Firepower is the first table I've ever owned. Other than playing pinball, I have zero experience with shopping or fixing a machine. That being said, isn't part of the fun of owning tearing the thing apart and making it better?
Mechanically my machine works. I don't have anything to trouble shoot, the electronics seem fine. I'll get to rebuilding the pop bumpers, rebuilding the flippers. I need to adjust the contacts on some of the targets as they'd register maybe 75% of the time. In other words, the table definitely needs a tune-up, but it is totally playable as is. It's just not as fun as it should be!
I picked the table up for $500 from a guy that had owned it for the past 15 years. I don't think he did one lick of maintenance on it. Put it to you this way...the batteries were 17 years old based on the best used by date. Fortunately there was no corrosion and somebody had put in the battery holder away from the boards. The playfield has some wear. It also has a really horrible touch up paint job right in the center. If this table was ever waxed, it's long gone now.
My game plan is to deal with the playfield first. At the minimum, deal with the bad paint that is now bumpy and horrible to look at. I've looked at Vid1900's playfield restoration thread, and he's offered to guide me through doing mine. I don't have remotely the budget to just buy a new CPR playfield, so using this as an educational plunge into the deep end it is!
So here I am, a month after purchasing. The playfield is now completely depopulated. Apart from an initial wipe down when I got it home, I haven't cleaned it. Let the journey begin!