I thought it would be easier to have your latest cleaning tips in one thread that we can all use for reference.

How do you clean the relay banks?
Score motors?
Score reels?
Switches/contacts?
Wiring so you can see the colors better?
Pinball parts?
Rails? (wood and metal)
Playfield?
Cabinet inside/outside?

Anything else?

Thanks Marcus! I've been there and it's a great source for repair/cleaning tips but I was thinking of cleaning as in making the game look clean and shiny like new so it can reside proudly in your home instead of a dirty basement or garage.

Thanks EMs, Marcus and DP.

Marcus, I didn't mean for this to come off as a "first time" pin owner post and maybe should have provided a little background on myself.

I've been reading all the threads including three of vid's threads, pinrepair and quite a few other sites since joining this site and writing down some of it. I thought it might be easier to list what everyone uses/does in one thread than searching different forums and threads to get this information.

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A little background about me that might help to understand where I'm coming from:

I was collecting pins in the early 1990's and at that time all I did was clean/adjust contacts and wax the playfield with Millwax. I bought a non working foto finish, got it working and played it for a little bit then sold it for a profit.

I married in the 1990's and my wife didn't like the pinball machines so they were banished to the dirty basement where they stayed until we divorced then decided to bring the pins back into the house after marrying again so I'm back and a Pinsider.

In the 1990's only one company I know of was doing ground up restorations and they're still doing it. In the 1990's it was almost unheard of for anyone to actually pay for a full restoration. After I came back to the hobby 20+ years later I see it's become acceptable and many people are paying the money for the full restorations too.

If I was only interested in owning one pin to keep in the house then that would be a valid reason for paying the money but I love pins and always have. There's something special about them and one pin "isn't enough".

I need two more pins to make a 5 pin collection but would also like to collect "beaters" and spend my spare time fixing/restoring them then I can play them for a while and keep or sell them while keeping 5 at a time set up like an arcade ready for play in a room.

Working at a full time desktop job is very sedentary and fixing/restoring pinballs as a hobby is a good way to be physically active.

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Your lists are great. Keep them coming! Here's my list.

Murphy oil soap ... cabinet
Evaporust ... rust removal (haven't tried it but it's been highly recommended in threads here)
ZEP Citrus Degreaser ... playfield
Mother's carnauba wax... playfield
Sprayway crazy cleaner ... inside/outside cabinet... this was suggested in one thread here but I haven't tried it yet.
ME/ISO 91% ... I plan to try this on a game cabinet because the oil soap didn't get it fully clean
Tumbler ... I recently got this with walnut media but I'm still learning what you can use it with. Can you tumble balls?

Agreed, I took pictures as I stripped the playfield and cleaned/waxed it but also plan to make full video of the disassembly just to be sure I'm able to reassemble them.

Bruce (not Richie Rich)
RR1.jpg

Tempting but I doubt someone doing the restoration for money would put as much work into it as I would.

Might as well drop it in back of your truck and take it through the automated car wash if you're going that route.

Looks good but I'd be afraid of rust issues if I did that.