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It's not ruined! You do have to take it off though, but its easy. I can't figure out how to post the whole link, but look here: http://www.audiworld.com/tech/ then click on "interior" then scroll down until you see "tiptronic shift cover brushed alumminum project". It is a great write up. I just did mine 2 days ago. You actually have to take ALL the chrome off to get to bare metal. I used fine steel wool for my final, and polished with some mothers metal polish. It looks like new! Just be careful on the removal, they are delicate parts.

 

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I sanded mine down with a medium grade first then went over it with a very fine grade. It came our really nice.Highly recomend it to anyone.

 

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I worked around it, If need be you can tape it off. It's going to take a little work as for everything you want to come out well. It's up to you but in the long run if you decide to sand it, It's worth it. I would'nt have thought brushed alluminum would look good but ir really does.

 

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I would highly recommend taking it off. It comes off really easily, just follow the instructions. Mine was slightly different than the write-up, but the overall procedure was the same. I actually got impatient trying to sand off all that chrome so I went with a palm sander and 150grit, then 220 grit by hand, and finally the steel wool and the mothers metal polish. I think I am going to take mine back off and spray it with clear coat to keep it from getting stained......

 

One little trick I learned, if you remove the shifter and the button goes all the way in (yeah, it happened to me too, but mine was ALL the way in) you can reach inside the shifter with a pick or even a bent coat hanger, grab the little metal bar and pull towards you, that will move the button out and you can grab it. This is for a B6 so others may be different.

 

You can see here where I did mine. Taking the plate off is fairly simple.