Custom iPod Classic 6th gen

An iPod Classic 6th gen with a hand-painted clear shell, flash storage and Rockbox.

2026-04redditipodmoddingrockbox

My first modded iPod: a 6th gen Classic with a transparent shell painted white from the inside, a 256 GB SD card instead of the hard drive, and Rockbox on top. It runs my own FleshAndBones theme - I built that theme for this iPod.

The finished iPod from the front on pale wood: a clear shell over a frosted white front, a white click wheel, and the now-playing screen showing SlaughtaHouse by Masta Ace Incorporated with album art, 3:17 of 4:49 played

The back of the iPod on pale wood: a dark grey panel with a soft, non-mirror sheen, the Apple logo and the iPod wordmark in the middle and small print along the bottom

Why I made it

Because I think it’s cool, and restomodding in itself is very cool.

Initially I bought a used 5.5 gen that I wanted to refurbish, but it turned out to be in such a good state (battery holding a couple of hours of charge, HDD working fine) that it was a shame to open it up, and I ended up selling it. Then I found a good deal on this 6 gen - battery shot, dinged up shell… it wasn’t looking good.

I like the clear shells, but I really dislike that black border around the screen (gasket glued in from the inside to prevent dust buildup), so I knew from the start I was going to paint the shell.

This whole thing also got me into self hosting and actually having my own music library. I got interested in IEMs, started collecting CDs and bought a CD player, the FiiO DM13 BT in Skylight. It is a vibe.

Build story

I built it at the same time as the FleshAndBones theme - 2026-04.

Since this is my first mod I decided to go rather light. The overall experience was rather pleasant, but opening it up wasn’t easy - watched a couple of tutorials and still ended up completely destroying the OEM shell.

The iPod opened into its two halves on black fabric: on the left the front shell with the back of the screen and its orange ribbon cable, on the right the rear half with the battery taped in at the top, the logic board below it and an SD card in its adapter

The rear half on its own, closer: the battery wrapped in white and yellow tape at the top, the logic board under it, the SD card in its adapter on the left and an orange ribbon cable running down the middle

Plan A was a “frosted” look: a couple of thin layers of matte spray paint from the inside of the front shell. I did like 2 of them with the “window privacy screen” spray, but for some reason it did literally nothing to the plastic transparency, so I thought of plan B :)

Plan B, and what it is now:

Front shell painted from the inside with white matte spray paint - a very light coat (from far away) on the bottom side, a full coat around the screen area
Back shell painted from the outside with the “window privacy screen” spray, mostly because it’s what I had on hand, but probably a matte transparent spray paint would work the same. I tested it first on another shell to see if I liked the effect, and I do - it’s still shiny, but not chrome-like shiny
The center button is just painted white from the inside
Metal frame painted white

The semi-matte back was definitely a goal of mine. I was searching high and low on AliExpress, but apparently chrome look is all that they have… so I did it myself.

Gotchas:

Don’t clean the screen with 99% isopropyl alcohol. It left visible smudges that won’t go away. It’s a minor inconvenience for me though, because they are not visible on a dark theme
The center button was not sitting flush with the click wheel, so I had to design and 3D print a small spacer for it: a cylinder 12.9 mm in diameter and 0.5 mm thick (I printed like 20 of them with different dimensions to figure out which one fits my particular button).

There is some light bleed from the LEDs at the bottom edge of the screen, but for me personally it adds to the look. It would probably be way more if I didn’t paint the frame around the screen with a full coat - at first I wanted to leave the front fully clear, and I’m glad I didn’t.

The iPod in a dim room showing the Music list in yellow on blue - Deltron 3030, Enei, Gang Starr, Ghostface Killah, Goodie Mob, Gravediggaz highlighted, Group Home - with two bright points glowing at the bottom corners of the screen where the backlight bleeds past it

How it works

Parts, all bought on AliExpress apart from the SD card:

Transparent acrylic shell with center button - it’s a version for 6-7, I am not using a frame from 5 gen
Thin back
White click wheel (not original, and neither is the center button)
2000 mAh rectangle battery
iMCort SD adapter with a Lexar 633x 256 GB SD card

Software:

Apple firmware 2.0.4, flashed thanks to the guide from Olsro. I only upgraded the stock OS so that if for some reason it boots into it, it won’t bring back the 128 GB storage limit
Rockbox bootloader with Rockpod on top
My own FleshAndBones theme (Rockbox themes site, GitHub)

The IEMs on the pictures are Truthear Pure with a NICEHCK BlackDawn cable and Tangzu Tang Sancai Balanced ear tips.

What I’d change

Nothing, I love it, it’s a trooper. Battery holds for days, it boots in like 2 seconds - what more do you want?

Note

AI was not used when modding the iPod.

AI was used to create the alt text for images.