I fianlly broke down and replaced my OEM head unit. I found an Eclipse unit on eBay, that I got very cheap.
I fabricated a face plate to cover up the spaces left by removing the OEM head unit. This is not as fancy as Wilson-TT's machined part, but this is what I could do with a piece of 3/16" aluminum, a metal cutting blade, and a lot of filing and sanding.
I used socket head cap screws to hold the new head unit to the face plate, and square drive screws to hold the whole unit in place. It's a tight fit to get all the wiring in, but I made it.

<img src="http://people.mn.mediaone.net/ttbipes/jpgs/eclipsehead.jpg">

I followed this basic schematic to wire to the existing connectors. I left them in place, simply stripping the wire going to the connector I wanted to use, and then soldered and taped the new connection.
The OEM cable harness is not very long, and it is tight working on this.
I did not take pictures of the actual harness work, as it was very clutttered, and not very helpful to see it.
You really need to get in there yourself, follow the label here, and find the connectors to wire in a new head unit. It's really a simple connection, but it takes time.

<img src="http://people.mn.mediaone.net/ttbipes/jpgs/headunitwiring.jpg">

A built-in amp in the head unit runs the front speakers.
I ended up wiring in a small 2-channel power amp into this set-up also, to replace the speaker level outputs of the OEM head unit to the front speakers. The basic (No Bose Upgrade) is set up this way, I believe.

The sound is much better than stock, but I know it can get better than this. The next step is to replace the rear-mounted OEM power amp with a better unit, and also replace the 4 speakers. I plan to keep the sub-woofer, as this is stock in the roadster.
It's not the best, but this way I get an in-dash CD player.

 

Looks great Jeff. A long term goal of mine too.

 

I think it looks great with the aluminum...nice job!

 

Great job Jeff, you did a super job on the surround, it really fits the dash well.

 

Thanks, and for the tip on the clock.

 

Looks good man!


I can't wait to put my Sony Cdx-C90 in mine. :P

I will check back for your posts to see how it went changing the amps and any other ones you do for the stereo. I am Anti-Factory Stereo, so if I can have it my way, it will all be replaced.