Remove the four 3 mm indicated Phillips #00 screws from the front wall of the battery compartment. When working from the left, remove the 2nd, 4th, 7th and 9th screw.
Starting near the display and working around to the front of the computer, pry up on the upper case. It is held with clips on the right above the optical drive. These will release with some firm lifting pressure.
Be careful when prying up the upper case. It's very easy to slice open a fingertip and thus provide the blood sacrifice the Mac gods sometimes require of those who insist on doing their own repairs.
There's a trackpad and keyboard ribbon connecting the upper case to the logic board, so don't pull the upper case off entirely just yet.
If you have trouble getting the clips to release, be careful that you are not prying the plastic top of the upper case away from its metal frame.
While holding up the upper case (from the bottom or the top), use a spudger to pry up the orange trackpad and keyboard cable from its connector.
Take care to pry between the black socket and the white connector. You might have to pry on both sides for it to release properly.
Do not pry from the bottom or the top, but from the sides.
If you happen to break your upper case cable when removing the upper case, we stock the cable individually and we have a guide that makes replacing it easy.
Use a spudger to carefully disconnect the microphone cable from the logic board. You'll want to work from side to side, and slowly wiggle the connector out of its socket.
Pulling on this connector vertically will break the socket off the logic board. This connector should be removed horizontally by gently pulling the microphone cable toward the screen while working a spudger between the connector and the socket.
The following steps should be identical for both white and black MacBooks.
Use a thin plastic card to release the tabs holding the front display bezel to the display assembly. There are five tabs along the left side of the display bezel.
Lift up the front display bezel from the top and use your plastic card to free the tabs along the bottom edge of the display bezel.
Make sure that your card is between the metal frame around the LCD panel and the display bezel and not touching the LCD panel itself.
After freeing all holding tabs, lift the front display bezel away from the display assembly.
When reinstalling the front display bezel onto the display housing, you may find it easier to get the tabs and clips to connect if you push on the four sides of the bezel in this order: top, bottom, then the sides (left or right). You may have to apply extra pressure along the bottom side of the bezel to get it to snap into place firmly.
Sometimes when removing the front display bezel, the retaining clips that should remain captive in the LCD brackets come out with the front display bezel. Follow this and the next step to transfer the clips back to the LCD bracket.
Use a metal spudger or another thin tool to carefully pry the gray plastic clips off the tabs molded into the front display bezel. A 0.8mm flat screwdriver may be useful for this step. You may find that it's easier to remove some of these clips by prying up on their long sides.
Be careful, as the clips are made of thin plastic and are inherently delicate.
Insert one end of the retaining clip beneath the edge of its recess cut into the LCD bracket.
Use the edge of a spudger to push the short hook tab on the underside of the other end of the retaining clip into the recess cut into the LCD bracket.
The second picture shows a retaining clip properly installed.
You may find it easier to get the short hook tabs on the underside of each end of the clip to fit down inside their cutout in the LCD bracket by first very slightly bending down the two ends of the clip, but be careful not to bend the clips too much--only a slight bend is needed, and too much force will break them.
You're right, most of these steps are irrelevant. You can easily just pop it off. You can do 36-40 without taking apart the whole computer. just start on the lower sides. I did it yesterday. It's really easy.
I don't mean to insult this guide. But you can definitely take the bezel screen frame off without taking apart the whole computer. It's not attached to anything other than the bezels. Just start at the bottom sides and go from there. This guide could definitely be simplified. You just need to do 36-40