Trim Bezel replacement Seattle area.

Just wondering if there's anyone in the Seattle area (preferably) that is confident in disassembling and reassembling a Storm? I got a new Trim Bezel that I plan to paint and want to install, but I think I might be too much of a wuss to take my phone apart. If there's someone here that knows what they are doing and would like to make a few bucks I would appreciate the help. This all depends, of course, on how the paint job comes out. Just thought I'd get ahead of the game a bit and see if there are any serious Storm geeks in the area willing to help! Please have some sort of experience with small electronics assembly or whatever. No offense, but if you don't know what you're doing then I may as well just do it myself...lol! Thanks!

cnn.cn's video tutorial on how to replace the bezel looks pretty straightforward. if you're handy and patient, it looks like a manageable task. just make sure you have the proper torx screwdriver. you could be the first in your area to do Storm repairs! good luck

It was the video that freaked me out. It's probably easier than I think...I'm just paranoid. I have the T6 torx driver and it looks like I can use a guitar pick to do the rest. I wonder what verizon would say if I were to send it to them in pieces and ask them to put it back together for me? :D

So, I painted the trim piece today and it looks pretty good, but I think I might need to remove paint now from the inside portions. I'm afraid it's not going to go together right with several layers of paint in there. Anyway, here's a look at it. It looks better than in the picture actually.

lol i think verizon will tell you to go eff yourself and try to make you buy a new phone. but anyway, your paint job looks nice and even. the only thing i would consider doing next is making sure the paint doesn't build up in the screw holes (not too big of a problem as the screw will knock the gunk out anyway). i think two "hard" guitar picks taped together should do the trick. would love to see pics of the progress if you build up the courage to do it.

you got a lot of balls doing that....lol

Dear God! I have the phone apart now and I'm stuck. There are some very small circuits, gaskets and what not attached to the Bezel and I'm terrified to try and figure out how to get them loose and then reattached to the new piece. I'm gonna just put it back together the way it was...lol! Surprisingly I think changing the Bezel is probably the most difficult thing you could do on this phone. All the very tiny and complex pieces are attached to it.

I think I know now why ColorWare charges so much to do this! Maybe when I'm working again I will send it to them and let them do all that.

I did learn a couple things though by taking the phone apart. Such as:

The internals of the phone are not nearly as exposed to the elements as I thought. The part of the display that is below the surface of the phone is wider than the glass. It fits into a square opening in the Bezel. That is why there is play in the screen. Anyway, when the screen is in what I guess you would call the "up" position it is up against a thin seal of sorts that runs around the inside of the Bezel. The tolerences in there are very close, so I don't see how people are frying their Storms with a couple drops of rain. Even if a drop or two of rain did go in the crack, there isn't really anywhere for it to go that would be traumatic to the phone. I think you would need to get a lot of water in there.

If someone were to just need to replace the display it would be a very simple process. The larger parts of the phone are very easy to take apart. Once you take the screws out it practically falls apart in your hands.

I was curious about the whole turning the screws to improve the click thing, so one thing I did in various stages of assembly is to check the click on the screen. The middle screws were barely tightened when I started. It took no effort to turn them when removing them. I did not try tightening them to see how that affected the click, but I did try the click with them completely out, part way in, and just "snug" or what I though was pretty close to what they were when I took them out. Actually, I probably made them tighter when I put them back in, but only a tiny bit. I honestly couldn't tell any difference in the click no matter what the situation was with the screws.

BTW, I was getting some pretty weird looks and comments from the smarter half while I was doing this. I offered to try the same thing with the iPhone, but that plan didn't fly.

lol. at least you tried right? just be thankful you didnt rip out a ribbon cable or mess up something soldered onto a board. i have to say, the video tutorial made it look simple so i'm very tempted to try but after hearing your followup.. i'm even more tempted! i'll be ordering my bezel this week and will let you know how it goes..

but what the hey, you learned something new about the phone lol

p.s... from what you just told me, im gonna go out on a limb and say its much easier to take apart an iphone 3g. i've done it and it's not so complex.

Originally Posted by mikeysmallz

lol. at least you tried right? just be thankful you didnt rip out a ribbon cable or mess up something soldered onto a board. i have to say, the video tutorial made it look simple so i'm very tempted to try but after hearing your followup.. i'm even more tempted! i'll be ordering my bezel this week and will let you know how it goes..

but what the hey, you learned something new about the phone lol

p.s... from what you just told me, im gonna go out on a limb and say its much easier to take apart an iphone 3g. i've done it and it's not so complex.

The two ribbon cables and the antenna wire you have to disconnect are easy. I just used a credit card to pop those off. Let me know if you get the balls to try taking the small pieces out of the Bezel to transfer. I'm sure it can be done, I was just afraid I'd break something.

Oh yeah, the panel under the hard keys has some rubbery glue on the back. It comes off pretty easy, but be careful you don't rip a key off. I was getting a bit concerned about that. Also, when I put it back on I added a little contact cement to both parts, but I spaced out and brushed the cement right over the little screen that covers the hole for the mic. Oops! So, I pulled the screen out and put a small piece of speaker cloth in it's place. Guess I'll find out tomorrow how I sound to folks on the other end! The screen that came off is very tightly knit and speaker cloth is not. Hopefully that won't effect anything too badly.

im gonna be doing the same thing as you to switch. but im kind of nervous. is there alot of stuff to transfer over? ive done every blackberry i can think of and this one seems its going to be the trickiest.