It can be a gamble. Lots of ball trails and grime usually a good sign that not much maintenance was ever done, but not necessarily abused.

I have cleaned up some real dirty machines that turned out to be something very presentable with little maintenance. Usually just rubbers, switch/opto adjustments and occasionally reflowing solder on broken wires.

Believe it or not, a lot of time the dirt and crud actually protects the playfield to a certain degree. They can clean up very, very nicely. I'd pay closer attention to the inserts and if any artwork is rubbed off (especially key lines on the edges). That is a better indication of condition in my opinion.

It is ok for a playfield not to look like a museum piece. These used games are 20+ years old, depending on the title you are considering.

Probably the worse thing for a dirty playfield is pitted balls.

If it helps, it was a $2300 BSD and you have your location listed, so you can probably buy it for $3,600 from whoever has it now and cleaned it up .

I think diamond plated playfields usually clean up pretty well. Hella dirty doesn't bother me as long as you don't see exposed wood.

Even on lacquered playfieds that had a really thick layer of ground in dirt, I've had good luck cleaning back up.

I've had good luck w dirty playfields, but you are missing a lot if you're concentrating on estate sales and auctions, people with no knowledge of the games and generally think they are worth more than they really are.

Your best deals will come thru networking/word of mouth and being first (or not a tire kicker) to the occasional Craigslist deal.

Some of the dirtiest games have cleaned up to a cream puff ! Like quoted in this post the dirt and grime etc protect the playfield. I use wild cat to really cut through the dirt before really polishing

I miss finding dirty projects those are few and far between out here in CA.

I've experienced some filthy games before. I had one F14 Tomcat that hadn't been opened once by the owner since they had bought it which they had for maybe 15 or so years? I was able to wheel and deal the game down hard on the price and after a couple hours of hard cleaning to my surprise the game cleaned up very well and shocked me. Obviously the game isn't maintained properly when they are super dirty but hey never know the story. Sometimes you can be really lucky and just find a game that the owner doesn't nearly the appreciation or bug that most of us on here do. So it sits and collects a bunch of dust for us to clean up!

I've had both experiences..A one owner HUO BDK that cleaned up to look like it just came out of the box and a DM that I should have left the grime on

I think you can get some idea how it will clean up by looking at the common wear areas. First any ball drop areas will show divots and wear. Then any kick out holes, ball launch and inserts. If these areas are ok then the rest will probably clean up nicely.

The dirt is of no concern. It protects the playfield, there is virtually no chance the Diamond Plate clearcoat was compromised, especially to a point where the paint would wear off. I had a filthy Dracula I cleaned up, it was neglected for years on route. It was so bad the playfield was almost black and subways had thick dust on them, similar to an etch-a-sketch.

This filthy DM will clean up just fine

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Wow, more pictures?

I once saw a Getaway with the PF so black it was like it had been plasti-dipped. I suspect it would be have been pristine under all that gunk, but sadly never had the opportunity to find out.

This is a machine I found for a friend, and he is cleaning it up now. Ill get him to post some finished pics.

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