Above is very used -- cracked face plate at the screen and the IR port.
Good ESN. Surprisingly, everything seems to work -- I even get a
backlight but no words on the screen. To make a long story short I have
access to other cheap used similar models in that brand and would like
to attempt an LCD transplant or keypad circuit swap. Suggestions? And
in addition Is there a way to clean the rubber strip at the top of the
screen or do those connections ever fail?

TIA Jon

those things are a pain in the ass! that little rubber strip may never work
right if removed, they have to be lined up just right and some of them are
glued, ive tried it before with mixed results so you may end up with junk