I have a rough Criterium 75 that I bought last December. I don’t know where the machine was stored; it was waiting for me in the seller’s snowy driveway along with eight family members. It was weird having all those people staring at me, so I didn’t spend much time looking at it. I had already agreed to buy the machine for $50, so I loaded it in the car and took off. Buyers’ remorse sunk in at the first rest stop.

The backglass was in great shape, but the Recel playfield’s top plastic layer had delaminated to the point where it looked like an Orbitron.
orbitor1_plexi (resized).jpg
In some places the plastic had warped over roll-over switches and light bulbs. As it sat, the playfield was useless.
DSC06243 (resized).JPG
I kept the Criterium’s bottom cabinet in the garage, and on a cold, January night I was able to take advantage of the low temperature and break/ tear/ rip the warped plastic off the playfield. It was so brittle. I lost about 10% of the artwork, but I can live with that. This is going to be a player’s machine at best.
DSC06252 (resized).JPG
The Criterium is running now, but about 70% the playfield is covered with old adhesive.
DSC06250 (resized).JPGDSC06251 (resized).JPGDSC06249 (resized).JPG
Does anyone have an idea about removing this layer of glue?

I tried the alcohol/ flour treatment, but not with any success.

Thanks!

Yes. It works some, where the adhesive is very light, but it doesn't make a dent in the thicker areas.

I have the Goo Gone, and I can buy the plastic razor blades over lunch. Maybe I'm just missing patience. I'll try slowing down; I didn't give either the alcohol/ flour mix or the Goo Gone much time to sit before I tried removing the adhesive.

Thank you for the replies.

The Criterium '75 sat unaddressed all fall and winter in the garage. After selling a machine, I used the extra room in the basement for the Criterium. It was time to get to work again.

I've spent about two hours each night using a method of rubbing flour into the glue, wetting the flour with rubbing alcohol, and waiting 5 minutes. Then I scrape off the mixture with plastic razor blade. After two weeks I can celebrate that I have removed almost all traces of the adhesive.

It was so tedious. Sometimes two inches of glue took an hour to remove. The process also removed more of the original artwork than I had hoped. But look at that shine after waxing!

20180414_210759 (resized).jpg

20180414_210954 (resized).jpg