How bad is wear? Maybe leave it as is?

just clean the area, use some alcohol, put the sticker down and maybe
Mylar over it if needed.

C'mon. Anyone have any suggestions?

Prepping the playfield takes time. I can't count the number of times I've typed something like this out.

You can use lacquer, acrylic clear, or polyurethane. If you have varathane, perfect. If not, an acrylic clear should do the job. It's sold as Krylon Krystal Clear in a rattle can at pretty much any arts and craft store.

Get a sanding block. Slap on a piece of 400 grit sandpaper. Sand the area.

Wipe area down with naphtha to get rid of sanding dust.

Look at the picture below. Green is the grid on Pinbot. Red is where you want all the clear to go. Take some terry cloths, doesn't have to be exact, and just cover everything up outside of the red.

Get the playfield perfectly level front to back, side to side, otherwise the clear will run.

Grab your shake can, shake it. Think you're done shaking it? Think again. Shake some more.

10-12" from the playfield, starting closest to you and working up, going left to right, right to left, left to right, start spraying. Keep a wet edge. Don't know what a wet edge is? It's hard to explain. You want to overlap your last spray by about a third. Still don't know what it means? Google it.

Let it dry overnight. Sand very lightly with 400 grit. VERY LIGHTLY or you will burn through the clear. Wipe it down with naphtha to get rid of sanding dust. Spray another coat same as above. Let it dry overnight.

Should be pretty flat now. Sand lightly with 400 grit again, wipe with naphtha, apply overlay.

I would probably put another coat or two over the overlay, but that is up to you. You did this much work already, so you may as well.

After everything is done, be sure those edges are feathered in well. Sand along the edges of the new clear and old original coat. Then hit it with some novus 2 to really blend it in.

wheretoclear.png

I'd just make sure the inserts are level. A gentle sand with 400 grit shouldn't burn through the inserts unless you really go at it for 5 minutes. You just want to knock any really high spots down that might be there and rough the existing clear up a little so the new clear has something to bite and adhere to.

If it is really worn and you have some extremely low spots, you may have to fill them first. A picture of the area would be helpful.

There is a previous clear on there. All playfields have some sort of protective clearcoat of some sort, otherwise the screened art would wear off immediately.

Don't sand down to bare wood, just give it a light sanding with 400 grit to smooth it out and the clear should flow into any low spots and help bring them up so the overlay has a nice flat surface to be applied to.

I wouldn't for fear of ruining it. Your first clear over the overlay should just be a MIST coat, which means just barely any clear at all. To do a mist coat, just go left to right faster so you put less down. Just mist it! When it dries, if you did it right, it should have a texture similar to an orange peel... kind of bumpy. Don't sand after this coat. Be sure to wipe down with naphtha after every coat (when it is dry, of course) to get rid of any dust that settled.

Your second coat over the overlay should be a regular coat that should blend it all in. Sand that lightly with 600 grit, then 1500 grit, then novus 2.