1. Chemtronics freeze spray purchased from MCM Electronics - $4.99. See information elsehwere about purchasing by the case with free shipping.
2. Pop bumper mylar circle is my first experiment. I gave it a good soaking and waited for the frost to form (about 4-5 seconds). Use the nozzle extension to get a more exact pattern and to keep the overspray away from your fingers. For future reference I would recommend spraying only a small area and get that section started. Then spray the rest and finish the removal. Getting a section started takes a little patience to make sure you're not gouging into the playfield.
3. Started up a small section using a putty knife and lightly pulled. It peeled off quite easily. So much so I was wondering if maybe it wasn't glued down all that well (see #5 below).
4. Mylar circle fully removed. You can still see the frost on the inner part of the pop bumber area.
5. Since I wasn't sure that the mylar circle was glued down all that well (yeah right) I started to peel up this circle without freeze spraying. As you can see, paint was coming up with it so I proved to myself the freeze spray was working.
6. Next up is the slingshot half-moon mylar. Note how nicely the mylar protected the playfield in that area.
7. After a quick spray down and freezing the mylar pulled up easily. About halfway through (I was going slowly) it started to pull a little bit more so I gave it another shot of freeze. The rest came off easily.
8. A section of paper towel soaked in Goo Gone and placed over the glue left behind in the slingshot area. The old mylar that once covered the area, or some saran wrap, would probably make a better cover as it won't evaporate as quickly. I'll try that on my next experiment.
9. After soaking for just a few minutes I scraped away some of the glue using a plastic eating utensil (it was the closest plastic thing I could find at the time), and used a rag with a little more Goo Gone on it. The utensil took the top layer off, the rag got the rest. Nothing but pristine playfield underneath. I only removed glue in the middle area, the white looking areas are the old glue. The small white scratch was done by me with the plastic utensil... I started out scratching too hard. A rubbery plastic spatula is highly recommended over eating utensils and is on my purchase list.
10. Here's the remnants of my mylar removal carnage. As you can see, all came off quite cleanly with absolutely no glue on the mylar.
11. This is the circle I started removing without freeze spraying first (#5). A fair amount of paint left on the bottom left side from my experiment. The rest of it I removed with freeze spray and without paint lifting.
12. Notice the slight amount of pain on the edge of the slingshot mylar. I noticed on most pieces I removed that paint wants to stick near the edges. Use the freeze spray generously in these areas and go slow.
