I don't think the adhesive for the original battery overlapped with the bronze ribbon that was on the back plate. I did notice, however, that the adhesive on the replacement battery from ifixit runs across the entire surface and will make contact with the ribbon. I actually left a small bit of the adhesive paper on so the glue won't make contact and tear the ribbon in the event I have to replace it again. The only thing I'd note is that after closing up my ipod, the gap between the front/back plates seem just a smidge wider at the corner where the batter sits. I don't think the addition of the paper is at fault, but it must be the shape of the battery that's causing it. I don't expect the ipod to look perfect after going under the knife, but just something to look for when you're closing it up.

Be wary when separating the two halves at the top of the screen. There is only so much flex until your screen will crack which mine did. It was already riddled with dead pixels that made half of it unreadable, but the crack thus required me to get a new screen too. Fun!

I found this to be the most difficult step and I don't know if I just used the wrong tools or if I wasn't effectively sliding the tool down the edge to unclip the sides (fyi, I have a ifixit tool kit and used the plastic tools in there). Eventually my ipod gave and separated after about 10-15 of me wrestling with it, but i could see that some of the white plastic bits where the tiny screws are anchored broke in some places. Could've been the fact that it's just old.