In addition to the take lots of pictures and label everything suggestions, when doing an upper PF teardown, I had a thick piece of cardboard placed securely on top of the game next to me and used it to (literally) hold most small parts - posts, screws, guides etc. in their relative positions as I disassembled them. I made notes on the cardboard itself including anything like, for example the location of bulb sockets that would help me position everything back in the right place. It was very useful when staring at the empty PF to have a 'copy' of the game next to me. And while I individually cleaned, polished or regrained metal parts as I put them back, reassembly was extremely easy, especially the top part of the playfield. I found I didn't need the photos nearly as much as on previous teardowns where I didn't take this approach.
Plastics, habitrails, ramps and other larger parts went onto another flatter surface that kept things from sliding around.