One alternative some guys do, and Ive not tried this, is brush on the clear nail polish "tough as Nails" or something

I'm not at home to take any pics. The shooter lane is a 9 out of 10 in my opinion and the itchy and scratchy hole is a 10. This pin was HUO and doesn't show much wear. I can't see myself adding cliffys to it.

Did Simpsons have the black/white art all the way down to the switch by the plunger tip?

Every ACDC I see come up for sale that wasnt cliffy'd already has a chunk out by the trough kick out.

I use them to cover up existing damage, since all of my games come firmly routed....

The artwork does. i'm looking at the pics that the previous owner sent me in my email and i can see the playfield goes from a blue "near the plunger" to a purple "near the end of the shooter lane".

Flank did you do anything to protect Luci at the drop targets?

Cliffies are great to cover up damage. Debatable whether Cliffies are needed on new games, unless there is a known wear issue to avoid on a particular title.

Not really adding much to the discussion, just wanted to demonstrate the correct plural form of "Cliffy."

That's debatable - you don't "y"->"ie" proper nouns, and since Cliff is definitely a proper noun, arguably Cliffy is too. Hence my intentional "Cliffys" spelling...

I've got a few layers of self laminated strips on all of my pin shooter lanes, works great and you don't see the "granny vinyl Cliffy covers" on your new couch.

I like to see "wood", not metal.

At the end of the day, if you play living crap out of it, which should be the objective, swap out the play field with a brand new one down the road, problem solved!

I bet you do.

Set that one up just for you Flanker!

It's "paint" not art, lol. And yes, there are a couple cracks in mine on my ACDC shooter lane. Same thing happened on my SM (same art, we, paint). I will not argue with anyone that chooses not to buy my one-owner HUO game because of it. Good thing the guy that bought my SM didn't care about zero-importance things like a chip in shooter lane paint. All he wanted was a kick ass game that basically looked and played like new...unless you got that shooter lane all up in your grill...and then, the horror! The horror!

The horror! Whoops, just had an NFC Championship game flashback, where were we?

I even have shooter lane protectors siting around. Maybe I'll cover up that fractured paint.

Shooter lane Cliffys really aren't that bad...because you never look at the shoot lane anyway! Most Cliffys are fine (ramp protectors are excellent) but someone argue that the MB scoop cliffy and the shire cliffy aren't the most ugly, industrial looking thing you could voluntarily put on a playfield? I mean, they have to be, to protect the shape of the area....but ouch, they are hideous.

On some routed games, Cliffy's at the scoop/outholes can bring the game back to playing closer to the original - for example, on JP, the wear can get bad around the scoops and balls rolling or deflecting out of the pop bumper area can sometimes easily roll into the scoop holes because of the wear. Adding the Cliffy's makes it such that the ball doesn't just roll in sometimes - and shots have to be more precise. I prefer the way a routed JP plays with Cliffy's vs without Cliffy's.

you you think adding a thicker internal hole protector that reduces the effective hole size changes the dynamics less than a super thin protector??

Which is why you will notice there are several with instructions to fix the wear before using the protector.

I think it all depends.

Don't put them on if you don't intend to play the game much. You won't really see the difference, and then the next buyer can go, "Dang, this game looks amazing!" and you'll get a bit more money for it.

If you play the heck out of your games though, like I do, put them on. If your reasoning is you don't need to put them on until they start to show wear but you play it a lot, your game WILL start to show wear, and if you're one of those people that goes, "Oh man, your shooter lane has a slight dent in it" or whatever, it's easier to take the Cliffy off and show it as perfect then it is to say, "I wish I had this on here from the start."

As for longevity, I've had a set on my JP for going on 6 years now I think, maybe even 7. Playfield shows no additional damage from when I bought it. Game has had more than 3500 plays. I had one Cliffy *immediately* break, which he replaced immediately. Since that point, I have not had the protectors bend, move, or damage the playfield. There is NO reason I can think of to not do this.

The one reason is that they don't look as nice as the natural wood they cover. It's that simple. When the wood starts to wear and not look so good, put the cliffy on. It will then look exactly the same as if you put it on Day one and played the game the same amount.

I've noticed a couple, very small indentations on my TAF's chair scoop Cliffy. Only very recently have I also noticed the ball going into that scoop a bit more easily than before. That's what prompted me to look closely at the Cliffy. Granted, the area underneath those "dents" is open air so it's not damaging the wood at all, but it still shows me that they're susceptible to some damage. I'd say that my TAF has had about 1,000 plays on it since I installed the Cliffy. Thankfully, it's a common one that most people carry all the time. I think I'll just pick up a spare one at PAGG, just to be safe.

A must have, in my opinion, even on a HUO machine.