Cleaning your CowRC magnetic pit mat

[CowRC Web Rep]

CowRC Web Rep (aka Budhatrain) here, people have been posting questions on how to clean their CowRC pit mat, this is what I do. I have accumulated a Moo-tacular collection of pit mats and I know how a workspace can quickly become dirty and over-run with parts…




Without stating the obvious, throw away the shipping boxes man and put everything else in its’ proper spot first. A cluttered and over-run workspace leaves a foothold for accidents and unseen items that can prematurely damage your precious pit mat

After this initial, usually daunting, first step I grab my portable vacuum. This grabs all the tailings and bigger debris. It is here that I would like to post a warning-- grabbing your grubby shop rag and mindlessly wiping away, can potentially scratch up the white vinyl and mess up those cool mega stickers. I occasionally work with aluminum or even carbon fiber and if I am not careful the tailings can scratch up my pit mat and custom vinyl work, as seen below.





After I vacuum, I fill up a pot of warm soapy water and a clean rag and try to float and lift up any remaining damaging debris. Popular among many fellow cowlings is Simple Green for the tough spots. I have on occasion used CowRC Moo-tor Cleaner, but this probably isn’t the most economical. I must say, when you have pulled off an old sticker, this stuff will clean off the sticky residue quick-like and will not damage the vinyl. You can also use denatured alcohol with good success. Couple things… don’t leave staining fluids, like blue Loctite, on your vinyl CowRC pit mat for more than 24 hours. Avoid dripping bonding agents, like crazyglue, on your pit mat. Stuff like this has an instant bond and grafts itself into the vinyl. At which point, it is better to lightly sand the area than to try a special concoction of homemade crazyglue remover, you might actually do more damage. You would rather have a little black magnet peeking through than doing serious damage to a larger area. I mean, I don’t know about you, but a new sticker can hide a multitude of sins.




I usually then go back over with a clean dry rag and get the workspace looking great. There is nothing like a clean workbench to motivate you to get it all dirty again. I just picked up this retro “Invader” monster truck project. Once it hit the clean pit mat, it was like it put itself together…





So how many of you have softly used pit mats… My dad stained our playset one year and decided it was alright to open and clean the staining equipment using my pit mat, well that’s the story I am sticking with

[scale4x4]

Nice write up. I just wipe mine down with windex, seems to work just fine. On another note, if you get bondo on the mat, it imediately causes the vinyl to bubble up, so it's best to just leave it untill it dries, then sand it. Ask me how I know

[CowRC Web Rep]

Originally Posted by scale4x4

Nice write up. I just wipe mine down with windex, seems to work just fine. On another note, if you get bondo on the mat, it imediately causes the vinyl to bubble up, so it's best to just leave it untill it dries, then sand it. Ask me how I know

That is good to know about the bondo... I will trust your experience and not test it out