Out boot is held on by clips, I assume you are talking about the inner boot with the gold trim ring?
I beleive they are metric sized. I wanna say 7mm, but it's been a while since i took that peice off. They weren't anything special, i just used a normal metric socket
Take the shift knob off and then gently pull on the sides of the plastic around the shifter to pop the tabs out. If you're talking about taking out the silver ring around the shifter boot, it also just pops out.
Ya, they're just ornamental. Pretty detailed though because you're one of many that I have read thought they were real. I got one for my GT from CDC so I knew what the bottom looked like with its clips. Good luck. Hopefully ford didnt glue the ones from factory in.