TOMMY is such a great game. One of the very few pinball machines which theme is ....well pinball! (sort of)
Cleaning playfields can be very rewarding, but care does need to be taken. My advice is in relation to clear coated playfields (DMD era games)
The most important step is to remove any dirt, grit or abrasive substances BEFORE you do any form of polishing.
I've seen dealers who use a rag, squirt novus 2 or novus 3 onto the playfield directly and just scrub. Think about what this would do to the finish on your car if you did the same thing.
I will remove the playfield from the game, remove ALL top side components. Believe it or not, this does include all hole through posts and pop bumpers. Also remove anything on the underside where the ball travels (inc ball trough etc).
Next I will carefully remove the crud with a soft cloth and nifty (always sprayed onto the rag). Quite often you'll find broken bits of glass from globes, again you don't want these to be scrubbed into the playfield.
Then the playfield will be cleaned again with rag / nifty, but with dirt and crud gone, a little more elbow grease can be put into it.
After that, I have a 3 stage compound (high end automotive product), but novus 3 / 2 will effectively give you a result. Don't try and do the playfield in 1 hit, but work on a 2 inch x 2 inch section at a time.
Once the entire playfield is done, gentle wipe down with a microfiber cloth, then a polish with a pure carnauba wax.
For the under playfield ramps / ball troughs etc these need to be dismantled and cleaned.
To do it properly, can take up to 10 hours. Fresh rubbers (don't buy the 15 year old stale black ones), globes and replace any broken posts and the topside will be fresh to go.
