If Cliffy's are available for any machine it is a very good idea to get them if you want to hide previous wear or prevent it from getting worse. As for cleaning your game, might as well put in the extra work and time to do a more thorough job. Make sure you stay organized and use ziplock bags and label them, take lots of pics and you might want to book mark this page from someone else's TZ shop out.

http://www.theteardown.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=11

For the mylar removal, search here on watch some youtube videos on how to remove it safely. You can either use a heat gun to remove slowly or else lots of people have good results using freeze spray aka can of compressed air upside down to remove it.

I'm not too familar with TZ's gumball loader but if there is a coil in there you might want to replace the sleeve to see if it helps. The hum you hear from the DMD seems normal for an old DMD. I'm not sure if there is a fix for this besides replacing it with a new one.

Good luck and congrats on getting TZ as your first pin.

These videos are pretty darn good : http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-shop-a-pinball

Personal opinion:

remove everything necessary to get it clean. Don't pull out stuff from the bottom of the playfield unless it's somehow in the way of you getting to something that covers the playfield (ie, dont remove lamp sockets). You're not getting ready to clearcoat the thing, you're just cleaning it.

If there is no bubbling, leave the mylar. You risk destroying your expensive game regardless of what method you use.

If I had a TZ, it would have cliffy's in every spot that had a cliffy available.

If the ramp doesn't effect gameplay then any fix you try will be aesthetic in nature and you'll be able to tell it's been repaired. Get a new ramp if you want it to look perfect.

Make sure all your grounding screw are tight in the backbox, this causes hums sometimes.

Lots of great advice here. Agree with not messing with mylar; or at least not now. I’d also suggest maybe doing cleaning a little at a time. When I first got into this obsession there were little mistakes I made and I think if you just do a little at a time, meaning cleaning it but maybe not stripping the whole top of the playfield, you’ll be able to enjoy the little improvements. Sometimes when strip the whole top, you find other issues which means more down time, wait for parts, etc. I’d concentrate on cleaning it but don’t get crazy.

Someone may correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the DMD’s do make some noise when all “dots” are lit up. You shouldn’t notice when the game is being played though, right?

Yes, get Cliffy’s for everything! They’re nice looking and protect from more damage with the bonus of hiding and pre-existing damage. He’s a great guy too lol!

I actually skipped the Cliffy on mine. It had seen a good lot of play before I got it 12 years ago, and by the time Cliffys were available, it still showed absolutely no wear at the slot machine. Funny how some machines hold up and other don't. The lip on the Cliffy makes the hole play slightly different, and you run the risk that the lip on it could wear the playfield. If it ain't broke... I do have one on my MB, FWIW.

I'd leave the mylar on. It's not in places that affect gameplay, and it will prevent wear.

First noob rule.
if you have never owned a pinball machine and if your game plays, play the hell out of it before you do anything. Get to know this game inside and out, how everything works (or doesn't work).

Clean up the coils and make sure that you at least put in new plastic sleeves. This will make the movement much smoother and may decrease drag on the arm mechanism. Check that the plastic link is not chewed up too badly and that there is no mushrooming on the shafts from repeated blows. I can't thinkof any coil arms that wold hit the playfield. Where exactly are these? Slingsots? Rocket or auto-launch kickers? These should have a pivoting mounting plate that secures them to the PF so there is no impact. Add pics if you can.

Cliffys on everythign you want to protect the game for the long term and the condition of the PF is pretty good. Get a set of plastic protectors from pinbits too and some replacements for your already broken ones.

Once you are comfortable, I would imagine you could remove most of the upper PF parts (stick them into rigid foam insulation or cardboard in the approximate arrangement they were in) and then you can do a pretty good cleaning. I prefer to remove mylar... many methods available, I just use a razor and gently pull it up on diamondplated games. The Treasure Cove polishing kit would do a great job but novus and elbow grease are fine.

Make sure to read this before you start.
http://www.spy.net/~white/pinball/tech.html

What the hell now? Were are they on the playfield...what do they do?

After playing it for a long time and learning everything as said above, Get familair with underneath the playfield because you are going to need to clean that. There is probably a good chance the subway ramp under playfield is dirty. Just remember there's no point cleaning the top if the bottom is filthy.

The one thing I would advise against....seriously advise against, is doing a complete tear down, or taking everything off just because you can. "Oh cool what this? lets just unscrew that and put these parts over here....yippee this is fun!" Seriously. I did that with my TZ which was my first pin, and the damn thing was in tatters for a long long time. It's not the simplest machine to deal with for your first.

I would cliffy the slot and that's aboot it. I don't go for any switch plates personally.

EDIT: Most important for me is taking a TON of pics everytime you take anything apart. In fact, take a ton of pics now so you can have before and after pics. These pics will come in handy at other points to when you forget how a wire was laid.

And make sure to write your sobor self notes when your drunk self starts taking things apart at 3am.

this is an awsome series on removing and cleaning a tz machine
good luck with it... any cleaner is always better

+10
And when you think you've taken enough... take more!!!
Lots of close-ups for when you just can't remember what nut, or wire, or set screw goes where.

Yep...and we mean like, "hundreds," for sure.

As for the coil arms are we talking top of PF or under? The only thing i can thing that should be slapping against the playfield is the underside of the slingshot arms...which should be fine it they are fine on the top.

And if those video links don't do it for you order TOP #3. Which is great to have anyway.
http://www.pinrepair.com/top/

That was my guess too. Plus, they have a mounting plate that keeps them pretty well secure and the impact is minimal at best.

Sounds like the slingshots to me. Thats normal that the plunger link rests against the playfield bottom.

*THE* Cliffy, Herg? You're aware there are more than one for TZ, right?

http://www.passionforpinball.com/tz.htm

Think of protectors (no matter whose they are) as insurance. How much is that playfield worth? About $800 for the repro set from Mirco and an original NOS oem set would only be higher.

You only need my switch slot protectors where balls drop. Some guys use them on both sides for a more symmetrical look but really only needed at the drop.

That was me last night. Stopped at 2 tho. No notes but the more I had the more pictures I ended up taking. I have like 300 already

You mentioned the previous owner didn't know how to get into the back box, have you opened it up check things out like the "batteries?" Also your DMD hum could be a grounding issue, make sure all the boards are secured tight with all screws present and snug. I had a horrible hum in attract mode on my HS, turns out it was missing some screws on the boards in the backbox and alot were loose, tightened up and added some screws and its quiet now. That was when I first bought it!

First time I tore everything down I'd wake up and there would be a sandwhich bag with a piece of paper and 3 screws in it. The note would say "Goes by that thinggy."

I still have some of those bags....and the parts...hmmmm.

Yeah, bad choice of words. The slot machine protector was the one I was referring to, but I ended up opting out of all of them.

I'm not trying to say that they're not useful, just that I decided I didn't need them on my TZ. The edge in front of the gumball is the spot on mine that would benefit most, but I don't really care if that gets beat up a bit since it's out of view. The switch slot protectors, I don't care for the way they look, and I use thick mylar on the left inlane.

I have thought I might get the powerfield edge protector, but I haven't pulled the trigger on it.

You must not play very much
That slot outhole wont look new forever. I also did the powerfield edge protector on mine along with the GLM mini-switch kit and that part of the game looks waaaaaaaaaaaay better than factory.

http://passionforpinball.com/TZ/Tony_edge1.JPG

Thanks Cliffy!

It certain(t)ly doesn't look worse to have it on the machine. I would say the Slot is a must really.

As for the rest Drano is right on. I will say it looks a ton better...BUT I don't know if you want to go taking off that powerfield as a noob. You may want to ease into that one.

Well there you have it. Screw it all and rip it off. My as well buy the pricey stuff now for the powerfield and deal with it while it's off.

Remember to take that subway off and clean the crap out of it. BTW, I put mine in the dishwasher on no heat like many people have said and it melted it...so umm yeah...i don't advise it.

You're welcome and please keep in mind I'm a pinball hobbyist just like you. I have a full time career job already and this protector business came about only because one guy saw what I made for my own game and he told two friends and so on. It all started coz I was a cheap a$$, couldn't find FH ramps back then and playfields cost as much as the game itself. The rest, as they say, is history. The best way in most cases is to use my distributors for just the reasons you say. I do sell direct but only take credit cards through paypal.

Now, another of my little brainchildren is color post sleeves and since you're deep into cleaning that TZ you might want to consider the best looking, longest lasting and cleanest bumper post sleeves made. They'll never disintegrate like real rubbr so no more black dust! Well, at least not from the post sleeves
http://www.passionforpinball.com/colorpost2/conrad_tz1.jpg

What would the world do without Cliffy protectors? Well I know I would be staring at a pretty crunchy kickout hole in my TZ...no thanks!

heh heh

One day they'll be on to cover the kick out in PM. Around the time I actually get it working 100%

Not that I've ever heard of. I would say it's safe to assume at first.
Straight away I would just order all new sleeves for every coil you have, and some extras. They're cheap and good to have laying around. If one is cracked I'm guessing all the others are not tip top shape. Replacing sleeves is pretty much standard precedure when getting a pin that hasn't been shopped out. Very easy to replace, can make a huge difference, and should be done. Coils rarely are the culprit.

I',m still a little confused about the "rocket arm" being on the PF. Needless to say, if when the rocket activates the pusher literally hits the PF that is absolutely not supposed to happen. What happens to the ball when it's kicked out? Shoot out powerfull and into the Hitchhiker? Just a guess sounds like it isn't secured correctly/enough to the PF and its shooting it out low.

Post a pic of the damage.

Ok well first off that's the underside of the PF...I was worried it was the top.

Hmm...I don't know if that is normal. So per the manual, is the coil/sleeve/spring/ all situated the correct way? The whole mechanism seems stable and attached?

Righto. Without looking I don't think this is a big deal. If no one else chimes in I'll take a look at mine and report back.

How the PF on that thing? clean as a whistle now?

I'm in the middle of thoroughly shopping my TZ (and first pin), and yes, mine looks like your picture. My dents might be less noticeable, but they're definitely there.

Edit: I also want to add that I've got all my new Cliffy protectors and colored post sleeves situated in place now, and they're worth more than I paid for them. Just awesome. The mini-playfield one is brilliant because it has small gaps to feed through the switch wires and protect them from airballs.