[Hero CDMA General] Leukay:
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible if you break your phone doing this. I am not telling anyone to do this, I am just sharing how I did it. If anyone tries it, post up your results!

Read through all of the steps, and if anything seems too difficult for you, do not try this. There is a good chance you will break something if you aren't completely confident.

Hey guys, I just wanted to share how I dyed my phone black (and people wanted to know lol). This is very dangerous, and this is no task AT ALL for the faint hearted. It is very easy to BREAK your phone doing this. In fact, to do one part you have to technically break the phone (hence why only experts should try this) but it will still work fine. Anyways, check out the pics attached!

MAD Props to xweaponx over at PPCGeeks for being the first (I believe) to try using RIT dye on their phones (the Touch Pro battery door).

Steps:

Pre-Step: Go to the nearest convienience store and pick up some RIT dye. It can be the powder or concentrate stuff, doesn't matter.

1. Take your phone completely apart. Follow this great tutorial here: http://androidforums.com/sprint-htc-hero/22036-sprint-htc-hero-disassembly-diy.html When you get to the trackball, remember which way to put it in, cause if you don't put it in the right way, you will start freaking out cause none of the panel buttons will reach the mainboard and they won't work!

2. Once you get to the end, this is the part where you have to be careful! You need to pull the screen off. This is very VERY dangerous too. You have to use an iPod pry tool or maybe a guitar pick or something plastic and thin. This screen is very tightly glued to the body, so this is going to be hard. GO SLOW. No need to risk breaking your glass screen :eek:

3. Once the screen is out, there are two more things you have to do. Use a tiny flathead screwdriver to pop out the earpiece. MAKE SURE: you know which way the earpiece is in, because when you re assemble it, you have to put it in the right way or you will have no sound out of the earpiece which can be very scary haha. Once that is out, take that same screwdriver to actually break off the End and Send buttons (right where they are connected to the body). If you don't feel comfortable doing this, don't try this at all, because if you don't do this step, the buttons will curl and not fit in the holes at all.

4. Now, you're phone should be completely apart. Make sure there is still nothing electronic on the housing of the phone.

5. Nows the fun part! Boil a pot of water. Once it is boiling, turn the heat slightly down to just under a boil, and pour some RIT dye of the color of your choice into the water. Use more dye for a more intense color, less for a more subtle change. Make sure you stir it up well.

6. Now, put the two housing pieces (the facial housing, and the battery cover) into the hot but not boiling water. Stir gently for about 10-20 minutes, checking on the color like an Easter egg.

7. Once your desired color is achieved, take out the pieces, and quickly run them under luke warm water, and gradually make the water colder. Keep rinsing until the rinse off water is completely clear. If you stop too early you might have a color bleeding problem (onto your hands) later. Use something like a paper towel or tissue to sop up the last bit of the dye so you do not have that color bleeding problem later. Let the pieces dry for a while.

8. Once the pieces are completely dry, put the phone back together using the guide I liked in step one (follow in reverse obviously :rolleyes:). Make sure you put the earpiece in the correct way like mentioned above.

9. If you followed everything, you should have a sweet looking original phone!

With all of this said, only do this if you feel like you can. And remember that disclaimer up at the top. Not my fault if you break it! If you do try this, post up your results! I wanna see all the colors anyone tries, or even if you did it black.