Fix Your iPhone screen without replacement!

[Dheald]

Alright, I'll start by saying I work in the automotive glass industry. We perform rock chips on cars to prevent the chip from spreading into a crack.

This will only work for iPhones with a chip and not if it is already cracked.

!!Disclaimer!!

I AM NOT LIABLE FOR YOU DESTROYING YOUR PHONE. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS IS PROVIDED AS REFERENCE ONLY.

Here is what we started with:

Then, using a dremel with a very small bit, we roughed up the surface of the glass so the resin would adhere better. Similar to sanding a car before painting.

We then poured a very small amount of UV-sensitive resin into the chip. After approx. 30 minute cure time, the chip is ready to be scraped.

Using a small straight-razor, you make a sweeping motion back and forth along the now resin-filled chip.

This scraping will continue for some time until it is flush with the original glass.

Edit: Here's a quick video example http://bit.ly/vgUoFD

Any plastic polish afterwards can be used to buff the hardened resin to a shine.

Finalish (perfectionist) product:

Let me know if you have any questions!

PS: I'll be throwing up a video of the scraping process asap

 

[Crystal-RX]

Thanks for the tutorial on how to do this. However, I do have questions though;

1. How much time you spend on fixing this?
2. What is the total cost of material involve in this?

As I know, you can buy 3G/3GS digitizer from Amazon or other places for $10.00 or lower including shipping. It will take about 10 minutes to replace it and it looks brand new.

So, spending so much time on fixing this chip while you can replacing the whole digitizer for cheap.

 

[CBR900RR]

Are you suppose to apply suction of the other side to get the resin into the crack? I think that's how I repair the rock chip on my windshield.

 

[Resist]

Every windshield I've ever had fixed by this method never looked right and I ended up replacing the entire windshield. From the picture, it doesn't look right on the iPhone either. Just saying.

 

[Dheald]

Thanks for the tutorial on how to do this. However, I do have questions though;

1. How much time you spend on fixing this?
2. What is the total cost of material involve in this?

1. 45 minutes to an hour, I wasn't really keeping track.

2. Free for me since I work at glass shop but the resin is itself is readily available online, a quick search for "windshield repair kit" will work.

You don't need to use a dremel per se, just anything to rough up the surface. Just make sure the surface is clean afterwards.

Razors are a couple dollars at a hardware store.

UV light is free (hint: the sun) and as for the polishing, any wax or polish should do the trick with enough elbow grease.

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Every windshield I've ever had fixed by this method never looked right and I ended up replacing the entire windshield. From the picture, it doesn't look right on the iPhone either. Just saying.

More glass was flaking off each day so this is really more of a stop-gap until the cost of having the whole 4S face replaced by professional goes down. It's beyond my dexterity to do myself