Make Your iPod Look Like New
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.
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.
Additional photos
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!
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