Some more inspection of this cover piece revealed that contrary to the advice given by zoegrlh one CANNOT remove the foam layer without destroying the cover. After removing the vinyl layer - which is quite different from the MB-Tex that one finds on seats, it resembles more a stiff very thin Formica layer - one can see that the front edge is not wood but molded foam and is an integral part of the cover.
Fortunately while removing the vinyl layer I was careful enough to preserve the foam layer. There were some air bubbles hidden under the vinyl that I filled in with some vinyl speckling compound and then sanded smooth.
Now comes the tricky part of covering the piece again with leather - made more difficult because GAHH informed that they cannot skive the leather for me since their machine is broken. So back to hand skiving by sanding it down.
