Tearing Down the Playfield

On Sunday morning, Alex and I spent a few hours tearing down Flash's playfield, methodically removing, logging, bagging, labelling and storing every screw, pop bumper cap, and lamp. After we were left with the bare board, I used my portable scanner to scan the playfield before we started the cleaning process. Stiching together the scans in Photoshop gave us the composite playfield, pre-restoration, shown to the right.

There were three mylar protectors left beneath the pop bumpers. Alex used the freeze spray on them to delaminate the adhesive, while I carefully lifted them off the playfield using some tweezers. It worked like a charm, and we lifted no paint. I used lacquer thinner to dissolve the adhesive left behind, and then rinsed with alcohol. After two or three cycles, the mylar and its adhesive were no more.

Cleaning this playfield will be a challenge; the ball swirls covering the playfield are very dense and dark, and will take some time. I did use some naphtha first, to dissolve any wax left behind. Next will be some Magic Eraser with some alcohol to deal with the ball swirls. That will take some time.