A few months ago I received a first generation iPhone which had been in a car accident. The screen had been cracked and the aluminum case was in a bad shape, despite the horrible external imperfections it was actually working, well kind of. I was unable at the time to restore it to firmware 2.2.1 since it would hang at one specific point during the process. Luckily, with the advent of firmware 3.0, somehow I was able to restore it without the previous hang.
I used the device a few weeks as test device for my Emmer Inc related adventures, until I got my hands on Lemmy Van den Eede’s bricked iPhone which didn’t boot at all. In the end I combined the best parts of both iPhones to create one working mutant iPhone.
The internet is filled with movies and guides on how to disassemble an iPhone, but I thought I’d post a few lessons learned and give my own opinion on the process. Before I attempted the transplantation, I was unsure how doable it would be.
- Removing the black antenna cover and the aluminum back casing is difficult. No matter how easy they make it look in the movies, it just isn’t. I used metal tools instead of the advertised plastic case openers, which I doubt will do the trick. I’ve read several comments stating that the plastic tools look good, but are useless at opening the case. Expect scratches and scuff marks on the case and slight bending of the aluminum casing! I highly doubt if anyone can open the casing for the first time without causing external damage.
- Once the device is open, disassembling it is indeed straightforward, I was a bit scared that I might not be able to assemble it again. But as long as you don’t lose anything it is easier than one would think. Just take your time & you’ll be fine. The only “issue” I had when assembling it, was a latch which had to be connected to the motherboard, I thought it had to click, but you just have to slide it in the connector.
- Removing the glass plate and the actual LCD from the inner case is rather difficult, removing the glass plate itself from the LCD is in my opinion nearly impossible without breaking your LCD. In the end I took the inner casing with the LCD and glass plate of the bricked iPhone and inserted the motherboard of the other iPhone.
- While I was at it, I also desoldered the battery of the bricked iPhone and soldered it back in into the mutant iPhone. The battery is soldered to the motherboard with 3 wires, the wires are covered with glue which is a little tricky to remove. But it is doable, even with little to no experience soldering. Whatever you do, don’t let the red wire tough the white or black one, according to the disasembly guides. Put some tape over the red one.
And that was kind of what I wanted to document. Just take your time, watch the disassembly videos a few times and you should be ok. If you came to terms with the fact that your beautiful iPhone will look a little less perfect afterwards, that is.
