After seeing what needed to be done it was pretty easy to take the worn silver insert out on the shift knob. Here's a photo the knob's component pieces along with one of the fancy plastic and leather safe prying tools that helped get it apart.[
With the hard plastic insert separated from the rest of the knob I removed the remaining silver paint with acetone then cleaned and polished the black plastic. Here is the result.
The all black knob does look a bit Darth Vader-ish so I may go back and repaint it silver later but it does look a darn sight better than it did!
cheers - dj