iPhone 2G Disassembly Guide

Warning

This is a terrible guide for fixing your phone. If you are here to learn how to take apart your phone and put it back together then you will find yourself at a very unfortunate place by the end of this guide. Not only will you have an iPhone in many number of parts, but you may find yourself gluing your phone to your wall ensuring that you will never have a complete iPhone again. That is unless you purchase another since as previously mentioned this is not a guide for how to put your phone back together.

If you did recently purchase the iPhone unfabricate kit for your iPhone 2G then you are in luck. This guide will teach you how to take apart your iPhone, glue it to your poster template, and hang it on your wall.

Step 1.

The first step in taking apart any iPhone is the 2 screws at the bottom of the iPhone.

Any iPhone except this one. The iPhone 2G has no screws at the bottom and is instead housed with a black plastic cover. Let’s remove that using your metal pry tool. Place on template once removed. We will glue everything at the end.

Tip: Read each step in its entirety before beginning the step and only glue at the end.

Sim tool for the Sim card in the Sim tray

For the first iPhone, you don’t have to remove this in the beginning as you do in the other iPhones, but it’s good practice to just get it out of the way. 3 birds, 1 stone. Place ‘em on the template.

3 Screws and a ton of pressure hold down the silver casing

Unscrew the 3 Phillips screws with the provided screwdriver and set the screws aside.

Tip: the screwdriver tips are brittle so don’t press too hard unless you need to.

Step 2.

This step is the trickiest part of taking apart the iPhone 2G. Put on some good vibes and relax.

First, grab the metal pry tool. Next, work your way around the iPhone by starting at the corners unclipping the casing from the silver frame. Many repair guides gloss over this step but trust me this will take some time. Do not use the plastic spudger (blue long thing). It’s pretty useless. You can try to stick one of the screwdrivers (not the Phillips one) into the blue circle but note that this will bend the casing a little, so do so at your own discretion. Work your way around the iPhone, unclipping each side and the top, then slowly pull the casing away as it is still connected.

You might want to try it in a few different spots along the edge until you get it wedged between the casing and the frame. It’s okay if you scratch up the metal a bit or if you hear some metal scraping noises.

Go grab a drink of water because it’s all downhill from here.

You might want to try it in a few different spots along the bottom edge until you get it wedged between the screen and the casing. It’s okay if you scratch up the metal a bit or if you hear some metal scraping noises. Once you have it between the glass and the housing, you will want to angle the pry tool down (parallel to the screen) and push inward to get it slightly under the screen. Once you feel the tool underneath the screen, you should twist the tool to create a gap between the screen and the frame. You might hear a pop when it fully disconnects.

You may also need to stick the pry tool on the left and right sides to unclip the screen from the body. Once the screen is freed from the frame, slowly lift it upwards but not too fast as it is still connected to the logic board. Go grab a drink of water because it’s all downhill from here.

Step 3.

Next, we will disconnect the casing from the body of the phone.

Simply disconnect the headphone jack cable (remember those old, dated things?). Set the casing aside and we will return to it at the end. Or do it now. It’s your phone and your unfabricate kit. Disconnect the two antenna cables which are held down by some adhesive. Do it gently and you will be fine.

We can now remove the camera!

You will also need to separate the camera from the logic board by separating the connector. Place the camera on its outline.

Step 4.

All the little things before removing the logic board.

Unscrew the 3 Phillips screws holding down the logic board.

Nothing stands between us and the logic board besides a lot of glue.

The battery and the logic board are connected. In order to remove both, we will need to remove the battery as well as some connectors. Start by placing the metal pry tool under neat the battery. Wiggle it out until it’s free. You may want to work your way from the right side since there is no glue on this side of the battery. Just slowly pry at it until it’s out. Once it is free, peak underneath the logic board and detach the 4 connectors. You will also need to cut/solder off the battery from the logic board. We don’t want to frame the battery in the kit because A. it’s kind of ugly, to be honest, and B. it could catch fire. And yes, those reasons are in priority order.

Important for this step: careful not to puncture or pinch the battery as it could explode or catch fire or worse… call you and tell you that your vehicle's warranty is about to expire.

Step 5.

The first and last iPhone with a removable independent frame.

In order to remove the silver frame, we will need to unscrew a total of 20 Phillips screws. 2 on the top and bottom and 3 on each side of the iPhone. Separate the frame from the iPhone and set it aside.

Once that is complete, unclip the silver bar from the white clips on each side (6 total). Then, lift the screen from the housing and slide the 2 main connectors carefully through the iPhone. You might need to use the metal pry tool to separate just do it gently. If you need a visual of this part, I personally liked this video. Place the camera and logic board on their outlines.

Step 6.

Charging port time.

The part is also a little tricky but after step 2, you for sure got this. First, peel the yellow tape holding down the charger flex cable. Then flip the phone over.

Once that is removed, firmly (but not too firmly) wiggle the charger out by pulling and orienting through the slit between the front and back casing. Do this until you have the part freed. Place on template once it is removed.

Step 7.

Bring back the case and let’s finish this thing up!

Remove the 10 phillips screws in order to free the headphone jack from the casing.

Now to remove the headphone jack, pull on the flex cable gently and follow the path from one end to the other. It is adhered down with a bit of glue and is quite fragile so go slowly. If it doesn’t come out easily, be sure that all screws are removed and pull on it from the headphone jack. There are 10 total screws holding this down.

Place the buttons on the appropriate outlines and make sure to grab the earpiece speaker from the screen itself.

Step 8.

Fin.

Finally, place the phone casing underneath the volume/power and the screen underneath the earpiece speaker. You should now have all the outlines covered!

Step 9.

Five gluing tips before gluing commences:

1. Place all of the parts on their outlines without glue and plan out how to glue them using the dotted grid lines as references. Practice gluing on a scratch piece of paper with a scratch part.
2. Note which surface area of the iPhone part is touching the paper since not all parts lay completely flat.
3. When possible, place the glue on the paper first and then put the iPhone piece on the glue. The iPhone part and paper bond nearly instantaneously so it’s important that you are confident in the placement.
4. Be very conservative with the glue and place it in the thicker parts of each piece. You should only need a dot of glue (smear > dab > dot > nothing).
5. After you get the majority of an individual piece glued down, you can dot a little bit of glue on the extremities that may be sticking up.