I think you could just replace it with a black one from a Duc dealer... thats probably $$ though since I bet its not a commonly stocked part. I think there's a couple guys on here who've dyed or painted theirs in black, if I remember correctly it was Kappa and Redduck? (help out here guys...).
And I dunno bout replacing that part with something solid, that padding has come in handy a couple times in my experience .