Had a satisfying evening removing the pops, and looking at some of the wear around the lower pop bumper. It’s worn to the wood, but I am confident that with a little sanding (120 and 400 grit) and smoothing out and waxing, I can limit future wear, and limit this small anomaly’s effect on ball travel. In the future, I’ll be filling in this area, and touching it up to match the original art. I hesitate for now, since I wouldn’t get all the restored artwork under a typical round mylar piece.
For now the goal is to make it play as perfectly as possible, so that means removing any annoying peeling mylar, and smoothing out any ball wear spots.
Here’s a pic of the improved area:
