The 'weeding' part is the part i loathe John. The stupid small walnut pieces stuck in the heads of the screws... 
I agree, that is pretty boring work. I try to make the most of it. There are always a few pieces, of course, that get tossed because they just won't polish up because the finish was 'compromised' somehow, either in manufacture, along the way, replaced with the wrong part, etc. It's also hard to talk myself into tumbling some parts, as they are 2-3 cents each when purchased in quantity. But, if you just replace things, you're really missing the whole idea of 'restoring' something. I'm considering replacing all the solenoids on this machine for 2 reasons - 1) several are non-original WMS coils, and I always swap those out and 2) I have a box of new OEM solenoids, and could replace all without buying any - and when I put a 'new' one into a game with 'restored' originals, a careful eye can still tell which one is new and which is restored. Then, I'd have a decent stock of originals that are used to put into future restorations. Still undecided about that. I came into a decent sized box of NOS WMS solenoids on eBay a few years back and they've been sitting here.
Funny that i see that you have logged your entries at the top of each post.
Yeah, I get a lot of questions like 'how many hours did that take' and I've not kept track officially before, so I figured I'd try to keep track here. I also considered setting up a blog. I think I'm going to eliminate the 'Day x of xx' part. At least the 'of xx' part, because having a schedule makes it less fun for me. Truth be told, I'd like this project to take a week, but if it takes a year, it's OK. A goal like taking 4 months is fine, but having '120 days' staring me in the face each day makes me feel like I'm falling behind, and I don't think that's a good idea.
I have been doing this for years and am currently keeping a log on my ST TNG restore. I thought i was the only nut to do so ! 
How many hours are you in to the ST:TNG? I need to give that game another chance. After playing a few, I wrote it off and sold the ST:TNG I picked up inexpensively. But, I need to play a nice clean tweaked one, I'm sure I'm missing something good. The theme just does nothing for me.
RE the cab decals, of course it will finish off the game nicely with new decals but your decals still look great.
Hard call to make.
I think I'm gonna order the decals. $300 USD is a lot of money, but not much in terms of regret. And of course, once you spend $300 on decals, you can't forget the new side rails and other expenses to decal the cabinet. Prob need to add $500 to the project budget to redecal the cabinet. I want to continue my process of doing it once and doing it right! It just means that I may need to table the parts restoration and concentrate on the cabinet with my finances and time and come back to the playfield.
Love your work BTW ! 
Thanks. I love doing it!
