scrub harder it will come off with the proper amount of elbow grease.

Simple green and a magic eraser. But be careful how hard you scrub you will bring up paint.

I did used it on my HS restore with no problems.

I wouldn't see why not. If you aren't sure try and area where you can't see like the upper playfield around a plastic

Yes

A local friend (tatman999 on Pinside) did it for me. Usually you don't pay more then $250 for a clear coat job no matter who does it.

Someone posted on here a while back that they used some brand of cleaner that was originally used to clean sinks and tile, and it worked great and made dirty playfields a breeze to clean (and a bunch of people chimed in and agreed that the stuff worked great), but I can't find the post, and can't remember the name of the cleaner. Anyone remember the post, or the name of the cleaner?

If it's the same post I read, one person asked about using tile cleaner to clean a playfield and a bunch of people whose opinions I respect said it was an exceptionally bad idea.

Be careful with the magic eraser that thing it like high grain sand paper..

the treasure cove cleaning kit was magnificent!

This sounds strange and I haven't tried it but a Tech that worked on my WOZLE and RFM said to first clean the PF with bug and tire cleaner then wax it. Anyone else ever heard of this or tried it?

Novus 2 for 99% of cleaning needs.

Dirt in swirl marks is below the surface (embedded) and Magic Eraser and alcohol work well to clean it out. Tread lightly and it will look great, get heavy handed or impatient and you can make it worse by damaging the paint.

Once clean you need to wax / clearcoat over it or the dirt will collect there again.

I have heard of using low grade oven cleaner but this sounds like a bad idea to me.

Many oven cleaners are a caustic lye base and very aggressive, great for cleaning nasty legs off the machine but crazy to have anywhere near a playfield.

Be really careful, it's not hard at all to take that green paint up on EATPM with a magic eraser, and good luck color matching it. When I did my restore I ended up repainting every bit of green with a new pearlescent, but it's a crapload of tedious masking.

I used it with no problems. But I agree you do have to be careful with it. It's the best way to get those ball marks off.

I read about someone doing it that way and they said it worked fine. Another well know member on here says to ditch the Novis, and use Mothers Mag wheel polish (you can buy it in AutoZone and Walmart). He says it is cheaper, and does an amazing job on cleaning swirl marks and every thing. I think all these methods were compaired in the thread with the tile cleaner. To clarify the tile cleaner, it wasn't a sprayon cleaner, but in paste form like the mothers mag wheel polish. Lastly I heard someone say they used scrubbing bubbles to clean a playfield also, but I don't know how that turned out

A lot of these suggestions in this thread sound dangerous. Why suggest something you havent tried yourself? I see a lot of newbs damaging their playfields with some of this stuff.

Cal50 got it right. It works, and don't go crazy with all this other stuff until you have tested it on a wrecked playfield.

Personally I use Dri-Wash and Guard, its a spray on cleaner wax that I have used on my classic cars and daily drivers. It is safe for all clear coats on vehicles and does a great detailing shine. On the pinballs its does a good job of removing light to mediums dirt on the playfield and leaves a quick layer of protection on the surface. It cuts down on the hard waxing of the playfield to about three times a year.

Great point joejet.

Interesting never heard of that before..

This is a very bad idea. Oven cleaner can be used to strip paint off of plastic. Oven cleaner if used carefully will not damage some plastics. It will definitely remove paint.

I read the same thing. I need to get mine out of the garage and try it. I think it says it is safe for coated wheels (same as clear coat on pins). The stuff works wonders on dirty wheels so it makes sense that it would work. You are right about the post about the tile cleaner, it was in a paste form, not a spray like scrubbing bubbles. I wish I could find the post because I would be a Guinea pig for the group and give it a try.

I can only suggest to avoid rubbing compounds and wheel polish for metal wheels. On your playfield. The playfield paint is very thin.
Metal Wheel Polish will do a very impressive job on the chrome pinball machine legs.

There are paint polishes for 'Clear Coat Paint". These polishes have way less abrasives in them. Rubbing Compounds have the highest level of abrasives. For more info you can contact the polish companies, they have staff that will help. TEST an area first, this is GREAT ADVICE.

in my experience, the best way to clean a dirty playfield is beeing really persistent. I had some really good results on my Space Shuttle just with alcohol, a clean cottoncloth and a lot of stamina. Just apply some pressure and keep on rubbin'

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cheers,
Ben

From Mother's website: When cleaning polished aluminum wheels without a clear-coat, or open metals like magnesium, use Mothers® Mag & Aluminum Polish, a proven and popular product.

Everyone hold up a second here.

All of these auto products could change their formulas at any time, and not make any indication on the label.

Auto products sold in California might be different formulas than the rest of the USA.

I would NOT risk my expensive playfield on the crazy whims of Big Chem.

I'm curious how long it took to get that 2" square area that 'clean'?
I've not had the patience to get some of my playfields that clean (especially swirls on mid-late 70's Bally's).

Are people spending an hour or two, cleaning a whole playfield? Or is it more like a couple full 8-hour days of scrubbing, to get over all results?

I tend to spend 2 - 4 hours of scrubbing with Magic Erasure (at least two pads worth; cutting into cubes), 91% Isopropal and then Novus 2 and then a couple coats of TurtleWax. And I'm still never happy with the result.

Thanks for your comments Vid, hopefully that puts to rest yet another "using random household/automotive cleaners on your playfield discussion."

Are you doing that every cleaning?

No... Only the initial full tear down & shop... usually right after I acquire a game.
And I guess I lied a bit... when you're looking so close at the game your cleaning, I suppose you see alot more imperfections than it has.
Here's my Night Rider pf that I currently have on the bench, and a before & after of one of the sections showing the bad swirls before cleaning process.
I guess I got it alot cleaner than I originally thought.

NR_full.jpg
NR_beforeafter.jpg

Many car cleaner products contain petroleum distillates or abrasive cleaning agents.
Getting road tar & bugs off chrome or wheels (car) takes something more aggressive than Novus 2.

Since my PF never sees tar or bugs I do not need an aggressive cleaner, I want a MILD cleaner and polish.
Mothers Mag cleaner ( the white stuff) is excellent metal polish. You can add it to the tumbler and your posts will shine like a mirror. There is NO WAY its going on my PF.

Novus is designed specifically for plastic and comes in three select abrasive grades.
Novus 2 works great by itself of followed up with a good wax .

Sorry OP, the dirt in those ball swirl marks is only coming out with something more abrasive like Magic Eraser. Best used with some isopropyl alcohol. Rub a little at a time (wet), wipe dry with a cloth, inspect...repeat as necessary. You will need some good wax or, ideally in this case, a clearcoat to restore some shine to it. Rub too hard/long and it will take up the paint.

The whole playfield took me definitely longer than an hour! more like a full weekend of lots of half hour chunks of intense scrubbing. Applying high pressure was helping a lot. On some spots i did use a magic eraser too.

this exact method worked perfectly on the dirtiest parts of my PF.
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definitely no oven cleaner needed

cheers,
Ben