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Does anyone know if the vinyl trim in the middle of the door panels under the armrest can be swapped with the wood trim without destroying the door panel?
Yes. But you will need to dismantle the door cards in order to swap the components.
The pocket assembly is attached by melting the ends of the pegs that push through to the back of the door card. Officially you cut the melted heads off with a chisel and fit a new picket using spring washers... However, obtaining new pockets may be impossible or expensive. It is a process covered in WIS.
I have previously and to good effect done the following:
1. Cut the melted heads off with a Dremel.
2. Dismantle the door card.
3. Perform the modification/refresh.
4. Reassemble the door card using self tapping pan head screws with a washer.
The screws need to be thick enough to grip the interior hole of the pegs, so may take some experimenting to select the correct thickness/length once you've cut the head off and can see what's left of the peg. I suspect they're hollow, but if not, then you'll need to drill a pilot hole. Torx pan heads are readily available if you want to keep it OEM and may eliminate the need for washers. Doing all 4 doors will require 100 screws.
Retro fitting the stitched leather panel, whilst hypothetically possible, is unlikely to end well.
I have considered this retrofit on my S500, but haven't seen the wood trims for the SWB rear doors, and only doing half the car seems a bit pointless.
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