Reply #11: OK, it's clean, shiny, and smooth as a baby's bottom.

[no_hypocrisy]

What I did:

1. Painted Goo-Gone on the surface.
2. Waited a few minutes.
3. Turned the iron on very low for a few minutes. There was some light smoking.
4. Wait for iron to cool a little. Used the edge very gently of a small screwdriver to draw up a wedge and peeled off pieces of the plastic.
5. Repeated #s 1-4.
6. Final step was to gently go over any remaining small patches with the 000 steel wool pad (sans soap).

LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE NEW!

Thanks everyone!!!!!