You mean like tiny dents? Most of my games have that, I'm pretty sure it's from ball strikes. Nothing to worry about.

I love the older games that have the light covers pushed in so they redirect the ball when they roll slowly over them. I just call stuff like that "character"

They are most likely pesky lil ball marks. Are you getting air balls alot? I was on my Dracula and they are all over the place because of those middle targets that just get hammered and reflect the ball all over. I added padding behind the targets and now barely get them.

It seems like they are generally accepted as normal wear on a playfield so I try not to worry about them too much.

A steel ball striking any wood at a decent speed is going to leave some kind of mark.

Is your play field clear coated? Or does it have a sheet of Mylar over it?

Also look where the dimple is at and look underneath the playfield. See if its a mix matched screw. Sometimes it gets replaced with the wrong screw causing it to mess up the playfield.

I tried to take a picture of my TZ playfield but the tiny dimples didn't show up...are they super small and all over? If so, then mine is the same way. If I look at mine at a real steep angle it has thousands of tiny pits (when I rub my hand over the surface I don't feel them)...maybe the plywood that Bally made the Playfields out of wasn't super smooth?

I just polished my JM playfield and now looking at an sharp angle I can see small dimples in the playfield too. I think it must be the playfield factory hardcoat/clearcoat.

It almost looks like orange peel texture on a bad car paintjob.

If thats what it looks like on your playfield it is most likely a factory defect of too much hardener in the clearcoat when it was sprayed.

erak Wrote: I just polished my JM play field and now looking at an sharp angle I can see small dimples in the play field too. I think it must be the play field factory hard coat/clear coat.

It almost looks like orange peel texture on a bad car paint job.

If that's what it looks like on your play field it is most likely a factory defect of too much hardener in the clear coat when it was sprayed.

To much hardener could very well be part of the problem along with not enough flow enhancer/fish eye remover and a assembly line mentality to top things off.

The thing about clear coats is that in certain situations the clearcoat will lift causing little tiny bubbles to form giving it a dimpled look. If you have a sheet of Mylar and your getting this affect the adhesive could be releasing giving the same look and effect.

That being said...

A good way to test if you have clear coat play field is to look at a light bulb hole in the play field, if you can see the clear come to a edge then you more likely then not have a sheet of Mylar covering a sticker. If the clear goes down into the hole it is a sprayed on clearcoat.

You can also drag a straight pin from the inside edge of the hole out onto the play field and if you feel a step or little click it's a sheet of Mylar etc....

If you have Mylar and find that the adhesive is indeed lifting you might possibly be able to reactivate the adhesive by starting in the center and heating the play field with a hairdryer and use a small firm paint roller and roll out the Mylar squeezing out the air bubbles. This may or may not work depends on the age, severity of the problem.

The only fix I know of for lifting clear coat is a redo, yea...that one sucks!

Dimples are pretty normal. From my experience, late model stern games are a lot more susceptible to them. They exists on all pinballs, but on WPC games aren't usually bad at all.