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Move all 5S components to a new shell?

sonicrobby

sonicrobby

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Apr 24, 2013
2,525
612
New Orleans
Im new playing with the insides of Apple hardware, especially the iPhone. Im curious, is it possible to remove all of the components from a 5S whose shell is in a less than fair condition, and put it all into a 3rd party shell

I browsed through the iFixit website and it seems the only thing I would need to get additionally would be the battery adhesive. Im curious if anyone else has any experience with this and advice they can spare.
 
If you're new to iPhone repairs I'd avoid it

There's about 2 billion tiny screws, I think all are different sizes.
You'll struggle fitting it onto a new shell
Parts always get bigger when I try this lol.

Also your warranty will be screwed.
 
sonicrobby said:
Im new playing with the insides of Apple hardware, especially the iPhone. Im curious, is it possible to remove all of the components from a 5S whose shell is in a less than fair condition, and put it all into a 3rd party shell

I browsed through the iFixit website and it seems the only thing I would need to get additionally would be the battery adhesive. Im curious if anyone else has any experience with this and advice they can spare.
Click to expand...

I think it comes down if you are good at tinkering with things like this. If you are, I have no doubt you can follow say an ifixit guide and strip an iphone down.
 
sonicrobby said:
Im new playing with the insides of Apple hardware, especially the iPhone. Im curious, is it possible to remove all of the components from a 5S whose shell is in a less than fair condition, and put it all into a 3rd party shell

I browsed through the iFixit website and it seems the only thing I would need to get additionally would be the battery adhesive. Im curious if anyone else has any experience with this and advice they can spare.
Click to expand...

Would be much easier to put a case on it.
 
617aircav said:
Would be much easier to put a case on it.
Click to expand...

There's great freedom in having a beat up phone. Still works great but don't have to worry about scratches and can go case free. I haven't had one since my RAZR flip phone (because cases didn't really work on that phone) and it was wonderful. It got beat to hell, was so small to be unnoticeable, and survived probably two dozen drops and kept ticking. A totally awesome experience.
 
iolinux333 said:
There's great freedom in having a beat up phone. Still works great but don't have to worry about scratches and can go case free. I haven't had one since my RAZR flip phone (because cases didn't really work on that phone) and it was wonderful. It got beat to hell, was so small to be unnoticeable, and survived probably two dozen drops and kept ticking. A totally awesome experience.
Click to expand...

Take it to one of those screen replace people and ask them if they would do it and work out a deal with them.
 
It'll be fun to try and it isn't impossible...

But sometimes things are also glued which means you need to transfer or replace the parts and re-glue...

And my experience with third party parts is they don't always fit together like they should - sometimes screw holes are slightly off so things don't screw in properly.

It's REALLY easy to break a part of the phone without knowing, just but bending or tapping something with the screwdriver... and you won't know it's broken until you re-assemble everything.

But if you don't NEED your phone working, it's a fun experiment.
 
The Doctor11 said:
um...Why? And no it cant be done don't even waste your time on it.
Click to expand...

Ignorant comment.You shouldn't act like you know what you're talking about when you obviously have no experience in the field.

OP, it can be done if you're the type of person that understands how things work by looking at them. The screws are VERY small, so I recommend buying the OPTech mat. I used it when replacing my housing and it kept all the screws from moving which is very important. Because even if some of the screws look the same, it isn't always the case. The mat is also anti static which prevents damage to the logic board and other electrical components. I would also recommend getting the Belkin anti-static wrist strap. Heres a link to the mat I purchased http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U3I6ZA/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And here was my champagne/black iPhone 5 I did around 5 months ago, I ended up selling it for double what other iPhone 5's were going for.

IMG_0506_zps57abcbb9.jpg
 
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sonicrobby said:
Im new playing with the insides of Apple hardware, especially the iPhone. Im curious, is it possible to remove all of the components from a 5S whose shell is in a less than fair condition, and put it all into a 3rd party shell

I browsed through the iFixit website and it seems the only thing I would need to get additionally would be the battery adhesive. Im curious if anyone else has any experience with this and advice they can spare.
Click to expand...

you're basically just doing a case swap... so if ur comfortable with your skills. iFixit is a great site to follow step by step.

Reference: I'm a tech and done several iphone repairs :)

----------
BeeJee said:
Ignorant comment.You shouldn't act like you know what you're talking about when you obviously have no experience in the field.

OP, it can be done if you're the type of person that understands how things work by looking at them. The screws are VERY small, so I recommend buying the OPTech mat. I used it when replacing my housing and it kept all the screws from moving which is very important. Because even if some of the screws look the same, it isn't always the case. The mat is also anti static which prevents damage to the logic board and other electrical components. I would also recommend getting the Belkin anti-static wrist strap. Heres a link to the mat I purchased http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U3I6ZA/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And here was my champagne/black iPhone 5 I did around 5 months ago, I ended up selling it for double what other iPhone 5's were going for.

Image
Click to expand...

LOL @ people paid double.. I can see why
 
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