Kevin
Looks like we're in the same boat. I just bought my 2nd TA (I had my first one when I was in high school. I was too dumb to appreciate what I had. From reading your post, you're smarter than I am
). You've really done your homework. You'll find (as I have) that the people here are VERY freindly, and VERY helpful. I'm not much of a tech guru myself (as I've been out of the game for about 20 years, and just getting restarted) but I've already learned a lot just from browsing the board, and reading old posts. There's a GOLDMINE of good information there, if you hunt for it.
Not sure if I'd go with a black and tan interior either. One of the reasons I'm pulling the camel out of my car and replacing it with black is that the interior in my ride is VERY sunbleached, and the dash is very cracked, and some panels don't seem to match other ones. Now, from what I've read, I can either get black replacments, and dye them the proper color (and run the risk of the dye skinning off, or uneven fade due to time), or I can cut my losses and just replace the whole thing with black, which is what I'm planning on doing. But like everybody has said, if you cut out your dash, be prepared to live with it. Here is what a former owner of my car did to mine.
As I'm planning on upgrading the interior later, I'm going to have to live with it for the moment, but as you can see, if it's not done carefully, there isn't much place to support a stereo. I'd find me something that had dual post knobs on it, and perhaps a headphone jack in from your ipod or something to avoid hacking up your dash.
Good luck and post more pics
Gunner