Taking stock of the playfield
So having got the playfield cleaned of all parts – both front and back, it was time to take stock of the work to do on the playfield.
Unfortunately the original playfield which was in my AFM seemed to have a mylar sheet over the playfield, which was coming up at the edges, was cut with a knife in places and was pulling the insert lettering off of the inserts in other places. It was terrible.
Time to look for an alternative.
Fortunately a pinballing friend of mine, who also has an AFM had replaced his playfield with a reproduction playfield. On inspecting his original playfield, it was obvious that his was in a far better shape than mine. So I convinced him to sell his old one to me -thanks Marcel!
So taking stock of my “new” playfield, there was still plenty for me which I needed to work on:
Typical insert wear
Typical damage between mothership drop-down target and mothership hole
Significant damage at the SOL hole - all six colours are affected!
Typical rollover switch damage to clearcoat
Significant damage to playfield behind Martian 'T' target
Damage caused by left ramp flap and damage to playfield from post
Damage caused by right ramp flap and damage to playfield from post
More insert wear on the edges of the stand-up target lights
Typical wear leading up to SOL hole
Insert coming away from clearcoat bottom left
Damaged left inlane and faded orange frame
The left inlane rollover switch hole is not only damaged, but the orange frame is faded
Damage on wood between kick-out and shooter lane
Insert outline damage - the insert is also lifting bottom right
Fading in the orange highlight to the left - this is hidden though
Plenty to do here, so I’d better get started!