The original thought process was to mask off the inserts and give a very light coat, three times, 15 mins apart to just seal the playfield and help with an even surface (wood vs painted). No intention on polishing and any of whats done when you traditionally clear a restored playfield to make it look like its buried in glass.
Then peel back the tape and feather in any ridge the clear would leave.
Now being that the ridge wouldve been no higher than the thickness of masking tape, there wouldve been no issue. Especially since there is a space anyway between the hardtop and the inserts due to the thickness of the adhesive. Those little windows are floating, so dips that are .005 of a millimeter low really arent a problem, its the raised areas that mess up the hardtop under the artwork.
so the plan was polish inserts, alleviate any worry of clear separating due to twisting, bending, humidity changes, impact, heat, cold, bad luck, whatever... and seal up the playfield with clear to honor the request of Outside Edge.
However, when I did my first light coat and came back I saw the traces of pooling and the tells of oil, my 2nd coat amplified that look. Finally on my 3rd coat I decided to go medium to see if i would get lucky and of course it turned into the horror show above.
So now, I just wait til after work and block sand (wet) everything level, I'll actually just do this with 1000 little by little until all the mountainous peaks are knocked down then begin polishing the inserts. It will "look" ugly but all that matters is 99% of the playfield is sealed, the inserts look good, and there arent any splinters or weird high spots that will telescope into the artwork which isnt the case because of the prep originally done for the first hardtop.
My other hardtop was on my Mata Hari and all I did with that one was just sand the entire playfield down and polish inserts and its as solid as can be. This introduction of clear coating prior bums me out, I hate clear coating, I dont have the means to paint in the winter with 20 degree temps, yesterday was a major pain to heat the space. I'll be glad when this piece is behind me.