The buttons will be falling all over the place, don't worry about that it goes together easy.

You can now safely remove all the buttons and rubber cups they sit in.

I gave all the buttons and D-pad a nice bath in warm soapy water. If the board has become drenched with your favorite soda or whatever, use some mild soapy water on a rag to clean it up, stay away from window cleaner and other harsh cleaners. Yes, you can put soapy water onto a board and it does not burst into flames or anything, just don't soak it and try to stay away from components as much as possible. The most important thing is to let it dry COMPLETELY before attempting to use it.

It turns out the drain in my sink has a little bar that goes across that is just small enough to prevent an Xbox button from going down the drain than further than a forceps can reach... Nice design.

Speaking of nice design, look a the controller while we have it all apart. Somebody was thinking, the rubber pads act as a little cup to contain any drips of liquid, the controller sticks act like little umbrellas to keep the important pieces underneath clean and each of the buttons are keyed so they can only go back into the controller the right way.

Once the buttons are all nice clean and dry, get the top cover out and start putting the buttons back in place.

Now put the rubber cups in place, these are keyed as well and only fit properly one way.

Alright, now we are ready to take the bottom and lower it on top of the buttons and top cover.

Put the screws back where they were and we are done!

Don't soak the top cover in water as I did, the little emblem gets a little misty, it cleared up in a couple days so no big deal. I had to go after the button sockets with a rag to get them cleaned out properly so the soaking didn't do it for that component anyway.