As the previous poster said, those aren't decals, they're screened. Furthermore, the art appears to all still be there. The clear has chipped around the insert, probably because the insert is slightly raised. Why are you talking about replacing them!? That would be 50x the amount of work.

If the inserts are raising, we need to get them back down. Easiest way is a hair dryer underneath the insert, on high, for about 3 minutes or until hot to the touch. Don't worry, a hair dryer won't get hot enough to melt the insert... a heat gun will though in a matter of seconds, so don't use a heat gun! Then take a wooden block bigger than the insert, place it on top of the insert, and use a rubber mallet to tap it back down. Repeat this until the insert is flush with the playfield. Once flush, take some water thin super glue and, from underneath the playfield, place a drop or two here and there where the insert meets the wood. Capillary action will take effect and suck the glue in and bond the insert to the wood. Now that sucker won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Then I'd touchup the black border with black water acrylic paint. Going to take a few coats or light will shine through. Then I'd seal it in and rebuild the missing clear little by little with either varathane ,or water thin super glue, from a pipette.

Total time to do this job? Probably 2 hours. If done properly, nobody would ever know something was amiss.

Goo gone isn't even going to dent that stuff. The art is under a few layers of clearcoat.

Lining them back up won't fix the chipped look, but it will get the insert flush with the playfield so you can fill the chip with something clear and strong.

Just laying new decals over it is not going to work unless you first chip off all that clear with a flat blade screwdriver, sand off the existing art, lay the decals down perfect, and then sealing them/building the area back up with clear. This is a lot more work than what I am proposing.

The reason you can't just lay them over that is you essentially have a missing layer of the playfield where the clear is gone! Lay a sheet of paper over those inserts and roll a ball over it... the ball is going to weigh the paper down in the areas where the clear is missing. Same thing is going to happen with a mylar decal. You need to apply the decal to a perfectly flat area or it won't look good, and I guarantee it will NOT look better than it does now.

I really don't see in any of your pictures where there's a problem with any of the art other than the black border. Am I missing something?

This was all beyond my skill level as well, until I got some advice from some knowledgeable people, dove in, learned from my mistakes, and got better at it.

Ah, so you do have some art missing on that 250,000 insert.

If you're going to buy the insert decals all I can really advise you to do is make sure those areas are level before applying the decals, otherwise it just won't look that good. If you don't feel comfortable doing it, I'd try finding someone in GA that can. Some waterthin superglue (or varathane), a pipette, and a paper towel is all that is needed to slowly build the chipped areas up. With either product, be sure to build it up little by little, do not just place a huge glob on there as with super glue it will frost, and with varathane it will take a long time to dry and might be soft for awhile. Make sure it is completely dry, then just sand it smooth and polish with some novus 2. After that, lay the decal down, maybe slap a piece of mylar over it, and be done with it.

Or realize T2 is a great game, even if a little art is missing, and just go play the hell out of it and have fun.

Edit: Oh, and pinrestore.com sells some wonderful pipettes for dirt cheap.

If you have absolutely any questions just let me know. I'd be more than happy to answer them.

Be sure it is water based varathane and not oil based. Oil based tends to yellow as it ages. We wouldn't want that.

Minor teeny tiny insert raising won't be too much of a problem, but if it is affecting the path of the ball, then that's a different story. It's in a home use environment now. Those chips were accumulated over years and years of neglect and probably THOUSANDS of plays. If you keep the playfield waxed and the balls clean you shouldn't see much more chipping to be honest.

If you're not going to restore the inserts, I say leave it be. Better is the enemy of good.

Polyurethane is an excellent, durable clear. Sure, it's not auto clear, but it is a lot easier to work with. Here's two playfields I've done with waterbased Varathane (just a brand of polyurethane) from a shake can.

As others have said, it is a players machine. But if you REALLY want to go through with this someday, here's some info that might help.

Stack, this is what you want:

http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-Varathane-200061H-Water-Based-Polyurethane/dp/B000FPCKBW

Most important thing is to first get the playfield perfectly level in all directions. Lift the playfield up and out a little bit and use some cardboard or a 2x4, whatever you can to make sure it is perfectly flat and level. Second most important thing is cleaning any oils, wax, and dust from the area. Wipe it down really well with naphtha. Make sure that insert is CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. Then just use a pipette, suck a little bit up, and put a little down on the damaged part of insert. Use the pipette to move it around so it covers it. Don't put too much down at a time. If you do put too much on, just empty the pipette, squeeze the bulb when it is empty, and suck some back up. Also do this if you get some bubbles; just suck them up. Once it is dry, see if you're close to getting it levelled with the playfield. If you got a little more to go, wipe area with naphtha, and put down another layer.

Once you're level with the playfield, gently block sand with 400 grit to smooth it, level it, and feather it in. Be careful not to damage the surrounding area. When I say gently I mean gently! Then move to 600 grit, 1500 grit, 2000 grit, and buff it with novus 2 with an orbital buffer, or if you don't have one, hand buff really fast and hard by hand with novus 2 until you get a nice smooth glossy finish.

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