Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone X Sanded my Space Grey iPhone X

Cergman

Cergman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 1, 2013
852
305
my tesla
I treat my iPhone X pretty well, but despite my best efforts, I have noticed the paint has begun to look terrible over the past few weeks. Since the paint was already looking terrible, I figured taking it off couldn't possibly make the phone look much worse. So, I sanded off the paint and I'm pretty happy with the results!

It looks very similar to the steel on the iPhone 4 - I'll probably polish it up a bit to look like the shiny steel on the silver X's when I get some free time. Just thought I'd share for anyone crazy enough to do the same to their $1000+ phone.

Before and after pics attached.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0079.jpg
    IMG_0079.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 6,848
  • IMG_0086.jpg
    IMG_0086.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 6,039
  • IMG_0085.jpg
    IMG_0085.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 5,004
  • Like
Reactions: slicecom, aylk, Tsepz and 12 others
Very nice, that actually looks cool. I'd be happy with that and I'm pretty picky! The paint wore just from normal usage?
 
BigMcGuire said:
Very nice, that actually looks cool. I'd be happy with that and I'm pretty picky! The paint wore just from normal usage?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm honestly pretty disappointed at how poorly this phone aged. I think this one is probably around 4 or 5 months old, and the paint wasn't that bad until a couple days ago. I was using my phone as normal and noticed glitter all over my hands and a decent size chunk of paint missing from the side of the phone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire
Cergman said:
Yeah, I'm honestly pretty disappointed at how poorly this phone aged. I think this one is probably around 4 or 5 months old, and the paint wasn't that bad until a couple days ago. I was using my phone as normal and noticed glitter all over my hands and a decent size chunk of paint missing from the side of the phone.
Click to expand...

Yeah that’s pretty bad; I’d probably made Apple deal with it BUT I do like how that looks after you sanded it
 
Instead of polishing it you should use finer and finer grits until you get a nice uniform satin finish... Different look than polished and easier to hide scratches
 
BugeyeSTI said:
Instead of polishing it you should use finer and finer grits until you get a nice uniform satin finish... Different look than polished and easier to hide scratches
Click to expand...
That's a great idea. Might give it a shot this weekend to see how it looks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BugeyeSTI
Cergman said:
That's a great idea. Might give it a shot this weekend to see how it looks.
Click to expand...

It’s your phone of course, but I would *not* polish it any further. If you want dissipate the finer scratches now that you remove the PVD coating, I would look into a Cape Cod cloth, it will polish the stainless and remove any hairline scratches that you may accrue. Many have used this product on the 316 L stainless steel Apple Watch and had excellent results. Stay away from any polishing pastes though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: perezr10 and Bako-MacAddict
I actually think the silver looks great. I just bought a new X and have been thinking about getting an 8 Plus... this makes me lean in the direction of exchanging for the 8 plus today.
 
I like it, it's more reminiscent of the iPhone 4. I really wish it came with matte sides like this instead of the stainless steel being so shiny.
 
Cergman said:
Yeah, I'm honestly pretty disappointed at how poorly this phone aged. I think this one is probably around 4 or 5 months old, and the paint wasn't that bad until a couple days ago. I was using my phone as normal and noticed glitter all over my hands and a decent size chunk of paint missing from the side of the phone.
Click to expand...


It's just one of those things with Apple devices - just like Space Black a couple gens ago, and the shiny-backed iPods. They're known to offer more ambitious finishes that wear out quickly. It was pretty clear on launch that the Space Gray's stainless steel coating was not infinitely durable and that the silver/white model was the better bet for long term cosmetic durability. Can't beat pure stainless - I polish mine up once a month and it looks brand new still, no case or protectors ever.

On the up side, yours looks awesome. I've been telling a couple friends who chose the SG model for some time now that the failing coating can be polished off to a shiny silver finish, but I've yet to actually see it done.
 
Even though I’ve had my iPhone X in a case the whole time (~ 20 months), grains of dust inside the case have scratched off the coating. Recently I’ve wanted to ditch the case but couldn’t bear looking at the scratched coating so I was thinking about sanding it but couldn’t find anything online until I came across this thread. Having seen your results I thought it looked good and had nothing to lose so gave it a go.

For anyone who wants to repeat this I used 600 grit paper to remove the coating at first. Then I went through 1500, 2000 and 2500 grit papers to reduce the scratches as much as possible and finally polishing it with Autosol metal polish and buffing it clean. The whole process took me around 4 hours to complete.

I’m pretty happy with the result and hopefully it ages better than the Space Grey coating as I can always polish it again if it scratches up.

E1EB3D38-05B3-4C04-AD0C-F0598C9264C7.jpeg 53772FB3-F8D0-4F33-9554-ED5FDBFB0EBC.jpeg D2CC1C93-452E-4ABA-AB5A-53F5A44911F4.jpeg A0B4C197-3029-4D34-B604-AEB7D516C6CD.jpeg C4BC4D20-F966-49D7-A38B-15B0B393B72B.jpeg AADFF75C-64B5-4B3F-8DBC-45C587496752.jpeg 79C0BFF6-A409-4EBE-9824-D170FA3D57FE.jpeg 3D1DDB1F-513C-4A61-A238-5C228AF20796.jpeg 164D62C4-33F7-4216-8D91-5C50F5A54A3E.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: slicecom, Tsepz, Pug72 and 3 others
I think when looking at it from the back panel it looks a tad odd but looking at it from the front glass (as per the pic below) gives me heavy 1st generation iPhone nostalgia. Nice job

z50njrL.jpg
 
Harry_D said:
I’m pretty happy with the result and hopefully it ages better than the Space Grey coating as I can always polish it again if it scratches up.
Click to expand...
That looks fantastic, nice job!

How is the grip-ability of the phone now? I remember when I had the silver X it was very easy to grasp in your hand because of the stainless steel and glass back.
 
CrazyForCashews said:
That looks fantastic, nice job!

How is the grip-ability of the phone now? I remember when I had the silver X it was very easy to grasp in your hand because of the stainless steel and glass back.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Grip wise it feels exactly like it did before, I don't think the PVD coating changes the characteristics of the steel much so taking it off hasn't made any difference.
 
Harry_D said:
Thanks! Grip wise it feels exactly like it did before, I don't think the PVD coating changes the characteristics of the steel much so taking it off hasn't made any difference.
Click to expand...
I'm actually surprised after polishing it looks (almost) the same as the regular Stainless Steel. Makes a huge difference.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Harry_D
Jesus! This looks just like te big brother of the iPhone 4! I wish Apple would come out with black back and chrome stainless steel band like this!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back