The 'Big ol spring' the buttons use is the conductive path for the capacitive sensing for the face buttons.

Could you add an extra shot of the underside of the button housing, so we can see the cam profile the 'grip' trigger uses to modulate spring force?

It turns out that in order to remove the outer shell, you simply pull the stand out of the tilt mount: http://imgur.com/a/5CIjH. No cutting required! The Repair Rating probably needs an update due to this.