I've been fixing up a bride of pinbot machine (see other posts on here) and whilst the machine is fully playable, there's the elephant in the room... the playfield condition.
The dirt/grime on the central mylar has cleaned up without much trouble, although even that is still a little dirty. There's a good deal of loose dirt which a brush/vac will sort, however the main issue is just how dirty and well worn it appears to be outside of the mylar.
For example:
It's quite discoloured and you can also see the wood appears to be planking (is that the correct term for that?). Don't think there's anything I can really do about those but I would like to at least remove the grime (and not the paint .
Reading vid's various guides and other posts on here I get the impression Naphtha (or the UK equivalent) is often used. Would there be any risk in using that on the playfield in this condition? I'm not sure if Bride of Pinbot would have been clear coated? Although if it was, I'm guessing there's not much if any of it left, as paint is wearing off in several spots:
Once cleared, what would you recommend I do to protect what is left of the current artwork (and any minor touchup I attempt)? I don't think I'd be able to clear coat it myself, so perhaps an option would be a playfield protector or new mylar set? Removing them might be an issue in the future though. Is there another option to protect the playfield that would not preclude later restoration work? The playfield isn't in the best condition, but I'd like to not have it get any worse
One additional concern is the current mylar, the angle of the following photo looks far worse than it is in terms of colour, but shows the bubbling of the mylar quite clearly.
Just how risky is it to remove mylar on a bride of pinbot machine? I read that many system 11 machines can result in disaster, but what about WPC? Was this originally clear coated?
PS: Might just be visible in the above photos, but the left ramp is cracked, someone tried to "weld" it back together with a soldering iron :'( and the heart ramp has a missing section were someone has fastened 3 screws into the playfield to block it I'll figure out a way to fix those or purchase replacements, so that's not too big a concern though.