may I suggest another option first.
Have you been able to confirm its the conductivity of the pads that’s the problem. Yes carbon pads can dry out and loose conductivity, but is it possible to move the contact strip to another position and try activating the key again to see of the problem repeats or of the new section does not fix the issue.
If it is the conductive strip, you can do a repair by using a conductive ink pen to retouch up the bad areas on the strip. There is another method of using a pencil to rub graphite on the worn areas, but I am against that as the graphite will move and smear over time, possible causing other problems later on. The conductive ink pen will keep the graphite localized to the application point.
If you set on replacing the strip, use the old strip as a template for the replacement and use a punch to make the holes. Those holes sre there for alignment purposes, so keep them. Drilling or using a soldering iron to punch a hole in silicon never works. A punch is the only reliable method.