First off: Apple responds to iPod nano screen concerns. Yay! Apparently there was a screen problem with a small number of nanos. Apple is fixing those nanos. Good for Apple for doing the right thing. Also, Derrick Story appears to be psychic, when earlier he said “It almost sounds like there are two types of nano screens out there… possibly from two different vendors supplying them to Apple?” Good going Derrick.

So, you have a black nano and now realize that you should have purchased a case or a cover for it. But, it’s too late now, it’s already covered with barely visible scratches and marks that you can only see under a 500-watt lamp. Oh no! What will you do? Never fear, I put my nano at risk for your sake. I had read on Slashdot and a few other places that Brasso can restore an iPod to like-new condition, but I didn’t believe it myself, and I was a bit worried that it would have some sort of bad reaction with my iPod, such as melting it. After all, a $4 can of Brasso can’t compete with $20+ third party creams and polishes, can it? Read on…

Preparation

I happened to be in the grocery in the cleaning aisle and saw a can of Brasso on the shelf. I knew then what my evening project would be. With the wife and kid in bed, I set up for my experiment. I had iKlear for cleaning the iPods before and after, my old 3G 20GB iPod, my two black iPod nanos, a can of Brasso, some cotton rounds for initial cleaning, and a small and large microfiber cloth for applying Brasso and cleaning it off afterwards.

My 3G iPod’s back was quite scratched over time. I think it still looked fine, but I thought it would be a good test for Brasso to see if it did any permanent damage before I started on the nanos.

I cleaned the back with iKlear, then soaked a cotton round with Brasso and got to work. Look at all the grime it started taking off! At this point I thought maybe I was onto something with the Brasso, but I was also afraid that I was about to melt my iPod.

Here’s the finished back of the 3G iPod. It looked much better than when I started, but since the back was already quite scratched, it was hard to tell if the Brasso actually removed many scratches or just removed the dirt and polished off the surface. It didn’t appear to do any damage, though, so I decided to move on to the nano.

My nano had picked up a few scratches here and there while carrying it around. I should emphasize that these scratches weren’t visible under normal conditions, only under bright light. The flash photos here really show every little blemish, though, and you can see that the nano did pick up a lot of grime and small scratches with a bit of use. To me, this isn’t any different than my 3G iPod and I could have lived with the marks, but the urge to experiment was too strong. Notice the small horizontal scratches on the right side of the middle and bottom of the nano, and the tiny circular scratches in the close-up photo of the screen.

For the nano, I switched from using cotton rounds to using my small iKlear microfiber cloth. My theory was that the microfiber was a lot softer, I didn’t want the cotton to make more scratches. I put some Brasso on the cloth and started working it in. I used light pressure, barely pressing at all and letting the weight of my hand do the work. I also held the nano in my hand so that I wouldn’t scratch the back by cleaning the front on a hard surface. Also, I think it’s a good idea to try not to get any Brasso worked into the gap around the clickwheel, although I didn’t have any issues with gunk getting stuck there. I worked the Brasso in for a few minutes, and it appeared to be working! The small scratches were gone, and the ones that were slightly deeper were faded. I discovered, though, that brasso takes a long time to work. I slowly worked over the front of my nano for about 20 minutes. Then I let the Brasso dry, cleaned it with iKlear, and polished the front with my large, clean iKlear microfiber cloth. Let’s see how it turned out…

Holy. Crap. I feel the need to assure you that these are actual unretouched photos of the final clean nano. The same one that I showed in the “dirty” pictures above. As you can see, the Brasso got rid of every single scratch. My nano looks completely, totally brand new. Again, believe it or not these are actual “after” pictures! I’m very, very impressed. If you don’t get these results, get back to work on the nano with the Brasso. I’m confident that with enough time you can remove any shallow scratch.

Ok, so now you’ve got a second chance to have a flawless nano. I suggest you put the nano in a baggie and don’t touch it until you have a case or a cover for it. I talk about a few options for covers in my article here.

Last thoughts

I should emphasize again that I was quite happy with my nano and its condition, even with the slight scratches. I don’t think the nano has a problem with being excessively prone to scratching. That said, it was completely amazing that I could remove every scratch with just a little work with Brasso. If you wish you had put your nano in a case before you used it, you now have an inexpensive way to get a 2nd chance.

Edit: Additional photos (by request)

By request I added two photos of the finished nano taken with a flash. This is actually hard for me with my digicam and poor photography skills, since the nano is now so shiny that it focuses on the reflected image, not the nano, and I have no idea how to manually focus my digicam. Rest assured that I’m not trying to pull one over on anyone. My nano now looks completely brand new, just like the day I got it. Really!

Process questions

• Do you have to use iKlear?

• No. I used iKlear to clean the iPod before and after. I like iKlear, it’s a great general-purpose cleaner for any sort of glass or plastic, and it’s especially good on my 36″ Sony WEGA screen. But, it is not required for this project.

• I used Brasso and it worked. I have photos to prove it. If you used something else and it worked make sure you post about it on your own weblog. Sharing is good!

• No. I used it because I had a couple laying around from my iKlear kits.

  “as” Says: September 28th, 2005 at 4:49 pm e You wrote: “My theory was that the microfiber was a lot softer, I didn’t want the cotton to make more scratches.” Wow did you get that backwards! Microfiber is VERY abrasive. It’s polyester fibers split in half to create a very sharp edge on each fiber. It’s well known that if you routinely use microfiber to clean wood you will eventually ‘haze’ it. Basically tons of miniscule scratches. OTOH that’s propably why this worked so well. The microfiber polished off the scratches. That’s also why the 3G ipod didn’t come out so well. You used cotton there.

• Yes, I used it on the 3G iPod back and it worked well. The nano back is no different.

• No, it’s a mild abrasive, therefore I think it’s best as a way to get your scratched nano back into tip-top shape before putting it in a case. I wouldn’t plan on using Brasso every day, eventually you would wear through the plastic. (Although I think this would take many, many cleanings to do.)

• No.

• On the screen and the body. As you can see, the screen is perfectly scratch-free now.

• Yes, I think you can safely clean the clickwheel. I’d recommend using a cloth that is pre-soaked with Brasso, using as little as you can. I think as long as your cloth isn’t sopping wet with Brasso you’ll be fine. I wasn’t particularly careful on mine, I just did what I just said and used light pressure. Since the clickwheel isn’t smooth, I’m not sure if Brasso will be able to remove any sort of deep gouge.

• Well, scratches aren’t covered under warranty, so I’m sure that scratch removal doesn’t void it. I’m not qualified to answer that question from an official or legal perspective though. I’m sure if you accidentally poured Brasso into the dock connector and it stopped working that Apple would suspect something. Third party vendors such as Radtech, who makes Ice Creme cleaner for the iPod, don’t mention any warranty issues on their site.

Brasso, Brasso, Brasso, all about Brasso!

• Toothpaste

• Haven’t tried it. Appears to be a bad idea, since there are so many different formulations.

• Haven’t tried it.

• I haven’t tried it, but it appears promising.

• Haven’t tried it. A poster says:

  “I like Jewler’s rouge (comes in dif colours to inidcate the abbrasive quality) with a little help from my dremel. Alas, the big box hardware stores never seem to carry it so brasso is lot easier to find, just a little more elbow grease to apply.

• Recommended by a couple of posters. Looks very promising.

General tip: Getting Brasso into a small gap of anything is probably a bad idea, since it dries to a hard wax and might be hard to remove. So, put a small amount of Brasso on a cloth or cotton ball, and work it in on a surface without a gap before attacking anything with a gap like a clickwheel or PSP button.
• iBook

• Yes. (Not on the screen. I use iKlear on my PowerBook screen. Anyone know a way to repair a scratched laptop screen?

• Yes.

• The old Titanium Powerbooks had a paint chipping issue, and Brasso might make that worse. For TiBooks I’d say check out http://www.tipaint.com

• No. Brasso says not to use it on Aluminum. They make a silver polish called Silvo that you could try. I haven’t tried it. Personally, I clean my Aluminum Powerbook with iKlear and don’t have any scratches after many months of hard use. What are you people doing to your gadgets?

• Probably. I haven’t tried it. Cell phones tend to have lots of crevices and buttons and gaps, so it seems like it would be easy to get Brasso into the guts of your phone, which would be Bad.

• Probably. I haven’t tried it. Feel free to send me a PSP and I will.

Poster reported success/failure

Sean Sperte says: Well I just went out and bought some Brasso, tried it on my white iPod nano, and it seemed to dye it a bit yellowish — plus, it didn’t really take care of all the scratches. And trust me, I worked on it for a looooooong time. Did you have similiar results with the older iPod model you tried it on? So my experience was less than desired. Now I’m just waiting for the invisible shield I just applied to dry and we’ll see what happens. I’ll probably end up just not caring and treating the nano as I do my cell phone — just throw it around. Thanks a lot, Brasso. Anyone want to buy a slightly used, yellowish, 4GB iPod nano?

Frank Says: BE CAREFUL. “$4 Can of Brasso” means effectively that you have to buy a NEW can. Don’t go using an older, fermented, can. It becomes more and more abrasive the longer it sits, as Brasso will seperate. Just, be careful. I ruined a 1G iPod with Brasso once, and I have never forgiven myself.

Jas Says: Just a quick note DON’T use toothpaste!! I used it last Friday when I noticed a small mark on my Nano screen. It left fine scratches! Conclusion; toothpaste is good for removing permanent marker from hard surfaces but causes fine scratches on Nanos! You can also use it to clean your teeth as well by the way (!)

SWAFA Says: Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! I just tried the Brasso trick on my 4GB white Nano and it worked like a charm. My iPod had sufficient scratches that pictures on the display were beginning to look distorted. I had an old can of Brasso under the kitchen sink and figured I’d give it a shot. I shook the can well to make sure it wasn’t separated. I put a small amount on a paper towel and tested a small corner of my iPod to make sure the Brasso would not make the problem worse. It didn’t I used a sparing Brasso to dry and checked my progress. Each time I checked the scratches were less and less visible until they were gone. The same treatment worked on the back and my iPod is back to ‘just out of the package’ condition. Thanks again for the great tip!!

random informative tips

• how to take a picture of the nano

UME Says: Just a tip on your camera (donno if anyone else have pointed this out). To “manually” focus your digicam, press on the ‘Shoot’ button (the button that you press to take pictures) just lightly, not all the way in. That should make your camera to adjust focus to whatever is in the middle of its view. If you can’t focus the camera on a shiny surface (like your nano) because it’s focusing on the reflection, do the “half-push” on your ’shoot’ button and let it focus on something more solid-looking that is at about the same distance as the real object that you want to photograph (like your nano). After the camera focuses on another object that’s about the same distance as the object that you want to take pictures of, don’t let go of your finger from the ’shoot’ button (nor press it futher–it’ll make the camera to take a pic) and take a picture of your nano. You can apply this “half-push” technique to other things, too. Hope it helped.

	29-06-2008 15:07
	Do i have to Buy iKlear to Complete the Process , By the Way i have An iPod Nano Third Generation 4GB Silver (With Video),I live in Lebanon   Please Answer Me. Guest

Wassim Elia

	10-06-2008 23:52
	this is awesome. i'm so gonna try it. Guest

jenelle

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