Heat from the bulb warmed it and it came up.

I don't know if anyone has ever been successful at reattaching mylar.

Maybe others will chime in.

LTG : )

I had some bubbling on my F14. Ended up removing the entire playfield mylar, cleaning, then putting new down. It was my first job so a little rough around the edges, but a vast improvement from purchase condition.

I'm going to attempt a mylar job similar to yours soon. I was thinking about using that tacky spray can stuff from Michael's. I've got a large piece "missing" (a wear hole) with rough edges, and it's peeling up. I'll cut close to where it is still intact, lift and spray some tacky stuff, try to squeegy it flat, then use something heavy to keep it down overnight. Probably won't work, but worth a try.

Good luck!

JUST LEAVE THE FUCKING MYLAR ON THE GAME AND PLAY IT. GOD.

A few things could happen when you attempt to "fix it up" if you have zero experience with this kind of work. NONE of those things are good.

You are looking at a VERY time consuming job to remove mylar and to clean up the residue under it the CORRECT way... Hours of tedious work. If you have not already done this type of work a few times, you have exactly ZERO chance of improving the PF's condition.

You could practice on a scrap playfield maybe and gain some experience that way but I would recommend against cutting the mylar or whatever the hell you were thinking.

I would not recommend this but hey, it's your game.

How many hours did it take you? I ask because I did the exact same game a few years ago and I swear I had 6-8 hours in that "cleanup", using the goo gone+flour method.

Direct quote from Vid regarding this exact scenario.

Thanks
Blake

Oh yeah, it was a LONG process. Like you, probably up to 8 hours all told. Glad I did it though.

Like I said, far better than how I received it.

Haha, yeah, there's that.
Like I said, just a thought. Haven't really put too much into it yet.

On our Cyclone we had the mylar bubbling up on the multiplier wheel which is smack dab in the middle of the playfield where you couldn't ignore it. It was a huge eyesore.

So what I did was cut them out with an exacto, sand them smooth to get all the residue off, polish them, and applied mylar decals.

IMG_20190109_125438038 (resized).jpg
IMG_20190109_125721646 (resized).jpg
IMG_20190109_150205_01 (resized).jpg

Looks 100x better, and doesn't affect ball travel at all. It's all pretty smooth.

IMG_20190109_153308088 (resized).jpg

Took a couple of hours, and was so worth it. It's definitely not perfect by any means, but on this player it's great.

Hope this helps

-Paul

So glad you posted those pics. If you attempt this, EXPECT all ARTOWRK TO BE DESTROYED. You may be able to avoid it, but you should never assume you can get ANY mylar off at all without also taking the art right along with it. Hopefully that alone helps the OP make a MUCH more informed decision.

I think the OP understood your point of view after your first onslaught, "JUST LEAVE THE FUCKING MYLAR ON THE GAME AND PLAY IT. GOD.". At this point just let the OP make their own decision without acting like their an idiot for inquiring about the different possibilities.

Thanks
Blake

listen to this....

Back in my early days I attempted to remove the mylar off a mousin around. I destroyed the playfield.

I have the same issues with the same game. I have been wondering how to tackle it, although I’ve been leaning towards cutting the Mylar out as mentioned. I will not attempt to remove anything other than what is over the inserts though. I figure insert decals can be put down and cleared/Mylar over top. Please post your results!

That is NOT the same thing at all. He is repairing ghosting inserts with a syringe, not air gaps under mylar. Most two part clear might eat away at the surrounding mylar+glue and make a mess.

Not trying to be mean... I have just heard a LOT MORE bad results than good from "I'm going to try something with this mylar". Your mileage may vary.

I learned 10 years ago that it doesn't really matter what people post on pinside. Regardless if it's good or bad advice, people just do whatever they want any way so let it fly and let us know what happens. I hope it works out.

some recent examples:
Obvious scam that's too good to be true? "Where do I send the money because I just can't miss out on this deal?" "My game wouldn't boot and Pinside folks helped me for free but I really don't like that forum because they didn't tell me to take the rusty balls out of the game." "My game is obviously worth 5 grand because I saw a guaranteed HUO one sell on Pinside or Ebay for that much." And it goes on and on and on...

As I stated in post #9.

Vid on topic of mylar bubbles:

"Take a sharp, brand new straight-pin.

Don't even make a **hole**, just with the tip of the pin, let the air out.

About 5% of the time, the Mylar will still have enough stickiness to re-adhere when warmed with a hair dryer, but don't count on it (especially on a game that old).
-
NEVER inject superglue or poly under the Mylar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Thanks
Blake

Yeah, not sure what more there is to understand. Mylar is a big sheet of plastic with glue. 35 years later the glue got heated up thousands of times and it dried out and let go. Now you want to attempt to inject MORE glue into this decades old air pocket and “hope” it won’t totally look like shit...
that’s a mighty big gamble.

I have air bubbles on a few games. They look like shit. One even affects ball travel.
The other option is to cut them out and Mylar decals. I did this on a checkpoint and it looked fantastic.
The existing plastic Mylar will most likely be destroyed by most glues you use trying to re-adhere it. Also you have to realize “injecting” glue into a sealed pocket deprives it of air so how will curing work? There’s a lot of things your gambling on and only one attempt to get it right or you’re looking at fixing a huge ugly mess.

If you’re willing to experiment I wish you the best of luck. I imagine that maybe there is something out there but it’s just the trial and error involved that is the barrier of entry preventing people from trying it.
You might want to contact one of the manufacturers of mylar and ask what glue they use to bond it? Maybe they will have ideas.

Great idea!

I'd be interested in your progress OP. The more knowledge we gain, the better.

glad I came across this thread. has anyone ever done the needle trick? in the post said don't make a hole. so how do you do this then?

Please be specific. What “trick” are you trying to attempt here? Using a syringe on mylar to insert magic potions or release the air? (It does not usually work out.)

Just post some pics of what you’re attempting. There is likely a risky way and a super risky way. Choose wisely. If you want the truth, most people that attempt to “fix mylar” either screw it up so bad they need to remove it all anyway and just leave it off, or they just choose to pull it all to begin with and remove the glue afterward.

In most cases, people end up kicking themselves in the middle of the cleanup and asking, “why the hell didn’t I just leave it alone, it wasn’t THAT bad?”

Mylar is designed as a one time use product. Trying to modify it’s adhesion properties after it’s lost them is a fool’s errand. Leave it be and just wax it or, just yank it all.