[deuxani]

So yesterday it happened.... my white 920 slided out of my pocket while I was sitting down.... straight on a concrete floor. I picked it up and noticed nothing.

When I got home I inspected my phone further and it had an ugly dent on the front left corner in the polycarbonate (I don't know how I could've overlooked that). Once you see it, you can never unsee it :) Especially because on the glossy white, a dent causes shades in the dent and the parts that stick out, which make it look like the dent is dirty.

So I tried to push the outdented polycarbonate back in with hard plastic, which helped a bit, but not a lot. After that, I was just thinking "Nokia said that underneath the polycarbonate..... there is more polycarbonate", so I grabbed a crystal nail file of my girlfriend.....



I started filing slowly and securely just over the dented spot......... and guess what......... underneath the glossy white polycarbonate..... is more white polycarbonate :) After slowly filing for a couple of minutes I can't see the dent anymore. Of course you can see a small difference in the form when you look closely, but filing your glossy Lumia is a great solution for a dent! I hope this helps other people on the forum with dents, because it makes your damages phone look like it's almost new again :D

[krystea]

I remember someone saying this before. Can't recall if they had tried it out or if they were just throwing a suggestion out there. I wonder if this would work just as well with the matte models. Nice tip!

[deuxani]

I'm glad to help.... and especially if I'm the first to have tried this.:)

I took some pictures to give an indication how it now looks. The battery of my Sony NEX was empty and it's low light, but better than nothing! I used a flash light to show it. Sadly I don't have a before picture, but trust me, it didn't look good ;)

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[JConn_Lefty]

a little elbow grease and bam!!! no more ugly dents. good job man.

[deuxani]

Hahaaha thanks :) I must say, I was afraid what would reveal itself underneath. But I found a site where they have the matte grey casing on sale, so if it turned out badly I now would've had a grey 920 :)

[gilesjuk]

Personally I would use some sort of petroleum based product and rub the affected area until smooth. Vaseline or metal polish (I use Brasso which is widely available in the UK) rubs away the plastic very slowly, I've removed scratches from Nokia screens in the past this way before they were touchscreen phones.

[deuxani]

But I don't think it would work for dents as the polycarbonate is really too hard to reshape with just a liquid. It barely had an effect when I used hard plastic and force to push the outdented parts in. I tried nail polish remover, alcohol, moisturizer, etc, but it's impossible to smoothen the outdented and indented polycarbonate. For scratches it might work though.

[mikejets89]

Same thing happened to me so I might try this thanks man

[920Walker]

Watch it, the elusive limp wristed iFoner will be quick to grab your now lighter 920.

[deuxani]

If I drop it again (which won't be likely... I hope), I will try to find the boundaries of the thickness of the polycarbonate. Ever since I did this I am wondering how thick it really is :) I have a feeling you can for instance change the corners to make it a little bit look like the N8:



And yes... it will be lighter too ;)

[joshs1025]

Hahaaha thanks :) I must say, I was afraid what would reveal itself underneath. But I found a site where they have the matte grey casing on sale, so if it turned out badly I now would've had a grey 920 :)

could I get a link to the matte grey housing? I did the same thing but I think my dent is worse than yours. I'd really need to sand it down :/

[gtbuzz]

If you want to bring back the gloss, I've got a couple of suggestions. I may seem counterintuitive at first, but to make things glossier, you've got to introduce more scratches, albeit smaller ones.

I do a lot of woodturning and I can get a nice shiny finish on things without any additional finishes just by sanding alone, starting from 120 grit and going up as high as 6000 or 12000. You'll find 600 at Home Depot, but anything higher you're likely going to have to go to a woodworking store like Rockler or Woodcraft. It's important to not skip grits either, so you'd have to start with 100-200-300-400-600 and then in the microabrasive category, use all the pads that it comes with. This works, however it can be a lot of work, especially when you're having to supply the elbow grease.

Another alternative is to use a finishing compound with a microabrasive built in that gives the effect of sanding through higher grits. I use a product called EEE Ultrashine. You could also try skipping straight to a polishing compound. I use 20/20 Plasti-polish on stuff that has a CA finish and I find it works pretty well. If you skip the abrasive steps and use just the polish it won't be as shiny but it might work on your fix.

Or you could also just leave it be :)

[mclark2112]

could I get a link to the matte grey housing? I did the same thing but I think my dent is worse than yours. I'd really need to sand it down :/

Me too, I always like to have my parts lined up for the inevitable... Screens: Nokia Lumia 920 Replacement Parts

[deuxani]

They sell the grey casing on a Dutch website, but I don't know if they sell it outside of our country.

Nokia Behuizing Grey Origineel - Nokia Lumia 920 - MobielBereikbaar.nl

You can always try to contact them of course :)


@gtbuzz, thanks for the description! I have to say that it still seems glossy already and it seems to be looking better every day. But if the gloss is completely gone I might give it a try.

[hasasimo]

I've been so careful and sure-handed with my yellow Lumia 920. But sure enough, lady luck can still find a way to crap on you :(. Unbeknownst to me, the pair of shorts I was wearing had a hole in the pocket. The phone fell right through and the top corner slammed onto the pavement :'-(.

I bought this 4-step "shape-n-buff" Revlon filer (file, even out, smooth, buff, shine) after reading this thread and it actually helped a little.

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I still feel like I got screwed... I'd much rather this happen because of my own negligence, not something random and out of my control... but I do feel a little better after using the filer. Obviously it won't ever look like new again (had it since November), but it doesn't look as bad as it did either. Oh well :-/

Thanks for this thread by the way... definitely helped numb the pain.