You only need to remove the two wire ramps, there not much in the middle of the playfield. Use freeze spray... You can use a standard air spray, just turn the can upsidedown when spraying. Additionally you can get freeze spray from www.littleshopofgames.com.

Good Luck.

I would try and clean the mylar before trying to remove it. There are a lot of products out there that can do a good job cleaning it and you may get it to a clear enough state that it won't bother you.

Removing it would be a ton of work. You also may not be improving the game by removing it, especially if you muck it up while doing the work. I have found that when I take things apart and put them back together, it is really easy for me to over tighten a bolt, push to hard on a wire, crack a plastic, etc...

Grats on picking up the Star Trek TNG, TZBen. This morning I just got Final Frontier with a 3 ball & no buy-in, and got awarded the billion points for artifact collection.

You can either have a great game on STTNG where you feel like a champ, or quickly get annihilated by the outlanes.

Hahaha!

Cheater lanes. I suppose its fun to try for a while. I like the wide open outlanes myself, as it makes the game more unpredictable and intense. You can sort of get around the right outlane issue, by simply not making shots where it will cause a ball to roll in that area. Once you learn your particular machine, you'll know what shots you want to avoid (possibly via flipper passing).

As for the left outlane, you just have to be on your toes and always make sure kickback is lit.

I think you´re definetly doing the right thing! Just get rid of the mylar, it comes off pretty easy with both the freezspray and the hairdryer method. The worst part is to get rid of the glue residue that the mylar leaves behind, that my friend is a bitch. But when the glue is gone and you´ve given the playfield a few buffs with Novus 2, I promise you it will come out great!

Good luck!

And congrats to a great game ( the first one I ever got a highscore on)

Its definately going to look shiny as hell after the mylar removal and novus treatment. Can't wait to see those pics TZBen.

I'll be posting pics of my Star Trek soon, once I finish decorating my gameroom. Spirit Halloween stores nearby just opened their doors for the holiday season. They sell stringed blacklights that I use in my gameroom. Similar to christmas lights. They give off good light and don't cause glare. The ones they sell include female ends in order to daisy chain a whole bunch of them together. Think I got em for $25 or so a set.

Can't wait to see those pics after the mylar removal, TZBen. Recently, I changed out the rubbers on my Star Trek, and installed new ramps (with plastic protectors). The game was absolutely brutal to the little kids that came over to play (the ball just rockets all around the freshly waxed playfield).....yet they continually came back to play again. Steve Ritchie knocked it out of the park, as far as making a game for a return audience.

TZ take a close up of the mylar area - Its hard to tell from the picts, I know guys that use the appliance rustoleum spray paint: http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=101
for things like that and legs - takes a few days to dry but apparently works well.

STTNG is a pain in the butt to shop out - did mine in the winter, thought it was never going to end..lol

That is a big job, good luck with it, was thinking of doing mine, but on second thoughts....

That is a hell of a lot of parts in buckets for a month. Hope you will be able to remember where the all go.

I damaged a few inserts when I removed my mylar. I wet sanded with a 600 grit paper to remove the razor blade damage. Tape playfield around the insert to prevent damaging any more of the paint around the insert.

You might want to try and make a new insert out of transparency film rather than the replacement sticker. You can reverse print on the bottom of the film to prevent damage to the artwork once installed. The hardest part is finding the correct font to match.

TZBen - I'm looking at picking up a SW(DE) that has a full mylar installed which is bubbling in at least one place. Can you share a little more detail on your removal process (ie, did you go with the canned air, etc.) and whether you would do it again? Thanks!

Thanks TZBen. I saw something on the hair dryer method a while ago -- does anyone have an opinion as to which method (heat vs freeze spray) works best. As I recall, the pictures of the hair dryer method I saw showed the guy using a metal scrapper to get the mylar up after applying the heat. I remember thinking that it seemed like the metal could easily scratch up the playfield and art.

This guy used freeze spray and it looks easy with no damage

The hair dryer is the best method for decals, but you have to work slowly. The hair dryer is awesome because when you heat the glue, it comes up with the decal and you don't have to do any scraping.

Should be fine, as long as wires aren't shorted somewhere..

As far as your insert goes, sand it with the finest wet paper you can get. (You already did) Then when its pretty even, clearcoat it.

It doesn't matter if the insert is dull, once you put clearcoat on it, it goes back to looking clear and new. Then put your decal on. (when the clear is dry of course)

Wouldn't you then add more clear over the decal?

My Corvette has the same issue with the upper left flipper. It is probably a bad opto on the opto board by the button. Since it doesn't have an upper left flipper, I am not worried about it.