How to Clean Your Skateboard- A Complete Guide for Cleaning

Proper maintenance of a skateboard is essential for ensuring a safe and enjoyable riding experience. Cleaning your skateboard is one of the most crucial parts of it.

But do you know how to clean skateboard properly? It might not look like much, but cleaning a skateboard can get tricky dealing with all its little parts and screws. And trying to clean it without knowing the proper technique is possibly going to make it worse.

To help you with that, we’ll cover everything you need to know about cleaning skateboards down below. That way, you’ll be able to clean it easily and effectively.

When should you clean skateboard?

You need to clean your skateboard if it gets dirty; that’s it! But there’s of course a lot more to it than just that.

If you use your skateboard regularly, then you should consider cleaning your skateboard at least every 2 to 3 months. But if you are a seasonal skater, then you can clean it every season to make it perform its best.

But there’s no rule of thumb when it comes to cleaning your skateboard. If it gets too dirty after a few rough rides, then you can definitely clean it without following a timeline. That’s going to make a huge difference in your riding experience as well.

Is it necessary to clean the skateboard?

Skateboards don’t require the hassle of regular maintenance. However, you do need to clean it once in a while to keep it at its peak performance. Doing it every 2 to 3 months or so can help ensure a much smoother riding experience for you, which is pretty sweet.

So, it’s safe to say that it’s necessary for you to clean your skateboard if you want to get the best out of it. Cleaning a skateboard is not hard at all as well. With the proper technique and the right tools, you’ll be able to clean it fairly fast.

And that’s a good enough deal to have nicer rides and more durability of your skateboard. There is no excuse for you to leave your skateboard season after season without cleaning it. That’s especially true if you ride it quite frequently.

In that case, you need to make time every 2 to 3 months to clean your skateboard. It only takes a little bit of time, but it’s going to improve the longevity of your board by a lot. Now that you know it’s important to clean it, we are going to go over how to do it.

Tools required to clean skateboard

To clean your skateboard, you’ll need to gather a few basic tools. Down below, let’s briefly cover them.

These are the tools you want to get in front of you before you start cleaning your skateboard. It’s a much better idea to have everything near your hands before you disassemble the deck. That way, you won’t lose any small screws and you’ll be able to clean it without any interruptions.

How to clean your skateboard step by step

Now that we have covered all the prep work, it’s time to get down to the real business. We are going to separate this segment into 3 different parts. We’ll cover how to clean the deck, wheels, and trucks, individually with a step-by-step guide so that have an easier time following along. So, without any further ado, let’s go over how to clean skateboards with easy steps.

How to Clean Skateboard Deck

Cleaning the skateboard deck takes the most effort in the whole cleaning process. That’s because you have to cover more surfaces. However, as you’re dealing with grip tape here, it’s possible to ruin your deck completely if you don’t follow the right method. Let’s check out the steps you can follow to clean your skateboard deck properly.

• Step 1: Grab a brush

The brush you use will have a huge impact on the whole thing. So, go for a soft brush that’s going to get the job done without putting permanent scratches on the deck. Using a toothbrush or even a soft wire brushis a good choice.

• Step 2: Prepare the cleaning solvent

For the cleaning solvent, you can always buy it from the market. But it’s so easy to prepare your own DIY cleaning solvent. For that, take a bowl and add some water to it. Then add some mild dishwasher to the water and mix it well. And that’s your cleaning solvent, which works great.

• Step 3: Apply the solvent using the brush

Here comes the part where you get down to cleaning the deck. Pour your brush into the solvent and start cleaning the deck with the brush. You should see the dirt coming off of the surface. Feel free to keep brushing until you’re satisfied with the result.

• Step 4: Use a paper towel or microfiber cloth

After the last step, the deck should be a little bit wet and dirty from the cleaning solvent. You need to use a paper towel or a microfiber cloth to get the dirt off of the deck. Just don’t rub too hard and you should have no problem getting it clean.

• Step 5: Let it dry

Once the deck is cleaned, you need to let it dry for a couple of hours before hopping on the deck for a ride. Try to wait for at least 4 to 5 hours before doing that.

• Step 6: Finish up with a grip gum

The steps mentioned earlier should get your skateboard deck pretty clean. However, if you see any stubborn dirt buildup on the grip tape, you can use grip gum to remove it pretty easily.

How to Clean Skateboard Wheels

Once you get the deck cleaned, it’s time to clean the wheels. You might think it’s very easy, but it does require some fine techniques to clean the wheels properly. Down below, we’ll cover the steps that you can go through to clean your skateboard wheels.

• Step 1: Get the wheels out

Before you can start with anything, you need to get the wheels off of the skateboard. For that, you might need to use different tools like the screwdriver, the Allen, or the skateboard tool. Once you get the wheels out, move on to the next step.

• Step 2: Pry out the bearings

After separating the wheels, it’s time to get the bearings out of the wheels as well. That’ll give you the perfect setup to work with, and you’ll be able to clean everything properly. To pop the bearings out, you can use anything like a razor blade, and it’s going to make the job super easy for you.

• Step 3: Clean the wheels

Once all the prep work is done, it’s time to get started with cleaning the wheels. For that, you should use a brush and some cleaning solvent. We talked about how you can make your own, and that’ll work perfectly in that case. Dip the wheels inside the bowl full of cleaning solvent for about 10 minutes.

Scrub the wheels with the brush while occasionally adding some cleaning solvent to them. Finally, use water to wash everything off of it.

• Step 4: Let it sit

The last step should get the wheels to look as good as new, but you can’t put back everything while it’s still wet. Doing that will damage the bearings and make it worse. So, let it sit under the air for a little while or preferably a day to get it dry properly. It’s important that you don’t keep it under direct sunlight for the whole day.

• Step 5: Clean the bearings

As the wheels of your skateboard are drying, it’s a perfect time to work with the bearings. To clean your bearings, you can use a microfiber cloth and use it to scrub any dirt buildup there. It might take a while to get it completely clean, and you need to be patient about it.

• Step 6: Put lubricants

After cleaning the bearings, one of the most important things you need to do is apply lubricants. That’s going to make sure that you get the best riding experience possible. For that, you can use any good-quality lubricant. Just make sure not to over-apply and make everything super greasy.

Apply the lubricant in moderation and it’s going to give you the best results. Again, this is a very important step of the whole process, and you must not ignore it at any cost.

• Step 7: Attach everything back together

Once you do all that, you are done cleaning the wheels. However, you do need to put everything together now. Use the tools you used to disassemble the wheels and use them to attach everything back in place this time. Make sure every screw and bolt are tightened well so that it doesn’t cause any accidents on the run. That concludes the cleaning method of your skateboard wheels.

How to Clean Skateboard Trucks

Finally, you are left with the trunks, which is the last segment of the whole skateboard cleaning process. Luckily, it’s much easier than the previous two, and you’ll be able to clean it in no time. That being said, let’s check out how you can clean the trucks more efficiently with easy steps.

• Step 1: Disassemble the parts

First, you need to disassemble the whole thing. Use the T tool, the screwdriver, or any other tool you need for that. Be sure to keep the screws secure as you’ll need them to attach everything in place after cleaning.

• Step 2: Start cleaning

Once you disassemble the whole thing, it’s time to clean the parts properly. For that, you can use cleaners like WD-40 and a microfiber cloth. That’s going to clean off any dirt buildup. Make sure not to hurry with anything and take as long as it needs to clean all the parts. Once everything is looking good, move on to the next step.

• Step 3: Assemble back together

This is the final step where you assemble everything back together. But before that, you should check every part of the trucks and look for cracks. If you see any, then you know it’s time to replace it. Finally, put everything together and you are done with cleaning your skateboard.

FAQ

• Can you wash a skateboard with water?

It’s best to stay away from using water to clean your skateboard. Use other methods that don’t risk damaging your board in the process of cleaning it. Water is not safe for you to use there. It might damage the bearings, board, trucks, and bolts of your skateboard, which is terrible.

Also, if you use water, it might cause hydroplaning as well. That’s going to reduce how much control you get from your deck, and that’s not good at all. So, with all these things in consideration, it’s best not to use water to clean your skateboard.

• Can you clean grip tape with an eraser?

Rubber cement eraser works quite well cleaning up the grip tape on your skateboard. But it’s not the best thing to use. To get the most optimal results, you should always use grip gum that is specifically designed to clean the grip tape. You can easily find it in any skate shop at an affordable price.

But if you don’t have access to grip gum, you can definitely use a rubber cement eraser to do the job. It might take a bit more effort and the end result might not be as good as using a grip gum, but you should be able to clean it pretty decently.

• How to clean bottom of the skateboard?

Dip a small brush with some cleaning solvent. Use alcohol or any other cleaning solvent for this job. Then start brushing the dirty surface with the brush, and it’s going to melt any dirt build-up underneath your skateboard.

Once you’re done with that, it’s time to use a paper towel to wipe the area clean. Remember not to scrub too much with your paper towel. That can make things worse than it. Just gently press and wipe the area, and it should do the job perfectly.

To Wrap Up

We just covered how to clean your skateboard with easy-to-follow steps. You should definitely stick with the instructions if you are not an expert at that. Following the steps will help you clean your skateboard easily and more effectively as well.

Cleaning your skateboard is one of the most critical parts of its maintenance. You need to clean it once every 2 to 3 months to keep everything as it should be. That’s going to make sure you get the smoothest riding experience. Hopefully, you’ll find the step-by-step guide helpful in cleaning your skateboard.