Automotive clear is extremely durable when mixed right. With the correct clear, and hardener its great stuff. Just dont use an aerosol can. My thought would be spray it, and allow 3 weeks for the clear to gas out, then apply the overlay. Id imagine the process is similar to automotive clear bra. The general rule is, allow several weeks for the paint to gas out/harder then apply tthe film.

I would highly suggest a hard top, rather than overlay.

http://www.outsideedgeproducts.com/store/p75/Pinball_Playfield_Hardtop.html

You wouldn't have to deal with clear coating or decal wrinkling.

Sell the overlay, let it be someone else's problem

Get a hardtop

Get a hardtop.

If you go overlay: you are going to have to clear it.
use glamour 2k 2pac in spray can.
Premixed, premeasured.
No left over cans of clear and associated chemicals. ( unless you plan on doing multiple restorations)
Clean up is: throw away can.
$22 per can, more $ per use yes, and i generally use 3 cans per playfield restoration, but easy peasy.
Always fresh, i buy it when i am going to use it.

Just as deadly though so use the necessary ppe.

Herb’s EBD and KISS overlays were by far the best back when nothing else was available. I did several of both and tried several different methods of applications. I will be glad to share the method that ending up being my go to, but before I do a couple warnings: prep is critical, patience as well and last but not least time spent to achieve a perfect overlay application does not make sense now that the hardtop is available. One last point to disclose, no substitute for a complete playfield swap.

Hardtop, or CPR playfield swap is the only thing I would even consider today.

So many issues with the overlay. Even if a higher quality. Prep, alignment, clarity of instead when done, fixing cupped inserts, ball not rolling correctly, like you are playing on shag carpet, Wrinkling down the road if you have the game in a hot garage. I have first hand see all of these problems with overlays. Even if it looks good on day 1, think about 3-5 years down the road and 5k to 10k plays later. Durability has to be considered here.

Hardtop abd new playfield address all the above.

There is so much work getting back together, the cost difference to buy a hard tip is insignificant to the amount of effort to tear back apart and peal off a crappy overlay.

I was in the same boat as you, I would listen to the guys with the experience saying a Hardtop would be quicker/easier, it wasn’t released at the time I was working on this or I would have looked at going that route

I can’t speak to how it will wear as I finished the playfield a year ago and I am still working on the cabinet.

Here is the basic method I used with the Fabulous Fantasies overlay on my Eight ball deluxe
Sanded the playfield
Sprayed two 2K 2pac clear in a can on the bare wood
Let it sit for about a month
applied the overlay wet using rapid tac
another two weeks to let it dry
Sprayed another two 2K 2pac clear cans on top
polished and reassembled
I had no wrinkling or any issue with reassembling, a few of the keylines aren't perfect

here are two pictures of the finished project

PXL_20201226_190202379 (resized).jpg

PXL_20201226_190339614 (resized).jpg

I cannot speak to the quality of Fabulous Fantasies, but the Classic Arcades overlay I received off of ebay was beyond garbage, to the point of missing art, incorrect colors... and did I say missing art? No buildings behind insterts in Attack From Mars. The quality of the one you have is likely better, but in my experience they are suitable to make excellent... wallhangers. I could see these being a God Send when no other options were around, but the hardtops and replacement playfields are vastly superior.

Good luck!

I will say, 100% do a visual inspection to verify colors, art, sizing is all correct.

Mine is hanging from my wall.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/afm-overlay-disapointed-pics-inside#post-5811500

Overlay (resized).jpg

a1de5ebcb3c0028125c98b23aefb3f338caf9e80 (resized).jpg

I don’t even like the CPR overlays as wall hangers. They are so bad. They make you mad every time you look at them, are they are not cheap for what crap they are.
Please, throw all these away. If you sell to someone else they might think about destroying a good game by installing

I would love to see just one person chime in here with a positive experience with one of these CPR overlays.

Did CPR ever do any overlays?

Vid,
You know the answer to that. No. Herbs overlays were really good, in fact CPR is using his screens now. Darin at Phoenix made a really good Funhouse overlay as well. The new CPR digital EBD is really nice, better then my screened “Gold”. I wish they would have painted the back grey though, now I need to call in a favor to my neighbor.

Maybe he meant classic arcades?

I never heard that CPR ever did overlays either.

Sorry, my mistake. Classic arcade overlays.

I have only good things to say about the CPR playfields,

I do overlays for customers from time to time. I sand flat first. Get all the art off. Then clear flat. Sand again except over inserts (you want inserts to be clear here, so you can see them through the overlay) then apply overlay. then clear 3 more times. while block sanding between layers.

It is a beauty and no overlay required!

Insert inappropriate expression here.
Gonna have to go with SWEET!

I had an EBD overlay. It lasted about a year and it started getting wrinkly and bubbly from the clearcoat, I assume. I will never use one again, thats for sure.

20201220_132403 (resized).jpg

20201220_132414 (resized).jpg

yes, rattle can type clears do not work well with overlays. I've done several for people over the years, and they always lasted.