[daniel2828]

I was vacationing and placed my BlackBerry Tour in the same book bag pocket as my suntan lotion. I was leaning on the book bag and managed to push the aerosol button on the lotion, thus emptying the entire contents of the bottle on my Tour. It was in its case, so that helped, but the lotion was caustic enough to remove a good deal of the rubberized coating on the back and sides of the Tour. It was easy enough to replace the back, but the sides still have some of the rubberized coating remaining. Underneath the coating, the finish is the same as the front of the phone (shiny black).

I'm considering removing the rest of the coating, but I'm not sure what to use to do so. I suspect that the lotion took a good deal of time to eat away at the coating and I don't want to risk letting the lotion sit on the phone for fear of it seeping into buttons, charger inputs, etc. And I don't want to use something so strong as to potentially mar the finishing under the coating, since the phone would look quite nice even without the coating. Any suggestions for a fast-drying solvent that might help me clean this puppy up?

[Mamaluka]

Nail polish remover on a q-tip? Another option is that coloware
website. They repaint phones with custom colors.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[christopherp]

You're being to hard on yourself...that's only a 'little bit goofy'...not 'really stupid'.
Consider using a skin like the 'Reiko', it covers the entire phone except for the face, adds some protection from drops and won't give you the option of moving up to 'really stupid' by ruining your phone with some solvent or cleaning material.

[xxtrrublexx]

Maybe replace the housing?

[FF22]

I agree with the get a shell or silicon cover for the unit. Any solvent you attempt to use may do more damage than good and eat/etch into the remaining "good" plastic housing.

[EnergyPlus]

Some good advice here and I agree that messing around with other chemicals could produce unexpected results. There's no way of knowing what magic chemicals and finishes are used during manufacturing processes.

christo, hilarious...a nice, gentle way of making the OP not feel quite so bad, well done! Trust me, what happened to you (OP) PALES in comparison of some of the REALLY STUPID things we read about here! Hey, at least your BB is protected from the sun

You're being to hard on yourself...that's only a 'little bit goofy'...not 'really stupid'.
Consider using a skin like the 'Reiko', it covers the entire phone except for the face, adds some protection from drops and won't give you the option of moving up to 'really stupid' by ruining your phone with some solvent or cleaning material.

[Branta]

Nail polish remover on a q-tip? Another option is that coloware
website. They repaint phones with custom colors.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

***Don't*** use nail polish remover. It usually contains acetone and other solvents which will make a rapid attack on many plastics. It is likely the sun lotion is largely water based emulsion and the component which attacked the adhesive was aerosol propellant and/or the oily parts of the lotion. A damp cloth would be better than organic solvents.

Physical removal is good (paper tissues, soft cloth) for accessible areas. Inaccessible areas like keypad and trackball hardware will probably mean dismantling the phone then flush out with warm water for the non-electronic parts. The electronics on the main board will have to take their chance.

The best hope is that the phone is covered by insurance for accidental damage.

[heateris]

Wipe it down, use some compressed air for the nooks and crannies, they buy an epik case.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[snowindec9]

wow i can imagine the kind of damage the sun lotion had on your tour. hope you had insurance. i always make sure my berry is in the right spot when traveling. i have also noticed keeping the berry in jeans pockets does serious damage to the trackball and keyboard. also applying lotion to your hands and then clicking your berry is not a nice idea. these devices don't have that armored protection on them and are susceptible to cosmetic products.

[Jude526]

if you have insurance pay the deductible and get another Tour don't do anything more to your phone. You will ruin it for sure. If you don't have insurance just get a good case for it and keep it in it. At least you didn't drop it in the toilet like a friend of mine has done.....more than once.

[ericmichaels1978]

I agree.. Wipe down and used canned air.. If that doesn't work, I would look for new housing..

[pkcable]

You might want to try procedure 2 from this thread about dealing with a BB that has gotten wet.

http://forums.crackberry.com/f3/how-...en-wet-314679/

Getting pure alcohol is KEY to this procedure, if you can't find 100% then get 90% or better, regular 70% alcohol will not do!

[credemann]

Getting pure alcohol is KEY to this procedure, if you can't find 100% then get 90% or better, regular 70% alcohol will not do!

Great idea pkcable.
I use isopropyl alcohol (from an electronics store or a good hardware store) or as close to 100% as possible with Q tips or damp cloth to clean electronics. Or if you have a alcohol wipe for glasses that may work.

[daniel2828]

Thanks for the input, everyone! It's really just the sides surrounding the phone that are affected, so going at it with solvents wouldn't be an issue with the keyboard. I suppose if I want to take the time with it, then the logical answer is to use the same suntan lotion that peeled off the coating to begin with, as it didn't do any damage at all to the underlying surface. It's just that I'm not sure if the lotion started removing the coating immediately or if it was the result of having been exposed to it for a long period of time. And that would mean risking that it would soak into the side buttons, speaker holes, etc. Guess there's only one way to find out.

No, it wasn't insured, unfortunately. I'm one of those "just gotta have the latest and greatest" types of people and often switch my phone out once a year in any case. If it weren't for my OCD, I would probably live just fine with it as it is.