OK - turned out to be easier than I thought.

Remove the ash tray.
Set parking brake, turn key to I, put shift lever in "1"

Panel has a tab facing toward the rear of the car, labeled 1 on photo, insert screwdriver to lever it upwards, and 2 tabs facing downward at the front of the panel, labeled 5 in the second photo, a gentle upward pull on the panel will release them -



Once the tabs are free, pull the shift knob upward (mine pulled up easily, yours may still have tabs holding the knob to the shaft). The leather boot and trim panel will come with it. Disconnect green connector from the S/W/E switch, leave the others connected if you plan to re-use the P/R/N/D indicator light assembly and S/W/E buttons.
The boot is held in the panel by a white rectangular retainer with 4 tabs, free these tabs and remove shift lever & boot.

In the next photo, #1 is the tab mentioned above, #2 marks two of the 4 slots that the shift lever boot retainer clips into, #3 marks the two slots that the P/R/N/D indicator light assembly clips into, #5 marks one of the two retainer tabs that hold the panel under the ash tray



In the next 2 photos, #4 marks the two SMALL metal clips that secure the P/R/N/D indicator light assembly. DO NOT LOSE THESE CLIPS; I removed/installed them using a long-nose small ViseGrip pliers.




The S/W/E switch is held in by spring tabs on each end, the switch is removed through the front of the panel.

Re-assembly is the reverse of disassembly.