1-4. Would any of these go higher than high peripheral if anything was removed? It doesn't seem so to me just verifying what I felt about it.

All should be high peripheral

Appreciate it, I did fail to note that board #1 had the IC pop off while trying to pry off the heatsink that was attached (didn't even notice it when I was posting pictures). I'm not sure it would still make it into high peripheral with that being the case. I did e-mail Chris on it with some other things so I would know for sure.

when things accidentaly pop off, i usually put them back in place with tape and a note. as long as it doesnt look like you are trying to take the good stuff off and still get the better grade, its not an issue, at least it hasnt been for me in the past.

I appreciate the input bw. One concern I had was whether the chip would stay on the board through shipping, but I do understand what you are saying so I will try and tape that down for shipping unless I hear otherwise.

Do like I do.....get you some gorilla glue and put a drop or two on it once its dry that dude ain't coming off.

I didn't know if it was better for it to be easily removable or not.
For glue, a lot of times I use loctite super glue professional liquid. It is also a very good glue, just not a very thick glue so it doesn't work well if there are gaps in the materials being glued.