Buck Rogers and Nitro Ground Shaker were added just a few hours ago...

Are these protectors able to shift around at all, or do certain assemblies hold them from moving and stopping it from scratching the actual playfield

There is nothing holding them in place except for gravity and the shape of the protector. When properly installed they don't slide around. It's like a slab of temporary clear coat.

+1, it's not going to move around. I have done extensive play testing on my Old Chicago EM & it stays put.

I finally got around to installing my Blackout protector. I wasn't pleased with the fit. The upper right corner had to be trimmed to fit the playfield properly, and the extension that goes into the shooter lane didn't really fit at all. It needed to extend further right from the main playfield to line up with the lane. As it was, it naturally came to rest on top of lane/playfield divider. Forcing it down into the lane resulted in the protector lifting up at the lane exit. I had to remove nearly half of the lane extension in order to get it to fit without being warped or bunched up.

Also, there's a very prominent gap on either side of the left spinner lane. It's really noticeable when the lights are on because the edges of the PET-G catch the lights. Everywhere else, though, it looks great and plays well. I'm getting air balls off my right slingshot that never happened before, but I'm willing to live with that given that:

1. My playfield is protected from wear
2. My gameplay is overall faster because the ball isn't getting caught on the cupped inserts
3. The protector deadens the hollow sound of the ball rolling across the playfield (personal preference)

It took a couple of days and a number of plays to really start to lie flat after my modifications, but I'm happy with it now. A couple small changes to the Blackout layout could make it perfect.

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I've installed 11 of them so far. Only TOTAN had to be trimmed. The rest of them fit perfectly.

Were the light is making the edge of the protector show use a magic marker.

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

Any plans to do playfield protectors for Rocky and Bullwinkle (Data East) or Stargate (Gottlieb?

I had that problem with a playfield that had a full mylar, maybe a light wax on the protector might help or Novus 1? I used "Mr Sheen" which is basically a commercial aerosol wax, that fixed the air balls, might be worth a try on the protector.

Put spacers (washers) under the sling posts to elevate the kicking rubbers the same height as the thickness of the protector.

Ordered 4 playfield protectors today. Hope they get shipped flat and not in a tube. Couldn't refuse buying two of them on the Halloween Special!

Yes - we ship them flat since we started to ship the Next Generation Playfield Protectors (August 2016). Some resellers are shipping rolled -sometimes rolled in the wrong direction. Some weeks ago we changed to UPS Saver express which is a bit more expensive but much faster and they seem to handle to packages much better (maybe also due to the shorter processing time).

Hi protectors thanks for the reply.i have ordered the buck Rogers protector today and look forward to installing it.

HOPE THEY MAKE A BALLY HOT DOGGIN PROTECTOR. I WOULD LIKE TO GET THESE ON ALL MY GAMES, EVEN THOUGH I PUT AS MANY NEW PLAYFIELDS IN AS I CAN BUY

Didn't know that. Blackout is my first pin and was my entry into the hobby just this past Summer. An entry that was perhaps all too quickly followed up with my purchase of a Card Whiz project pin this week.

Nice pickup - Card whiz is a cool EM... PBR has a lot of restore stuff available for it too.

I finally got around to installing my unit on my Flash Gordon

I took the opportunity to led the GI while I was in there so I can't really say how easy or not it would have been to install.

I originally thought I was going to have to break the pop bumper down, but the protector could be coaxed over the ring with a little bit of try. But flippers did have to come off as well as some plastics... So that's what motivated the led swap

The design for Flash Gordon looks very good but I think I would have preferred a design that had the protector secured by some posts. Both the upper and lower can shift about 1/8th of an inch... Probably a little less. Movement on its own doesn't seem like much of an issue... But I was worried about the in line drops because it had shifted to where contact could have become an issue.

My biggest issue was it was clear after just 2-3 games that hang ups would be an issue. Train Flash Gordon has spinners at the bottom of the ramps that can really kill ball speed on shots that rattle or just don't make the ramp. It's not uncommon for the ball to be stopped by the spinners. When the ball doesn't have speed... It would get hung up on the protector.

The star rollers at the top of the orbit are also a problem. Because again, it's not uncommon for s ball to be moving slow up there.. The ball will get stuck on the protector edge surrounding the star inserts (it's cut to a full circle around the insert).

The hang ups were true deal breakers. I put Mylar over the bottom of the ramp transitions to help and that seems to help but hasn't elimated it fully. Not much can be done about the star inserts except trying to increase ball speed.

As for play... The game certainly isn't screaming... So I would say it certainly doesn't make the game faster. I'm unsure if it's really slower or not.

I'll have to see how bad the hang ups are and if I can sneak any more slope out of the game to help combat it.

I'd be cautious with games where in line drops can cause hangups or difficult ramps because the ball speed might lead to hangups in those games.

I know it would be a pain but would it be possible to file those edges at an angle?

I thought about trying... But I fear it would become highly visible. Plus the circles would be killer

Your star rollover solution is to remove the rollover inserts and then reset them to match the height of the protector. I took it as an opportunity to install nice, new clean stars and rollover inserts. Use heat gun to remove the inserts and then tap new ones in using a block of wood to tap them in even with the protector. The fit was tight enough that I did not bother to glue new inserts in.

Raise the height of the spinners .020" by putting spacers under the posts.

The inline drops would originally hang up the ball on my Metallica, but I adjusted them level with the protector. No hangups since.

Just installed one on my Gorgar. Had to make a few cuts around the drops and one around a post, but pretty easy to install. I find it odd that the flipper ball guides weren't cut out on this one, yet they are on the one I got for my Grand Lizard. Overall, very happy with this so far. Super gloss finish on the playfield now, the ball seems to travel with much less effort, and it all but silenced playfield noise while the ball is rolling around. Pretty sweet to have on this machine while waiting for CPR to do the repro run of playfields. We'll see how it stands the test of time. Thanks!

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no thanks

1) keylines won't match
2) the protector is not cut to the exact size of the inserts - there would still be a ring around the insert
3) my inserts were already glued to not move as they all had to be replaced when I refurb'd the game initially

That won't help. The spinner's contribution here is killing all the ball's energy. A dead hit against the edge, or the spinner's weight slowing down an already slow ball. The issue is anytime the ball doesn't get enough umph coming back down the ramp.. it can happen. It's a problem in the game even before the protector.. the protector just makes it basically unrecoverable w/o tilting. Previously a small nudge could pop it off.

My real solution would be to shim the ramp entrance to raise it a bit, combined with mylar to bridge the gap. I considered it before installing the mylar, but I wanted to see how the mylar would do alone... plus getting the shim thickness right is going to be tough. I might just consider sacraficing some of the other damaged playfield protector I have.

Good point.. that should help. There is still a bit of a gap as its not cut exactly to the drops, but properly adjusted it should be a non-issue. So far even 'factory' the in-lines have been ok (less slow balls in there).

I have installed a protector in my Firepower, looks fantastic, very happy, just one thing I did notice was that after around one week after the protector was installed it was still not completely flat in some areas, (was shipped flat) probably sitting up about .25mm - .5mm, the protector was not being propped up by raised inserts for example, enough that when you put pressure on the protector where raised you can feel & see when it touches down to the playfield, Just wondering if this is normal & will it eventually become completely flat on it's own? or, if not, if their is a way to make it completely flat?

I'm thinking of installing one on my black hole. I'm assuming the middle window gets covered by the protector, and the lower playfield gets it own protector. Is this correct? Anybody have a picture of one on black hole?

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I've got one on Black Hole, yes the window is covered and the lower playfield has it's own protector. It works great on mine, very happy. I had to drill one hole in it which I assume they forgot to cut. It was for one side of one of the wire guides down near the flippers.

I have a protector coming tomorrow to throw onto my Dr. Who. I'm going to go ahead and put down new insert decals ahead of time and it should come out looking great.

I'm doing a new overlay on my Space Shuttle, this would be a nice alternative to clear coating with 2pac (especially in the Indiana winter). Could I get away with just the overlay, and then the protector on top of it, without any clear coat? Do I run a risk of harming the overlay if dirt gets under the PET-G protector, then grinds into the unprotected overlay?

Or should I just wait for spring, take my time with a clearcoat over the new overlay, then consider the PET-G protector as an added measure of safety?

Finally wrapped up my Big Bettys Truckstop restore tonight. Today I painted some keylines, built some new mushroom bumper switches from scratch. Soldered a new diode into the blue diamond inserts, rebuilt lower flippers, then I:

- put down the playfield protector, first removing the underside protection layer
- repopulated the entire playfield
- added all new rubber
- peeled top protection layer

After a staight 13 hour day ...

I finally played a few games and immediately had 2 balls get stuck "under" the protector up on the right side (the protector was cut about 1/4" long and was just a bit over the vuk hole, and when the vuk launched the ball, it lifted the protector and the ball went under it, and ... on BBTS, there is a kicker to the right of the vuk that then sent a second ball under, right next to the first!)

I fixed that by cutting the protector at the ball return to the right of the vuk, then used a couple small pieces of mylar to hold in place. Worked like a charm
There was also an issue with the protector being a bit too wide in that vuk area as a ball guide needed to be installed there and I had to notch it to fit

Truckstop is a fairly rare game (1,598) so I'm not surprised that it was not perfect, no complaints here. I'm very happy to have it!

After the fitting above, it fits nice, looks fabulous and plays great!

Saved me tons of time clearcoating and sanding - love it

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My guess is that you could not possibly harm your overlay. These are tough plastics and assuming you start with a clean PF, there would be nothing to get under it. I, for instance, did quite a bit of touch up painting under mine and I have no worry of it holding up

I assume that it is best to remove all mylar from the playfield before installing? Specifically the slingshot mylars.

why? Removing the mylar only risks harming the paint and inserts underneth. Leave the sleeping dogs be.

One last question:

Can these be reused? In otherwords, If I put one of these on my game, then later down the road do a playfield swap, is it easy to remove the playfield protector and put it on the new playfield?

No problemo

Unless you damage it during installation or removal it can be reused. Might need some Novus 2 to clean up scratching if it's been heavily used.

Played a Bally Star Trek all weekend with a protector on it.

There were some issues. The game played strangely off the slingshots and sometimes had very odd English.

I think it's a good product for a game with very messed up inserts or other issues like that, but I don't see why you would install one on a playfield that's in nice shape. To "protect" it?

People are way too preoccupied with that. Games in home use simply don't wear significantly.

100% agree. Sunken inserts are the only reason to use these in a home pin.

This was great for Dr Who. I put on insert decals and used this to protect them. Easy.

I'm putting one on my JM, as it has lots of dimples(likely from air balls) but haven't played it enough to confirm that

I have installed a protector in my Firepower, I did remove the slingshot mylars, reason being I thought the protector would sit slightly raised from the playfield due to the mylar.

I thought at the meeting points of the edge of the mylar & the playfield, the protector would not be sitting dead flat against the playfield in these areas, it won't tightly contour around the edge of the mylar for example, I left the pop bumper mylars on (too risky to remove) & I can feel the protector sits up around them (just a bit) when I press between the pop bumpers.

I don't know if it will affect actual play or not leaving them on, visually I can see when the ball travels over a "high" spot in the protector as it creates a slight wave effect as the ball pushes the protector down to make contact with the playfield, not a biggie, overall I found the protector corrected the major problems I had with cupped inserts, looks fantastic & plays faster than before. love it!

Thanks for posting, this is my same concern.

Sounds like flynnibus is saying the Mylar wouldn't effect the protector enough to warrant messing with removing the Mylar.

The logic is simple.. removing mylar on an old playfield is going to risk damaging paint and is permanent. Mylar is so thin, it will deflect the deflector so little and any deflection will be "diffused" over an area because the protector has its own stiffness. Small deltas over large areas = insignificant impact

Flaking, bubbled, crispy edged mylar I'd look to clean up anyway. But if you just have flat mylar.. don't make more work for yourself.

Anybody try to put on any type of wax on the protector prior to installing ,to stop the protector from scratching from day one