Bought this F-14 with pretty nice playfield. The only PF issue was with the inserts – all the small triangular insert were lifted, their decals were in various stage of wear. Luckily, the remaining (larger) inserts were still level however their decals aren’t perfect, especially in the lower parts of the PF.

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I have removed all the lifted inserts, sanded all sides with 220, then continued to sand the top with 800 and finally with 2000. Cleaned the holes - on the photo you can see them installed but not yet glued.

The question here is about recreation of the missing decals. There seems to be a few solutions available:

A) Buy decals and install – Bay Area Amusements has a non-laminated set (the laminated is no longer available) – seems like the easiest solution. However, I would need to protect them somehow after the install – thoughts on that? Also, how much of an issue is the added height of the decal? Does it affect ball movement?

B) Create own waterslide decals – (I am a capable Adobe Illustrator operator) however it seems an unnecessary time waste since decals are available for purchase – I saw some people going this route, would that be better than A)? Why?

C) Silk-screen print directly on the PF – using EZScreenPrint.com sets – a time-consuming procedure but (probably) the most permanent and avoiding the additional height of the glued decal. Have anyone tried this? Would I be printing directly on the inserts, (and playfield) or would I have to add a layer of (something) prior to the print? Seems like the original decals did have some mylar…

It is important to note that I am not going to clearcoat the playfield at the end of the fix – it’s too much risk seeing other people challenges, plus living in the city it is not really an option.

Any other tips on preserving the job would be appreciated (Krylon Crystal Clear, etc).

After taking care of all the small inserts I will strip the worn decal layers and repeat the procedure on the inserts that remain. I will not remove those as they are still level.

Thanks for the advice!