I have several CPR playfields and here is my experience.
First off, none of these were bought straight from CPR. I bought them well after the production run was over. I think that is important as in all cases the clear had ample time to cure.
1. Silverball mania. This playfield was hideous. It was most likely sold as a second and not intended for resale. The clear looked like that FT shown in this post but much worse. I leveled it and polished it out to look like glass. All good for a couple weeks and then it all came back! Not nearly as bad as before but no longer smooth as glass. Im guessing an issue with the clearcoat application. Possibly bad ratio on the activator?
2. Xenon. I bought this as a gold however there are no markings to indicate grade. May have been before they started marking them. Anyways, it looked great other than some minor shrinking of the clear coat which is to be expected once the clear cures. A few hours of sanding and buffing and it looks awesome.
3. Bad Cats. Absolutely perfect in every way right out of the box. Ready to install in my opinion.
4. Black Knight. Same as Bad Cats
Basically if you install a freshly cleared playfield its a crap shoot. More than likely you will see some sort of shrinkage or worse. One way to minimize this is more thinner coats vs a couple heavy ones. The proper way would be to clear it and let it cure then sand and spray a final coat of clear. Hmmm, this is pretty much what kruzman does. Not cost effective in a production environment...unless you want these things to cost over a grand each. Sure CPR could offer a premium service like this but why since Kruzman already does?