Quoted from Navystan:
Getting ready to officially join the club. My BM66 is enroute. I also purchased a playfield protector separately. Anyone with experience installing or can point me to someone who has? Or, maybe I don't install until later? What's your advice?
Thanks in advance, Stan.
Welcome to the club! Batman 66 playfield protector is one of the simpler playfields to do but if you have any specific questions let us know...
My suggestion would be to put it on right away and preserve your brand new playfield. Nothing wrong if you want to play a game or two to make sure everything is in working order before you start taking things apart but point being that every ball played produces some sort of wear on you playfield so the sooner the better.
Some suggestions:
1. Wear some powder-less latex or nitrile gloves for the install. This helps to not cloudy up all your plastics and parts with finger prints but also prevents you from getting any prints on the underside of the playfild protector once you peel off the protective layer.
2. Make sure you take the balls out of the machine. The install will have you raising the playfield up and down more than once and you don't want the balls crashing down when you lift it up. (most people only make this mistake once) ... I also like to drape a towel over the top of the backbox so that the playfield doesn't mar up the top of the backbox trim when lifted.
3. Take your time and go section by section with disassembly. I use sandwich bags and label them to hold the various screws in and posts etc from each section. For example "Left Sling Shot" or "Right Ramp" ... it also helps to take photos of these areas before you start disassembling. Often time when people first start it all seems straight forward and easy to remember but once you get to the point of re-assembly you can sometimes start question where a certain washer or post went. I would do this with the flippers as well... before you remove them, pay attention to their position and orientation to the small hole in the playfield at the tip of each flipper bat. This will help you put them back to their original location. Same for the underside when you disconnect things. the few harnesses you have to disconnect have unique connectors so you shouldn't have any issue in reconnecting but if you want save yourself from second guessing it never hurts to snap a few photos as you are pulling things apart.
4. Penguin Crane --- this is really the only thing that can ruin you day with this install. I personally have never taken the crane out to install a protector. You can use the service menu to move the crane out from its resting place so that you can maneuver the crane through its associated hole in the protector. HOWEVER, before you even get close to this step, take a minute to feel the bottom of the wrecking ball on the crane with your finger. You will see that the wrecking ball can actually slide up a bit and whats hiding underneath is the end of the cable assembly which is sharp like a nail head. this will scratch the hell out of the protector during install if not properly dealt with. I'm sure others have their own way of dealing with this but what i do is take a small strip of thin, dense plastic and put it under the crane ball and then use painters tape that you wrap upwards around the crane itself to pull this piece of material snugly up again the sharp cable end. I usually do a couple passes of tape to make sure it doesn't pop loose while installing. What I used was actually a small strip of plastic i cut from an old damaged playfield proctor but really you are just looking for the thinnest piece of material that the sharp edge wont penetrate. Im sure there are more ways to deal with this issue and perhaps other members may have a simpler suggestion but I just wanted you to be aware so you don't find out the hard way.
5. If you have an air compressor it is handy have to blow away any debris from the stripped down playfield before you lay the protector in there. I usually clean the playfield with a good streak free window cleaner and microfiber. There can be fingerprints and smudges on the playfield from the factory or even oil trails from the balls themselves. You don't want any of that staring at you from underneath the protector after you have put everything back together. Whatever you use to clean it, just make sure it is fully dry and no moisture is present when you finally set the protector in.
6. Laying in the protector... once you have everything removed that's in the way of dropping the protector in, peel off the underside protective layer but leave the top layer on all until you have everything in place. Once you have confirmed that the protector is laying flat and in its final place you can peel off the top film.
7. Once you have everything back together and you are ready to drop the balls in, I like to clean them off to make sure they don't leave any unnecessary oil trails on the fresh playfield.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head... it may sound intimidating but it's really not that bad and (in my opinion) well worth the effort. They are not for everyone but I like the fact that i can play as many games as I want and underneath is still a brand new playfield.
Enjoy!