of the track I had leftover.

This was exactly what I was hoping for. In this room, the black track virtually disappears. This grey shows up much better.

I spent about an hour testing the track. I have to say that the cars have considerably more grip than before. Powersliding is still possible, and there's no weird tire chatter or anything. I had to talk myself into running without magnets before, but now I think the track texture is perfect for it.  I'll probably spend another hour or so with the blade taking off rogue paint chunks, but otherwise it's pretty close to ready.

I got lucky with the Start/Finish line. I hadn't really thought about it until I came up to the painting [even after taping]. Once I decided I was going to save that part, I taped it where the line made most sense. What I mean is, the two checkerboards on the sides don't line right up with the Start/Finish line. They're a little larger. So when I taped them, I did it a little back so that the checkers were more in line with the edge of the Start/Finish line. The latex creeped over the edges enough to give the finish line a bit of a sprayed-on look.

My wife came in the room as I had set up the track and she was very impressed. Maybe it's because I got off my butt and did something, or maybe it's because she actually liked the track. She mentioned that it looked "classy". She also asked what I was going to do if I got more track. My wife. She actually said the words "more track" without the F-word in the middle.

The full track.

A closer look at the Start/Finish line [pre-cleanup]. I have since trimmed the rails and touched-up the edges a bit.

Update: In the past day or two I have run a few 2+ hour sessions, trying multiple layouts, assembling, re-assembling, and being otherwise standard-play abusive to it, and have noticed no chipping, scratching or peeling of the paint on any surface. There is a definite increase in grip. Cars handle better, having a bit more to grab in the corners as well as better acceleration on the straights due to less wheel spin. Drifting [if that's your thing] is still manageable, if not better as there is less chance of losing the car on the way out of the turn. 

Driving the track feels different than before. More substantial. More like a circuit and less like a collection of track pieces. Not only does it improve the ability to see the cars, but it also improves the ability to read layout of the track. With the white lines gone, the flow is better, and it doesn't feel so busy. It's easier to pick up the action, which makes it feel easier to drive. Seeing how the cars would go through turns allowed me to better control my speed. Even while pushing it, it felt like I had less de-slots than before. These things could very well be purely psychological, though.

[I'll be updating this post, as something like painting track should be reported on over time. It's nice that it looks good the first weekend, but it should look good two years down the line as well.]

Update - One Week Later: While I wasn't expecting anything significant to happen after a week, I did want to do one test. I left a few sections of track out on the coffee table for a week to see how much dirt and debris they would pick up. While there wasn't much, what was there was easy to see and therefore easy to clean. A lint-free cloth picked the dirt right up.

Regarding Grip: I'm still trying to work out if there truly is more grip, or that I'm imagining things based on being able to see the track better, therefore driving more carefully. Not sure about that just yet. It still feels to me like the grip has improved, so I'm going to go with that for now. You might be a seasoned pro and be reading this and think I'm huffing the paint, but I'm not. It really feels that way.

Update - Three Months Later: The track looks and performs great. There is increased grip, but it's marginal. But it has a feeling of grab that wasn't there previously, perhaps from the rubber that is being laid on the track.

Update - 1 and 1/2 Years Later: I have since tripled the amount of track I have, and have done three separate painting sessions for new track. There has been no difference between the new painted track and the earlier painted track, with the exception of the older having a slight rubber racing line. This helps improve grip, so the newer tracks have a tendency to be a little slippy at first. After a few hundred laps they break in nicely. I'm running 7 second laps now, which is nice a long.

Update - Jan. 2018: 2+ years later and still going great. It's gotten to be second nature. I've gotten about a dozen new track pieces in the last few months and they were a breeze to paint. Two coats in 8 hours, then dry overnight. Perfect. Rubbered-in in about 1000 laps.

Verdict

If you occasionally rug race in small rooms under poor lighting conditions and need to see...or if you like racing cars, just don't like them spending all their time sliding off the slippery track....or if black plastic isn't your idea of a good time, then I strongly encourage you to attempt this. It didn't cost more than about 25 bucks for the supplies, and took about as long to do as two normal slot racing sessions. It feels like a whole new track.

Skills needed: not much. A little patience, attention to detail, being cautious with the blade, the lowest-level roller-painting ability. Probably not something for kids to do unless under adult supervision because of the blades.

Upside: Runs great, feels a bit more authentic/scenic, gives better grip, easy on the eyes, wife loves it.

Downside: I pretty much have to paint any other track I add to my collection until I have decided on a permanent layout. But since I enjoyed doing it, I don't foresee this being an issue in the future.

Downside Update: I actually very much enjoy painting the track, so there really isn't a downside.