I didn't have to do much at all to have everything work other than solder in some wires for the controller port. Everything else just works as is. The difficult part was all the cutting done for the casing and board to get everything lined up just right. I used a mix of Hot glue in some areas and two part epoxy in others to hold the case together. After using a file to create a notch in the motherboard I was also able to get 4 screw holes to line up nicely.
And yes, I cut right through a bunch of unneeded chips that were most likely bad anyways. I felt like being destructive.
Here are some pics of the inside. A little difficult to get good pics cause of how the region switch is wired/glued in now.