[Harp-L] extracting a mic element

[nonidesign@xxxxxxx]

I bought a Shure CR80D mic at a ham radio fest last Sunday and it has a CR element in it. I want to put the element in another shell and have a question about removing the element.

This mic has an way of mounting the elelemtn in it that's different than a bullet. There is a metal plate with a hole in it and a round rim that the element sits in. The element itself is seated into a clear plastic shell which covers the back of  it. The plastic cover has what looks like a white strip that is about 3/16"x1"x 1/16" laying on it. There is also some (of what appears to be) hard black plastic coating that was poured onto the back of the plastic cover. The black plastic partially covers both the clear plastic shell and the white strip. The mic's lead wires poke through the plastic cover and stick out the back. 
I was about to remove the black plastic and the white bar to make it easier to extract the element from the shell when I thought better of it and wrote this post. There's probably a simple answer to this but better safe than sorry. What is the purpose of the strip and the black plastic and can I mess with them to remove the element without destroying the world?
I feel like I'm diffusing a bomb.