Here is a look at my first round of minor surgery. I wanted to get an idea of what tools worked and the effort involved. The section(s) I removed were a total of 8" by 20" done in two strips. The outer skin was the easiest to remove by carefully and slowly applying a prying pressure advancing maybe an inch at a time. The core itself is a pain when it is well adhered to the inner skin and what I finally decided was the best approach was to use the multitool and essentially cut it away. Only half of the area I opened up was marked as wet and the other I opened up to confirm the reading. Here is the video that includes some still shots.
Minor Surgery 
