me personally, i'd chip out the rest of the lifted clear and put a bead of clear back in and reseal it. but I have access to clearcoat. Would worth with lacquer as well. I don't know if I would want to try and go through the hassle of trying to do a playfield swap and exchange for that. Seems to be more trouble than it's worth. Unless you are local and can drive it to the factory for the exchange.

All playfields will wear out the shooter lane sooner or later.

Some in 500 plays, some in thousands of plays.

You can cut out any loose flake and just touch it up with oil based polyurethane.

Many people put a piece of Mylar over that section of the shooter lane because it always wears in that same spot.

i have never done it and i could be mistaken but i thought id read in the past of someone doing a touchup on the shooter lane clear coat with clear nail polish. i would research it before attempting though.

Id touch it up and put a Cliffy rail protector there.

At 675 plays that looks like a defect in the clear. I have newer stern (sam and spike) games with 30k+ games that do not have broken clear like that.

I'd just sand it down, wax it and cut a piece of Mylar to protect. Get some cliffy's too.

Definitely make Stern aware of the issue in case other areas of your PF start chipping out like Metallica was having issues with on a few...

Nail hardener, it's a nice product, you can brush some on scoop edges too if you don't want to Cliffy it

I have to agree, having the clear break away like that soon seems odd; the bad thing is Stern will likely call this normal wear, but it never hurts to ask.

My GoTLE has started to do the same but to a smaller extent, it has lifted a smaller area (about half to a quarter size of yours) but has yet to come away. In the exact same area from the ball being launched into the shooter lane. Away from the pinball atm otherwise I would attach a pic.

Call Stern!
Look at your pinballs for any chips dings.
Replace the pinballs in game, the ones that ship with these games are supposedly crap.

Normal wear and tear. These are pinball machines not collector items. All pinball machines will eventually show wear, some soon, some later. This is normal.

I put day 1 cliffys on both sides of my shooters lanes - worth protecting on that expensive of a machine.
Nothing can be done now except cover the damage.

I would do as neo suggest but since you dont have autoclear use a couple light coats of thinned oil based poly. Then some mylar over the top. Should blend right in.

Just checked mine (~300 ball plays) and the right edge looks more like your left side. So I'd say its probably going to be a common problem.

Sorry, that's not normal after 700 plays.

Having said that, you won't get a replacement playfield. Get a trio of shooter lane Cliffy's: ball eject, wall, and under rail Cliffy.

Good advice about sanding and adding Mylar. But keep an eye out for other abnormal wear... It may be an issue with the clear.

Yes it is...I've seen wear in the shooter lane and drain happen in less. Every new game I've bought, I cut strips of Mylar to put on either side of the lane where the ball is likely to hit, and on the edge of the drain area as well. It's a good protection measure against the inevitability of wear.

For a game that's worn already, yeah I'd just get a Cliffy for it.

If you say so, but that's unlike anything I've ever seen at 700 plays.

I think it looks worse cuz its magnified...but it just looks to be mostly clear chipping. I've seen worse...usually the wood gets bashed in there where the ball pops out.

The clear looks pretty thin on that game though, from what I can see in the pics. Luckydogg - How is the clear on the rest of the playfield?

The close up looks like it's terrible but the second photo you can hardly see it. I think I'd lightly sand that down and brush on some clear from the hardware store. There's no art there so it should be fine to do this.

Noob question ... Would Cliffy protectors have helped here? I have never installed them, but from pictures they look like they'd protect the sides more (black rails). Both my WPC era games have metal plates that I think were factory installed (but I may be wrong), and they seem similar to Cliffy.

I'm getting a GoT soon so want to be prepared ... Cliffy and/or Mylar ... to protect against this. Thanks!

That doesn't look bad at all. Sand it down with 220 grit paper, go to Home Depot and buy a small can of polycrylic (blue can) and apply three or four coats sanding lightly between coats. Good (or better) than new.

That's a factory adhesion defect, but not worthy of a playfield replacement, IMO. Like others have suggested, sand it down a little, paint with nail hardener, and once it dries, cut a piece of mylar for future protection. It'll look & play great. Also install a kickout protector on that black rail. I do a ton of modifying & prepping before putting a game out to earn. Aside from LED mods & such, I cliffy & mylar everything. Some of my pins average over 300 plays per week, so I know high volume play and wear prevention.

Yes cliffys are awesome and I have thousands of plays on my sterns and they look new

Yea but is it just that spot of possibly other areas on the play field? Remember the bad batch of met play fields?

That is the most common wear point on any playfield, any brand, any era.

Every single ball ever played on the game hits this spot. It's the most likely spot for wear on any game next to the drain but the ball falls down that vs being shot at it.

I would do the repairs as others have suggested as I doubt Stern would replace the playfield for the issue.

I do think that amount of wear on a game with under 1000 plays is unacceptable. Why Stern, or any manufacturer, doesn't just put Cliffys in potential wear areas from the factory has always puzzled me.

I know that but was referring to the other question of a factory adhesion defect. There have been a few play fields in the past few years that have had a defect of chipping and maybe this cld be a pre warning of things to come since this area takes the most beating? Ive seen many other sterns with tons more plays than this with no damage for the most part and definitely not like the op. Id keep a eye on the ball drop areas if I were the op just in case

True, but I've seen W/B games with thousands of plays with no or very little evidence of wear. That is never the case with Stern games. You are the expert (and I mean that sincerely), so what's the difference?

many factors can cause this. Not enough roughing prep before the fields are screened. Softer top layer of wood causing more dimpling movement causing the clear to pop. Not correct mix ratios. Spraying in an area too hot or too cold,or mixing the clear to far in advance and it starts curing before even being sprayed. So many things it could be, it would be nearly impossible to track down. Stern would know if they have changed things during the last couple of games out the door.

Here's a pic of my GoTLE. Hasn't worried me until seeing the OP's damage, I think I'll follow the suggestions of laying some mylar down over it.

GotLEclear_(resized).jpg

Call stern first - or your disti...
Don't do anything to repair it until you get their answer.

I just don't think QC is as good now.

Never would have seen this issue on a LOTR or TSPP after 700 plays.

Off now to fit cliffy protectors!

Same company, CCC, still makes the playfields for Stern as they did for Williams, Bally, Classic Stern and everybody else for the last 60 years.

-

It's fun to act like old men in the convalescent home:

They sure don't make phones they way they used to. You used to have to remember somebody's number. Now the phone remembers everything. That's why I'm losing my memory; it's these phones....

They sure don't grow wood like they used to. Maple trees for pinball playfields used to be Old Growth*. Thousands of years old, competing against the Redwoods for sunlight in California. Now they grow them on a farm in China, and the workers are our soldiers who were captured in Vietnam.

They sure don't make paint like they used to. The lead used to keep it from peeling off wet, rotted wood; you never used to see paint peel. The lead used to block cosmic rays too. Now look at me; I'm covered in spots.

They sure don't make presidents like they used to. Now they are all socialists and commies. Did the mail come yet? I'm still waiting for my Medicare statement and Social Security check.

* ("Old Growth" for Maple Trees is always a funny statement, since they usually don't even live to be 100 years old)

Looks the clear is to soft.
Never seen air under the clear, more seen chiped wood and some clear off.
But never seen pealing off in the shooterlane.

Will be getting my LE in 12 hours. What site would you recommend to buy the cliffy protectors from? Do they make specifically for GoT or are they generic?

But it's not just memories when I have the 'old stuff' right next to the 'new stuff'... and the 'old stuff' has been in my possession for 18 years, being played and maintained by the same person, in the same way, as 'the new stuff'. And the new stuff wears different than the 'old stuff'.

It's not distorted memories... it's apples to apples right in front of us.

Same company does not mean same process, ingredients, same tolerances across all product for all time. They too have had to evolve as the business changes.

Yeah, I've gotta say Vid is wrong on this one. A lot of stuff today IS crap compared with years ago, pinball included. And have you heard some of the "music"?

The LEs have an extra layer of clear, right?
Anyone have 500-700 plays on their unprotected LE and care to show photos?

Mirco playfields are even worse than stern IMHO. clear is super brittle and varies from extremely thin to so thick it breaks between screw holes.

Never seen wear like that on a Spectrum

I had a similar issue on my stle where the ball drain hole is.The vengeance ship would shoot the ball down the drain so fast it would bounce off the back and chipped the clearcoat they sent me a little jar of clear coat and a brush with a little piece of paper and a piece of mylar to put over it once it dried. It even had instructions with that said Stern playfield touch up kit

This is normal and an easy fix with some nail hardener. It will look like new.

You are fortunate there is no paint there, Spiderman, ACDC and others have black paint you have needed to touch up also.

Steel beats wood and clear coat every time.

What do you expect for $7k?

I way disagree. The clear coat now is way thicker and shinier than either of those games.

IF I had the time this morning to post close-ups of my HOU LoTR, IM and previously routed SM and WPT... I think you would see this is not "normal wear" for 700 plays. There is something funky with either the design of the ball trough eject, or the Clear.

And it might be due to the "thick shiny clear". More is not always better.