Ah... Now I see what happened with these CIVs. I'm petty sure now that these have been worked before. One of the mids, which is stamped steel, has a slight outward bend around one of the screw holes. A corkscrew might explain that odd damage. Didn't make sense until now. Also, the old instruction explains to re-seal the woofers with "stripping caulk". I think whom ever worked on them misunderstood and used regular caulking. That would certainly explain the white substance around the screw holes of the 10", and why they are so difficult to pull....
Glad I didn't spend a lot on these lol.