I have a Paragon playfield that I purchased NOS POPULATED from CA Robinson probably about 30 years ago. Well, I foolishly dropped it into my Paragon 6 months after that, and played it for ~6 months unprotected. OK, ok, I know...fast forward 30 years. I picked the game up from my dad's garage where it had been safe from the worst of the elements-but the sun had its way with the paint job. Long story short, I finally got time this past summer and I shopped out the playfield (really, the old rubbers didn't look DIRTY, just shot from sitting for far too long...)
The inserts are indeed cupped just as everybody has said. Obviously I won't be playing it until the PF can be protected. Anyway, I just pulled the trigger and bought a PF overlay from bestofpinball.de - it worked out to $177 and change with shipping included. So now I will wait. Here's the PF as it sits now:
IMG_20140727_154245476_-_Copy_-_Copy[1].jpg
Yes, I know I am going to have to strip everything off to put down the overlay. But I couldn't stand looking at the beautiful playfield with all the old ugly rotted rubbers on there.
BTW: Yes, I still have the original (semi-trashed) playfield. I also picked up 25 or so years ago a second Paragon for parts-paid a whopping 50 or 75 bucks-can't remember which-but the machine was complete-just goofed up from the worst rewiring hack job you have ever seen in your life. Pictures of that to come soon!
Just thought I'd chime in on this old thread only because of the talk of the makrolon overlay. I am quite anxious to see how it measures up-literally and figuratively.