Silly rough touch surface on the SL510... (Question!)

[youwonder]

I just picked up an SL510 for $100, pretty much ready to go except some of the dimpled touchpad material is worn off.

I was um...absentmindedly picking at it and made it worse. Now I notice it's not at all required for the touchpad operation.

1. Is it safe to remove this all together?
2. Can I just buy a replacement dimple pad like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-IBM-Thinkpa ... 27fad91c2c
instead of an entire new touchpad assembly?

[RealBlackStuff]

Yes, you can.