Brushed Aluminum iPod Mod
August 29th, 2005My iPod sees a lot of action. I take it everywhere. Between the iPod and the cell phone, I don’t even use my Palm 505 anymore (except for on trips – Vindigo rules!). The thing is, I don’t really like iPod cases. I love how sleek and slender the iPod is, and a case sorta ruins that. Also, it’s a lot harder to slip in and out of your pocket when it’s in a case. Expecially those rubbery ones.
Actually, I do like the "Green Flower" case made by incase. But still. And it probably has one of those belt attachments, which I really can’t bring myself to use. I’m already a dork, I don’t need to announce it with something attached to my belt.
As a result, the back of my iPod was scratched all to hell. It looked pretty rough. The front has a few slight scuffs here and there, but those were mere blemishes compared to the unspeakable horror of the back of my iPod.
So when I ran across this site with pics showing that you can turn the back of your iPod into something resembling the brushed Aluminum theme used by OS X, I was all over it. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of tinkering with my iPod gave me pause – but i figured it couldn’t get much worse than what I had done to it through normal wear and tear. At least this would look intentional. Hopefully.
The tutorial was easy to follow, but I’ll make it even simpler.
- Use masking or electrical tape to cover the white part of the iPod seam. This is to protect the white plastic while you’re buffing away.
- Take a kitchen scrubber (one of those green and yellow ones) and use the green scratchy side to scrub back and forth in the straightest strokes you can.
- After a few minutes, you’ll start to see some texture. If your pattern has a bit of a weird angle to it (like mine did) just go slower and keep it straighter for the next few minutes.
- Now admire your work. If you’re liking the look of it, do it to the sides, top and bottom. Mine looks good enough now it looks like it’s supposed to be that way.