Hi,
I have no past experience with pinball maintenance/repair/restoration and was given a really beat up 1976 Gottlieb Surfer. I found it in a old barn the guy said that if I could get it out it's mine. So after working back to get it transported back to my shop I found how bad of shape it really was. The playfeild paint is peeling/flaking off and probably needs to be completely repainted. Is it worth fixing/saving?

I created a torrent with the papers I found
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6m300phcm97z4o/GottliebSurferPapers.torrent?dl=0 I

IMG_0168.JPG IMG_0171.JPG IMG_0172.JPG

The paint is really shot (at least I think) If you move a cloth over it the paint flakes right off.Do you have a potential solution?

I am thinking about sending the playfield to a professional and have them do all the paint and I'll do all the EM my self (Got a compsci degree myself and a Electrical Engineering buddy). Is there a resource that is well trusted in the community for doing that. (I live in Eastern Washington State and hopefully get someone along the west coast)

Thank You all for being so prompt and helpful

I think I am a pretty good do-it-yourself'er, some of the projects I have done include

*~40 Odd complete laptop tear downs (Replace LCD, Motherboards, Repaste Processors), with no "missing" or "extra" screws
*JTag all sorts of different microchips
*Solder new electrical components (Normally capacitors) on TVs, Computers, Consoles, pretty much everything with a pcb.
*Reflow/Reball RRoD Xbox 360s
*Build walking robots from scratch (No kits or premade software)

I am worried that I hail from the digital side of things so much that moving over is a whole different sport altogether; also I am worried about causing damage to the board cosmetically (more paint flaking). Basically I am confident I can get it functioning as it originally did, but I can't paint or retouch the artwork

Well I clean the playfeild as best as I can with 99% and a magic pad.
Dropbox
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3514611/IMG_0175.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3514611/IMG_0176.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3514611/IMG_0177.JPG

IMG_0175.JPG IMG_0176.JPG IMG_0177.JPG

Here is a video on what I have got (EM Wise) working.

The only em things I can't get is the ball return (hit the ball back to start), player 1 scores never reset and it seems to "false start" frequently; I think it believes the ball is instantly out of play and something connects just well enough to work sometimes.

Thank You everyone for the AWESOME support

I went back and found all the original paperwork schematics, order forms, a ton of card slips. Is there a database that I should upload them to?

Yes, I ended up sending the playfield in.(I tried but quickly realized it was not in my abilities).
I scanned all the documents and posted them to my server @ http://codeprogrammers.net/files/1976GotliebbSurfer/

I am working to photostitch the schematic together but I can't get the last piece together (They are also on the server. Sorry for not responding for so long, I have been working on my game programming project @ https://github.com/bradc6/StrataExtract

The guy recieved the playfield and said it is too far damaged. The pictures hide the damage I think, as really the whole thing needs to be repainted top to bottom. So I am looking for a Surfer playfield to replace it with a NOS playfield (if the stars align just right) or the best available one I can find. I figure that if I really get collecting machines my first one ought to look good. Thank you everyone for all the feedback!