Dear members, please allow me this opportunity to contribute my latest endeavour. Hopefully the information contained will be meaningful and helpful to someone out there.

PROBLEM

So when i purchased Freeda, one of the many little things that needed some cosmetic attention was the 'leather' boot gaiter covering the parking brake / hand brake. See the sides had worn down to reveal its 'not real leather' glory. The original replacement cover was around GBP40 but a rather attractive and cheaper 'Italian Leather' aftermarket option presented itself on ebay. Both automatic gear and hand brake cover were available combined for USD24.99 + shipping to my country

SUMMARY

Ok so the quick answer if you are intending to do this same job yourself.... Whilst the pebbled finish real leather is definitely the real leather deal with the smells and a texturing (the one I got) was a pebble texture much like the leather seats on my car (the original is a smooth leather look and definitely not leather)... the thickness of the real leather will present many little issues and as it reveals later, challenges to the installation. If you are prepared to take some risks, you can go for an aftermarket real leather boot, otherwise I suggest getting an original item LR001374 for RHD Gear Boot or item that comes with the frame holding the leather boot in place. So here goes

IN RETROSPECT

It would have been better if i really stripped the radio and centre console to work on this, then did the hand brake, followed by the automatic gear knob. But I did'nt... and I'll explain the procedure that I took

REPLACING AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION LEATHER LEVER BOOT

ORIENTATION: 12 o'clock is the Terrain Response, 6 o'clock is the direction of the boot door
1. Put key in, put transmission to N position
2. Sitting in the passenger seat of a RHD Car, put your fingers into the 6 o'clock of the leather of the boot and thumbs on the silver surround. This silver panel removes in a 6 o'clock and upward motion. So you'd have to pull toward the rear seats and lift up
3. Remove the connector for the Terrain Response. Its a clip with a push button. Use fingers to squeeze and pull out
4. Remove lights illuminating the PRND panel. gently prise it off with something plastic. There are little tabs you can move if it is difficult to remove.
5. Lift the silver surround up past the gear knob to reveal a white nylon retainer at the bottom of the gear knob.
6. This white nylon retainer holds the knob in place. To remove. Rotate the retainer from a 12 o'clock position to 2 o'clock and the retainer should drop down the shaft of the gear lever.
7. Next remove the Auto gear knob. Press the Auto button on the knob and lift the knob upwards to the ceiling. It will take a bit of effort, Do support the silver surround etc when you do this.

Now that the gear knob and gear panel are clear, you can take it to your workbence with good light.
The gear panel is made of 4 parts. Main Silver surround, Terrain Response Selector, Black panel with PRND lights and the leather boot with an attached thin frame.

8. Slowly remove the black panel with PRND lights. Start from the two protruding legs at the 6 o'clock side then work your way to the narrow 12 o'clock side.
9. With the black panel removed, now carefully remove the leather boot frame from the black panel
10. You'll see that the leather is held in place by hooks. Your aftermarket leather boot should come with slits cut to fit over these hooks. Mine were misaligned and needed further slits. The benefits of buying an original boot is that the boot will come with the frame attached, black panel and gear knob. (LR001374)
11. The original leather is secured to the gear knob via cable tie. you will need to cut this
12. To replace, do everything in reverse. I ran into problems because the the replacement boot was too narrow at the tapered end and when i installed everything back, i could not secure the nylon retainer from point 6. I had to go back several times to trim the leather. Suggest to remove the nylon retainer from the car. Take note of the orientation. and bring it to your workbence. It should go fit the base of your gear knob easily.
13. Do ensure that there is enough material for the auto gear knob to move around. After you reinstall, do check to see if you can move into Sport +/-
14. IMPORTANT. When reinstalling the auto gear knob, Do press the auto button in whilst pushing it down the gear stick.

REPLACING THE HAND BRAKE BOOT

15. Ideally the best way to replace this is to remove the centre console and purchase a boot with frame and not just the boot material only. The boot is originally welded to the plastic frame and to install an after market one, you'll need peel off the original boot and set aside a few hours to glue your aftermarket boot to the old frame. (not really fun)

16. The boot frame is secured by a clip system directly to the centre console. the clips at the 3 o'clock require you to push left and up. The clips at the 9 o'clock require you to push down and right.
17. Once you've got the frame out, just slip over the hand brake and you can start working on the boot.
18. You'll realise you will need to tear the material away from the frame and glue the new one. I used a 2 hr dry glue with binder clips to clamp it.
19. The re-installation without removing the centre console is tricky. First you will need to put the 12 o'clock part in first as there is a protrusion. then
20. 9 o'clock clips go in. You've got to use your fingers like a hook through the leather clip it UPwards. Again because of the thickness of the leather (original is paper thin) its hard to install and my casualty is that one of the clips on this section broke
21. The 3 o'clock clips are easiest, the simply push down.
22. It is likely you will have the most problems with the clip at the 11 o'clock position. I finally got it to clip upwards after jumping into the passenger seat, digging my fingers into the leather boot and pulling it up.

To save yourself the hassle of gluing, go purchase LR006173

Parting words

As mentioned before, if I'd do this again, i'd just buy all original boots (gear/brake) and get a new gear knob in the process at GBP 130. I personally really wanted proper leather but i feel that the fitment problems mean that it could be more trouble than its worth. Perhaps one way to ameliorate the fitment issues is to sand down the thick parts of the leather to thin it down in some areas.