My 27" iMac was damaged in shipping and I had to replace the display. When trying to replace the display, I found that the case was bent on the top, just barely visible. Makes sense as the top right corner of the display was totally smashed... Check your display fit and alignment BEFORE placing the adhesive strips. This way you can work on straightening the frame without worrying about damaging the adhesive strips.

The case is actually soft, in that it is easily bent. Work only when relaxed and not stressed out! I used my body weight and a small piece of wood as a fulcrum to accomplish the (un)bends. If you place it on a totally flat surface you can see where it's touching and where it's high, so you know where to bent it. I had to use some pliers to get the last bit straight. I used multiple (4 - 6) layers of cardboard under the pliers to prevent scratching the aluminium. Go gently, slowly, checking for alignment / flatness many times, rather than doing too much and having to bent it back again.

The display I bought had some pink protective plastic film covering the camera portion of glass on the back of the display. Be sure to remove this before finally seating the display in place! Not doing so would result in improper focusing and a pink tinted picture all the time.

When replacing the I/O board, be careful to gently lift the microphone ribbon cable out of the way. If you forget, you’ll have to remove the I/O board to get at it again…

FINALLY! All back together…. Lost a screw first time ‘round. Couldn’t find it anywhere. Then as I turned over the case when I had it 95% back together, I heard a rattle. OKaaaayy. Took it all apart again, found the culprit, got it together again — without the shake, rattle, and roll when I turned it over. It now has a 128Gb SSD and a 2TB hdd that will become a true Fusion drive in a few hours. Oh yeah, I installed 16Gb of RAM in it as well.

Great guide!

It's a pain in the butt. There are two plastic shields, both with some sort of circuitry on them so you have to be very careful and methodical here. Then there are about 75 VERY tiny screws holding the actual keyboard in place. I changed it because I had a couple of extra bodies laying around, and the body I wanted had a half dozen dead keys. I actually succeeded and the LED lights actually worked afterwards! I was amazed. It took me a good couple of hours to complete. Don't try it unless you have a lot of patience, time, and a magnifying headset of some sort.