Yeah pretty much boned. do a pf swap or get it touched up n cleared but no way to get the artwork off the mylar n back on to the pf.

Yep, screwed.

Find someone with a clean scan of the playfield - you are going to need it!

(ps: Many times a hair dryer or household iron works better than freeze on an old playfield)

Sorry that happened to you. What's sad is that the Bally Tuffcoat really didn't need mylar to begin with.

+1 on the hairdryer recommendation.

The freeze method takes some practice but in my experience it is the easiest. I read around here that you can expect at least a small amount of paint or insert art to come up, and I have to agree with that. However, with some experience and patience you can mitigate it. I go slow and lose very little paint. The improvement is always better than the little bit of paint that comes up.

As others have said, in your case unless you want to miraculously put the mylar back, you have gone too far to fix it. That was an awful lot of paint to lose...I hate to see others discouraged away from using this method, which is why I wrote the above paragraph. Anyone new to this should try and practice on a section you can't see, or on a junk playfield. That behind said, a good artist using good quality acrylic paint can do an amazing job fixing it, so don't feel too bad. In the mean time, keep an eye out for a new playfield if you want something really nice. Doubt you will get your money out of it down the line, but it's a fun project to do and worth doing if you enjoy that sort of thing. Don't attempt it if you feel it is out of your skill set, however, or you will likely end up placing one of those "I have an Embryon project that I tore apart and never finished....includes new playfield" ads! Sorry about your mishap....that happened to me on a TOTAN and based on that, I can feel your pain!

I found that to be a painfully slow process, but does doing that guarantee or lessen the possibility of lifting paint? Guess it is worth the effort if the answer is yes.

It definitely lessens the amount of paint lifting, in my experience. But often with inserts, it doesn't matter what you use, the paint has already transferred to the Mylar.

Bally games of this era can be interesting because sometimes heat and goo gone works best, sometimes freeze spray, sometimes just heat. I take small area's and do some testing. With Freeze spray like vid say's if the paint is already on the mylar you cannot do much but if that area was stable before you pulled the mylar you need to let the freeze spray work. You are pulling too hard and lifting paint. With these older games using Freeze spray does take some practice so you let it freeze for the right amount of time. Too little or too long you pull paint. There is a sweet zone when the paint cannot be removed but the adhesive is frozen.

HSA is doing an Embryon for another fellow here...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1981-bally-embryon-restoration-dis-assembly-re-assembly-clearcoating-etc
When his is complete, and if I like the results, I am likely shipping mine to HSA too.
I hope that when a team/artist is familiar with a pin design, it can increase the odds of a good result.
-mof

That's a tough PF to restore. A lot of detail there......

Mof. Im 3 weeks away from seeing my PF completed. If it looks real good after nitpicking all the fine details. I can do some high rez scans of specific areas people need. Once I put the hardware back on it will make it near possible to get a good scan image.

I pulled full Mylar off my Embryon and didn't lose any paint. Like someone said above, the key is to let the freeze spray work COMPLETELY before pulling the mylar up. You pretty much shouldn't have to pull the mylar at all. It will just come up VERY easily when the glue is frozen......don't be afraid to use A LOT of freeze spray. It's cheap compared to a play field touchup/clear!