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I now have a MATTE iPhone 3GS!

S

superspiffy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 6, 2007
740
0
The scratches on the back of my white 3GS was really starting to annoy me so I ordered Rad Tech's Ice Creme to get it out. But even after repetitive application and wiping with the soft cloth, it really wasn't doing much for the deep scratches on the back.

So I took the rougher sand paper that came with the kit (that was meant for polishing metal) and started scrubbing the plastic. The white plastic started coming off easily and after a slow process, I managed to get all the scratches out. The side effect was that the area around the scratches where I had scrubbed was now pure matte. I tried polishing it with the polishing cream but that didn't help. So with a stroke of genius, I decided to just sand the whole back so it'd be an even matte. Check out the results. Remember the black "matte iPhone" that was leaked before the 3GS came out? I think I've now got the white version.
 

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looks cool, you must have been worried while doing it. How does the icecream work on shallow scratches. Does that pad work well at shining up the chrome. Is the chrome duller after using it.
 
Interesting! This reminds me of polishing the bezel back in 2007. Please post higher-quality pictures and different angles.

Does the Apple and text apper unaffected?
 
dread said:
looks cool, you must have been worried while doing it. How does the icecream work on shallow scratches. Does that pad work well at shining up the chrome. Is the chrome duller after using it.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I had trouble getting rid of even the tiny scratches just from the solution + soft cloth. Maybe I wasn't doing it right, but I poured a ton of solution and spend a few hours doing it.

The solution + soft cloth can polish up metal but the sand paper, forget about it.

ntrigue said:
Interesting! This reminds me of polishing the bezel back in 2007. Please post higher-quality pictures and different angles.

Does the Apple and text apper unaffected?
Click to expand...

As you can see, the Apple logo is duller with all the micro scratches from the sand paper pad. I had to scrub a few scratches on the bezel too but since the pad makes the metal duller, I just continued it all around.
 

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Cool! I gave the shiny bezel on the front a satin metal finish. I never liked the mirror finish and felt it was time to change. I may try what you've done sometime soon. :)
 
Mr. Gates said:
Can't wait to see somebody post a picture of this process done to a black iPhone. Because black is such a strong color I would think the result might be less uniform. More spotty. How long did this take? I would probably over do it until I got the phone a little thinner:)
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A couple of hours but it can be done in less than 1. You don't need to actually scrub all that much to get that matte look. The glossiness rubs off quite easily. I was just meticulous about polishing with the soft cloth + solution after I scrub a little area with the sandpaper but that's not even necessary. Save all the polishing for last to get rid of the powdery plastic residue after you've sanded everything to your liking.
 
My black 3G is halfway there just from being in my pocket for the past year and a half. It looks really good on the white, though. Nice work, OP!
 
I usually don't like customisations, but I think this looks pretty good! :D
 
Just had a thought...

could it be that the leaked matte iPhone from a few months back is just a simple 3G that somebody just sanded?
 

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Dude no offense, but you really can't tell if it's matted or whatever you call it with a white iPhone.
 
A few questions:

1. Does it look like there are tiny scratches all over the back or is it smooth?

2. What do you recommend for the type of sandpaper for this mod?

3. Did you use a swirling motion or up and down?

I think it looks totally cool. I bet you don't have to worry about fingerprints anymore.

Does it feel nice in your hand? Is it slippery now?
 
This looks wonderful!! I am getting a white 3gs here in a few months, so this might be something to consider!! Thanks for sharing!!
 
ozzyman500 said:
Dude no offense, but you really can't tell if it's matted or whatever you call it with a white iPhone.
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Have you actually seen a white iPhone in real life? You can easily tell, even with those poor quality pictures the OP posted.
 
TheSpaz said:
Does it feel nice in your hand? Is it slippery now?
Click to expand...
A slippery iPhone, that'd be pretty funny. Especially when you hand it over to the Genius.
appleguy123 said:
No the product model number matched that of the 3gS the matte back was going to be the 3gS but was removed at the last second (or at least Per Sé).
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Yeah, exactly.


Wow, that looks really nice. I'm just worried because I always get my iPhone's out of warranty battery replacements. I'm worried they'll deny it. :p
 
dvdhsu said:
A slippery iPhone, that'd be pretty funny. Especially when you hand it over to the Genius.

Yeah, exactly.


Wow, that looks really nice. I'm just worried because I always get my iPhone's out of warranty battery replacements. I'm worried they'll deny it. :p
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Actually… you're mistaken. Apple has been known in the past to replace iPods that have been brushed on the back. They don't care because you're just basically scratching the iPhone which actually doesn't affect the way it works. So if the home button stops working for some reason, they can't say "Well, you took sandpaper to the back so it messed up the home button".
 
superspiffy said:
Just had a thought...

could it be that the leaked matte iPhone from a few months back is just a simple 3G that somebody just sanded?
Click to expand...

No, because of what was stated earlier, but it is common knowledge to derive that the 'leaked matte back' is just a 3G S back without the glossy coating and whatever else is under there.

So how would you compare this to other matte objects? Ever felt a Speck See-Thru Satin? Or a matte Incase Slider?
 
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