Hello Undertaker! Yes I've been on the boards, but not posting long messages, this whole week at work has been murder.

Is sealant easy enough... I would like to say that, but it took me some trials and failures to get better at it. Saildog says he applies silicone with a stiff brush. I think that's a good idea and something I'd try if I had a stiff brush, because it would probably cause me to apply silicone in a consistent, economically thin coat. You don't have to apply silicone thickly, but you must cover every potential seam where water could seep in--all those places the rubber tubes meet the casings. I'm too lazy to get a brush, so I smear the silicone on a la fingerpainting. The more consistent and comprehensive I've been, the more my subs have tended not to take on water anymore. I'm still fighting that battery-box leak though...it came stock with the sub, and I'm still trying to get a satisfactory solution.

I asked Saildog if he thought he should silicone inside tubes and casings, too. I understood he felt that was overkill unless going over ten or 20 feet down. I have tried siliconing inside casings and had trouble, after putting things back together, with the way silicone hardens to a degree and presses against things inside--so I don't put silicone inside motor casings anymore. I'll open a casing, though, to pack the shaft seal on the end of the motor with silicone grease (not the same stuff as the caulking, seam-sealing silicone) or drain out water (Motorworks did a good thing, making the casings clear so you could see water).

The black box isn't really meant to be taken to pieces, it's meant to keep everything out, and it keeps me out too. I've opened the black box, and nearly always I put at least a hairline fracture in a latch. It does its job, and I've learned to leave it alone--I just silicone outside where the rubber tubes meet it...and all around the main black-box seam and latches.

Is all this easy...well, kind of, once you've seen each area come apart and go back together a few times. Except I don't understand all about how the electronics function--there was more discussion on that early in the Wally Subs I topic. And I have no clue how to fix electronics if a few days opened and drying doesn't do it.

Good luck with the paint job !