Sounds like you have the right mindset, any pin you can get replacement parts for is a good candidate (decals/stencils, plastics, and playfield). Your TZ would be a solid choice, but it will be out of commission for awhile. You didn't mention money and time invested, which is good...because those rarely pay off.

Early solid state games are fairly easy to work on, and they are reasonably plentiful. I have a hard time finding DMD projects out in the wild, but there are plenty of early solid state games around.

TZ is one of the more complicated games to work on since the playfield is so jam-packed full of stuff.

Restoring games can be fun and satisfying, but it doesn't pay well. By my calculations, I work for about 3 cents an hour. That doesn't stop me from enjoying bringing dead and neglected games back to life.

Haha, you have one of the most complicated ones. I would NOT recommend Twilight Zone, Addams Family, or Star Trek The Next Generation for a first time restoration.

Pick something relatively simple.

Jackbot is a great game when you're done, and very simple mechanically. The Shadow wouldn't be a bad choice, but you might want to wait until they run the new playfields so you can do a playfield swap. Theatre of Magic isn't that complicated mechanically and will look amazing when you're done. Fish Tales is also pretty simple and straightforward, if you can deal with the music.