[TUTORIAL] Pimp your Desire HD!

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suxelexus

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2010
214
12
Gold Coast
Surprisingly, doesn't look half bad! Good photo tutorial. I'm only keen to chrome the camera lens metal rim...not so keen on taking apart and voiding my warranty though. I may try to use a sandpaper, our perhaps some paint stripper on the tip of a tooth pick. Although the process sounds a little painstaking and dangerous.

---------- Post added at 10:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 AM ----------
Overloaded said:
I'm going to take it a step further.

I think polishing the device would look epic in combination with this image burned in the phone using a laser cutter

11.jpg


:cool::cool::cool:

What do you guys think??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

--this looks cool...personally id keep the back in black, with the laser etching, and the metal rim of the camera lens in chrome to match the original htc logo. that'd be sweet.
 
F

FaiLiix

Member
Apr 15, 2012
26
3
Overloaded said:
I'm going to try something!

I will try to remake the plastic parts on the back of the phone. I'm going to make them digital in solidworks. Then i will engrave moulds out of aluminum and fill them with liquid plastic. So i can make my own plastic parts in pretty much every color i want!

If this is going to be a succes i will put them online for sale for a very nice price :cool: I'm thinking about a modding service for phones :D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

So were you successfully? Im realy interested in your idea and your finished products. Also were do you life (country)? Because if you start to sell custom stuff would you sell them to different continents?

Thanks.

Sent from my Desire HD
 
C

csection

Senior Member
Apr 15, 2012
58
21
wow, It actually looks great. I bet you are good with sandpapers :D
This definitely is not exactly for faint hearted though (a little bit wrong and then more sanding off to do)
 
C

c5satellite2

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2012
2,751
1,044
FaiLiix said:
So were you successfully? Im realy interested in your idea and your finished products. Also were do you life (country)? Because if you start to sell custom stuff would you sell them to different continents?

Thanks.

Sent from my Desire HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I wouldn't get too excited about him making custom covers. They all have integrated antennas. Not impossible, just more involved than making the cover.

Better suggestion, paint them. Buy a new set, sand them with a very fine grit paper, and spray them. They have great spray paint in a myriad of colors that adheres well to plastics now. Just spray very thin coats and allow to dry between. You could even lightly sand between coats with a very very fine paper for a perfect finish. Just be sure to tape off the underside of the covers to avoid painting the antenna contacts on all three covers. And try to avoid the grooves inside the bottom cover where it slides on, and around the tabs that hold the battery and flash covers on. Too much paint in the areas that engage or fit tight against the phone might prevent them from fitting properly.

Sent from my Desire HD using XDA
 
N

Nagelzz

Senior Member
Jul 17, 2011
151
23
Btw the screwdriver for the 5 screws is a Torx #5 if i recall correctly :D
I had to take mine apart to fix power button :p
Do you have any idea if the covers ære suitable for painting? If so Im gonna make it chrome/red all the way. Even the camera lens :D

Did you use a electric sander or just sandpaper? Anyways awesome job!!!!

Sensed(4) from my DHD
 
C

c5satellite2

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2012
2,751
1,044
You can sand it down by hand using very fine grit paper for metal. You could then use a cutting compound with a polishing wheel to further polish the metal. I would recommend spraying the bare metal with a clear coat to protect it from staining or marring the bare metal.
Yes you can paint the covers, read my prior post.

In the previous post you stated "even the camera lens", don't paint the camera lens. Camera won't work then. Camera bezel ring is ok to paint, just not the lens! If you paint the speaker grilles be careful to not obscure the holes in them. Very, very light coats on them. Always let paint dry between coats, or the bottom coats will NEVER dry.

Sent from my Desire HD using XDA
 
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N

Nagelzz

Senior Member
Jul 17, 2011
151
23
c5satellite2 said:
In the previous post you stated "even the camera lens", don't paint the camera lens. Camera won't work then. Camera bezel ring is ok to paint, just not the lens!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yeah that could easily have been misunderstood :)
I was ofcourse talking about the bezel, i just got all excited about my new project :D

Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA
 
F

FaiLiix

Member
Apr 15, 2012
26
3
Thanks for your help.
Did you paint your plastic parts of the DHD? If you did could you post some pictures so i could see the result? Thanks, again.

Sent from my Desire HD
 
C

c5satellite2

Senior Member
Mar 2, 2012
2,751
1,044
You could also have the metal body powder coated! Local auto body collision shop should be able to handle it.

And no I haven't painted or sanded my phone. I only look at the screen so I really don't care what the back looks like. The screen looks awesome though! 4.3" SLCD glory! LOL!

I do paint plastic and metal. It's not hard. Proper preparation of the materials being painted is the most important part. It is painting 101; prep materials, good paint, tape off anywhere you don't want paint, hang part from thin wire or string, spray thin even coats, LET DRY BETWEEN COATS(dry to the touch is not DRY), lightly sand between coats if desired with ultrafine paper (clean part again before next coat if sanding), repeat.......

Sent from my Desire HD using XDA
 
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O

Overloaded

Senior Member
Apr 23, 2009
503
82
Remaking the plastic parts would be hard and too expensive so i didn't do it.

But i'm still planing to engrave something in the back off the phone. But i don't have much time lately.
 
F

FaiLiix

Member
Apr 15, 2012
26
3
Overloaded said:
Remaking the plastic parts would be hard and too expensive so i didn't do it.

But i'm still planing to engrave something in the back off the phone. But i don't have much time lately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Okay thanks for your feedback. I am also planing to engrave something with a laser. Piu. Piu. :D

Sent from my Desire HD
 
ltkort

ltkort

Member
Mar 16, 2012
16
1
Bussum
Works, nice. Advice: sanding takes a lot of time

Sent from my Desire HD using XDA
 

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DubelBoom

Senior Member
Jan 10, 2011
1,832
321
someone found white plastics for the battery, sim cover and flash covers?
it will be so nice with this P:
 
ErOR22

ErOR22

Senior Member
Sep 22, 2010
476
38
New Zealand
Not a fan of it, I think it looks worse with the chrome/silver back, black random bits and then red bits as well.

The stuff you painted red would look good with stock black phone.
 
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    O
    Overloaded
    Hey guys,

    I've seen the chromed Desire HD on the XDA front page and thought it was totally awesome. So i did it with my own phone too, but i wanted something extra, so i've also painted some stuff.

    And maybe some more people want to do it but don't know how.. That's the reason i've made this short tutorial :D

    And also post your own results in this topic :D

    Let's start the pimping:


    First up is removing this little sticker and pull out the volume button thingy with some tweezers or a small screwdriver
    1.jpg




    The next step is removing the GPS antenna. This is the small rubber piece that also holds the plastic glass for the dual LED's.
    This is a hard piece to remove and i don't have pictures of this procedure. But i think the best way is to carefully open/push away the 8 plastic pins on the sides of the rubber with a sharp stanley knife. I started at the top and went round the entire think. Slowly it will pop out of the body.



    Then you have to remove 5 screws with a small skrewdriver thing. I tried some of mine until one fitted. Don't know witch size it is exactly.
    2.jpg




    After you've removed the 5 screws you can carefully remove the body from the phone. You have to tilt it a little bit because the light sensor (the most right dot at the side of the speaker grill) is a little bit sunk into the body.
    3.jpg




    The next step is to remove all the small little pieces from the aluminium piece.
    The camera cover has 4 little metal taps that you have to fold a little bit to the inside, then it will fall out of the body.
    The other 3 things are easily to remove, their held in place with some double sticky tape stuff.
    4.jpg




    Now it's time to sand the thing until you've got the result you want. I didn't want to have it really shiny so i stopped when i got a nice brushed look. But if you want to have it shine you just have to keep sanding (up to grid 2500).
    I've started with a sandpaper with grid size 200. After all the paint was gone i've wet sanded with 400 and after that 800. These are my results:
    5.jpg




    When i was sanding i noticed the HTC logo letters were falling out :p
    I removed them. After the sanding I've painted them black with a very fluid paint so it will fill up the gap nicely. The excess paint you can easily sand away with grid 800.
    6.jpg




    In the meantime when the paint had to dry i roughened up the surface of the small pieces and prepared them fore a paint job.
    7.jpg





    After two layers of standard spray paint (color mat traffic red) i noticed i didn't like the red speaker grill. It was just ugly. So i've sanded the paint off of the piece and painted it black :)
    8.jpg




    The next step would be to glue the small pieces back on the body. I don't know exactly what glue it was. But it's glue that is pretty fluid and dries up pretty quickly. The English translation would be 'secondglue' :p but i don't know that's the right description ^^


    9.jpg


    10.jpg




    Have fun modding your Desire HD and show me your results :D :cool:


    Regards, Bas ;)
    View
    3
    H
    haerigrek
    Hi guys, I finally started modding my DHD, I had a few problems and there are still some elements that need to be redone (paint peeled off) but in overall I think it looks cool :D
    thumbnails

    MORE PICS The back is all matte black (powder paint) and all the elements are sprayed "Ferrari Red" :D Sorry for bad quality pics but I took them with Xperia X10 mini pro. In reality the red really stands out, on pics it look a bit faded.
    View
    2
    D
    DubelBoom
    wow very nice!!
    but if ill do it, i know ill kill my phone :p
    View
    2
    D
    dex willer
    My pimpin

    here is my work.

    only broken thing is me thumb and my volume down key :laugh:

    i used 400, 320, 200 sandpaper, standart sprey paint and some glue to re-attach buttons to cover shell..

    sanding is the most diffiuclt part of all.
    View
    2
    -SmOgER
    -SmOgER
    Google still has em:
    http://goo.gl/k67bQ
    first 4-5 pics.
    View

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