Oh heck ya.
Saw your other thread and responded, but had not seen these pics.
Unless it's your holy grail machine, I wouldn't do a playfield swap on that. Especially if you are putting it into a machine with a trashed cabinet. Frankly, the cabinet resoration would probably be a much bigger PITA than the playfield swap, and you'll never be happy with a clean shiny playfield in a dirty trashed cabinet anyway.
That rollover area is way up top, nobody will really see that close what you do there. The rest of the playfield looks decent to me and should clear up pretty nice.
I guess as further proof - put me second in line behind GFLM if you decide to sell it. It's about 20x better shape than mine. Good luck.
Funny, I'm in the exact same boat as you.
Picked up a SS about a month ago. Playfield down to wood all thru center. In my case, it has one of the finest cabinets I've since from similar aged machines, and the backglass is pretty good. Plays great too, considering the playfield wear.
And now I'm facing the CPR dilemma too. I contacted them, they told me I'd most likely have an opportunity at the end.
I have no artistic skills. I can do basic touchups, but the level of detail in the center of my SS playfield is way beyond my ability to make it look even remotely decent. It really depends on the level of wear I think. I've retouched and varathaned playfields before, and I think they look good.
But I'll be honest - if I had a SS playfield that I was capable of touching up, I'd be happy enough with that and I wouldn't even consider the CPR. As it stands, I'm still not sure what I will do. I don't know that I'm "into" SS enough to warrant the effort.
Anyway, there's nothing that says you can't give it a shot. Use water based paint from the hobby store and have at it. If you don't like the way it looks, take a clean rag with some alcohol and wipe it off. No harm, no foul.
And yes, clearing a playfield will go a very long way towards disguising those little cracks and swirls.
Post edited by SealClubber : Added the comments from the other double post.