I sanded and painted as required ... wire harness went into the dishwasher

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I use simple green and paper towels.

The only way to get everything truly clean is to literally take the game apart piece by piece. You have to get every crevice and nook and cranny if you’re looking for it to be as clean as possible. If it plays and this is not something you are looking to turn into a project I would suggest just leaving it alone if it isn’t broke don’t mess with it. I would vacuum out the cabinet maybe wipe it down a little bit with a damp rag but don’t go crazy because all the dust on the mechs and cables is just going to go right back into the cabinet.

Now if you are going to turn it into a project there is a whole lot of advice out there to follow. Bottom line is strip the entire game down and clean EVERTHING and replace broken stuff because that’s your opportunity to do so. It’s time consuming and expensive which is why restorers get paid big money to do it.

I will not offer any advise board wise as that is beyond my expertise

definitely the flipper mechs and jet bumpers at a minimum. If you can I would check all of the coils and replace sleeves, coil stops and springs where needed it will definitely play better.

This wont solve your cleaning problem but it will help keep the game playing well until

What game is it?

I would not try to clean under the pf to a pristine level. Unless I really wanted to just for the sake of it. When I do what I consider a thorough shop, I clean/rebuild all the mechs, take off all the scoops/subways etc and clean them, then I do my best to clean the wood and wires starting with canned air, then microfiber cloths and cleaning solution like alcohol or just a damp cloth. I usually manage to make good difference but stop at a point if diminishing returns. To me it’s most important the mechs are sound and clean any anywhere the ball touches is clean.
Also canned air under the inserts or q tip with rubbing alcohol to clean them
From under.

I use this but apparently from very old Pinside post (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/westleys-bleche-wite-old-stock-not-the-newer-black-magic-itc-stuff) the new stuff is not as good. Toxic fumes but cleans the wood better than anything else i have tried. Was inexpensive and lasted a long time

Pic borrowed froM Pinsider j_m_

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It was never the same after the company was bought by Black Magic.

Try Purple Power. Pretty much does the same thing.

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I have an air compressor. If I was using canned air I think it would take too many cans!

I use compressed air to blow the black dust off the coils.

I have a small 1 inch paint brush. I pull the lamp boards off the bottom of the playfield.

I spray the paint brush with a detergent (sometimes purple power, sometimes a product called simple green (diluted)). Any soapy detergent cleaner will do. I get the brush wet, but not dripping.

I push the bristles of the brush into the insert on the bottom of the playfield and quickly brush the underside of the insert.

Then I immediately use the air compressor to spray dry the insert. If it still has lots of dust, I do the same thing again, cleaning my brush (spray it down with detergent water, pat it dry to get it mostly clean), between each use.

The air compressor makes sure that the moisture doesn't cause the wood to swell... liquid is only on the wood for a second or two.

It takes longer to describe than to do.

Cleaning the bottom of the inserts makes a BIG difference, and just blowing the black dust out isn't enough to clean them.

As for the wood, a soapy damp rag, and where there is a lot of grime I'll do some sanding on the bottom of the playfield for appearance. Keep liquid off the wood by immediately using the air compressor to spray dry as you wipe.

This is NOT the procedure to use if you are restoring a pin! Particularly if you are restoring it for someone else!

This is what I do when I 'shop' a machine for resale. I'm doing this level of work for 'players grade' machines that I tell customers are 'clean, but not restoration level clean'.

I'm very meticulous on the top of the playfield to get every speck of dirt and grime I can. Under the playfield, I want the mechanisms to work, the lights to shine cleanly through the inserts, and I don't want anything embarassingly dirty, but for the 'players grade' machines I'm working on, I don't clean the bottom as well as I do the top.

Finally, I use a damp soapy rag to wipe down the wiring bundles. A restoration guy would pull all the wiring (!) and ultrasonic clean the harnesses. I just wipe everything down.

But the lamp boards.

All the lamp boards with connectors get pulled and put in the sink. I remove all the sockets and the bulbs. I wash with soap and water and then quickly dry the boards with the air compressor. All the bulbs will be replaced, and then every pin on every lamp board will be touched up with fresh solder.

Any relay boards, motor boards, etc, will be pulled and likely have the solder reflowed. Trough opto boards will frequently get fresh opto transmitters and receivers.

I lightly 'tug' on all of the wires to the coils, looking for anything poorly soldered or wires that are almost about to break off due to vibration. I generally won't resolder every coil.

This is after I have completely rebuilt the flippers, and inspected/repaired all the mechanical assemblies.

That's pretty much what I do on the bottom of the playfield.

Pressure washer at the local self wash car wash and a lot of hope.

Remove all light boards Pre-clean all “pinball” black dust using a vacuum on the bottom cabinet and bottom side of the playfield including inserts. Remove all bulbs and wash them with the light boards in warm soapy water. Blow dry light boards with compressed air. Use BleachWhite as above on a clean Terry cloth to wipe down the harness and wood. Use same on qtips to clean inserts dry with clean cloth. Remove coils vacuum dust then wipe down. Replace all coil sleeves reassemble and you should be good to go for a basic cleaning.

My friend Lenny says (in a different context) if it's grey, replace it with shiny.

It only takes a moment to resolder connections to coils and freshen them up with fresh, shiny solder.

I usually don't bother. I go into lamp-and-flasher test, and then coil-(and flasher for older games) test, and then any machine-specific tests, and let the pinball testing show me what's broken.

Fix what's broken.

On the other hand, poor work, questionable work, or just ugly... I'll generally fix that while I'm looking at it.

When you do this kind of work, you live in the middle of the question "How far do I go?"

Any restoration work (even low level 'shopping' the machine) is a series of hundreds of judgement calls. After a few machines you find yourself defining your work... finding the edges of "How far do I go".

I'm always in awe of people who go SO much further than I do. Chris Hutchins at High End Pinballs... work without boundry, without compromise. It's amazing to watch how far a master goes when they do the work that I do...only better!

You'll be fine. There aren't any real 'pitfalls' in working on the underside of the playfield. Just do some stuff, run the tests, fix what's broke.