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.

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/

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.

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.

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!

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?