[GUIDE] Some thoughts about Nexus 6P teardown, and replacing your fingerprint reader

Hi guys, yesterday I completely took my Frost Nexus 6P apart and put it back together.
The goal was to turn it into a Graphite N6P.
This was actually a second attempt, the first one was kind of a fail and left my device looking ghetto as hell.
However this second attempt was a real success, and in the process of fixing my phone I found the answer to a few questions I had, so here it goes for anyone planning to fix or modify their Nexus.

REFERENCES

• iFixit Teardown

• Step by step video. I like this one because it goes all the way down to the screen assembly. Adapt it to your needs, obviously. For example if you only need to change the fingerprint reader you don't need to pull out the battery.

Watch and read those ENTIRELY before doing anything. Seriously, you WILL **** things up if you don't.
Please note the steps described lower are not meant to replace the video. They're just extra things to think of that the video might not convey.

WHAT YOU NEED

• A standard smartphone repair toolkit is good. What you absolutely need is a Phiillips #00 screwdriver, a pair of tweezers and a couple plastic prying tools. All the screws from the phone case to the screen assembly are the same size. You can find that easily on Amazon or Aliexpress. A cheap one will do just fine.

• HEAT! A small hairdryer works just fine.

• A (few) razor blade(s). Without this you risk making a mess of your phone case while removing the visor glass and plastic strip at the bottom.

• Can't hurt to have an extra phone case (you can get them on Aliexpress and they come with a new visor glass and plastic cover). Not mandatory but if it's your first teardown you might scratch your case and also cuff the edges while prying out the phone.

• Any solid-ish plastic card, think credit card-like (obviously not your actual credit card)

• If your teardown involves removing the battery, double sided tape is necessary, you'll 100% mess up the stock one and you'll need to replace it. Also keep single-sided tape at hand in case you tear the battery's plastic wrap.

• If your teardown involves switching the screen assembly's case, you may want to buy an extra set of power buttons, because those are very delicate and glued to the screen's case. I found that out unexpectedly and managed to take them out and put them on my new screen case but still it got me stressed as hell. This doesn't apply if you are putting a NEW SCREEN on your current screen case.

• Also if you are switching the screen's case, you need SOLVENTLESS super strong glue. There are a few other components that are glued to it and you'll need to glue them back on your new case. And the screen assembly is glued to its case too by the way. THIS ALSO APPLIES IF YOU ARE PLACING A NEW SCREEN IN YOUR CURRENT SCREEN CASE AS THE SCREEN HAS TO BE GLUED IN.

• If you use glue, keep rubbing alcohol at hand to clean up any excess glue.

• If your goal is to change your phone's color, please note that the SIM tray is not included with aftermarket phone cases, you have to buy it separately.

• A large, flat and CLEAN space to work on. You don't want to end up with hair stuck between the screen and the case or dust under the camera's glass.

EXTRA POINTS DURING TEARDOWN THAT ARE NOT DIRECTLY ADDRESSED BY IFIXIT OR THE VIDEO

• As you dig into your phone and take components out of it, try to lay them down in a way that lets you easily remember where everything goes when putting it back together.

• Just blow heat on the phone from like ~5 inches for 10 seconds, then run the razor blade around the edges of the visor glass (I prefer to push the blade around the edges and slightly down instead of pulling it, as it makes it less like to slip and scratch your case). Once you've gone around it completely, try GENTLY sliding the corner of your blade under the glass on the right end where it curves down. Once you got that side up, just slide the blade flat under there and run it from right to left. When it won't budge anymore, get to the hairdryer again, and repeat.

• Removing the plastic strip at the bottom is the exact same process. If you manage to not damage anything up until now, you can keep the visor glass and plastic strip for later if you ever damage your phone.

• Don't forget to unscrew all the tiny screws under the visor glass and plastic strip before removing the phone's case

• DO NOT forget to remove the SIM tray before removing the phone's case or it will snap in half. Might seem obvious but it slipped my mind the first time.

• While prying the phone out of its case, AVOID all metal tools if possible. See that really thin plastic rim running around the screen's glass and the metal of the case? That's part of the screen's case, and it's really easy to damage it if you put too much strength. The prying tool (preferably plastic) goes between that plastic rim and the metal, NOT between the glass and the plastic, otherwise you're trying to rip the screen out of its case, which is the very last step of the teardown.

• Some components such as the vibration motor, earpiece and power buttons are glued to the screen's case (which is basically the phone's skeleton). If you move these components to a new screen case, a small drop of glue is enough to keep them in place. In the case of the power buttons, make sure to only put glue on the underside of the connectors and on the insulated parts (wrapped in black tape).

• The hardest part by far is removing the battery. It's taped super strongly to the frame and if you slide your plastic tool/card underneath it too forcefully you might breach the plastic wrap around it. If that happens don't panic, you can cut out the crumpled pieces of the wrap and place a single layer of single-sided tape to cover the hole. But it's best to avoid that entirely, so just be patient with that step. Also don't blow heat on it.

• When switching the screen or the screen's frame, make sure you have a thin layer of glue around the entire edge of the screen's case otherwise it will budge. If some glue oozes out while pressing the screen back in its case, no big deal, just rub it off with some alcohol.

QUESTION ANSWERED

• This teardown answered one question that I had and couldn't find any answer to anywhere : You CAN switch the fingerprint reader for another color. So complete switch from Frost White to Graphite and vice versa is possible.

That's all I could think of at the top of my head, if you have any questions ask away!
Unfortunately I didn't have any other device to take pictures or a video of the process, so the best I can do is this

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