Got busy building and didn't leave much time for an update. Here's a bunch a pictures and a few words about progress...

Here's everything inside the case. The radio, antenna, and transformer must go. Keeping the speaker and potentiometer(sp?) with on/off switch.

Making more room for new stuff.

Removed the rest of the parts, speaker grill, and lower faceplate. Painted the front panel with some silver spray paint, painted the radio dial sight glass solid blue with a silver glitter (accidental over spray, left it because it looked cool), reassembled it all.

Sparkly blue where the radio tuning indicator used to be. New five way joystick like switch where the tuning knob used to be.

Close up of the 5 way switch before it was soldered to the protoboard.

5 way switched mounted to the radio front panel where the tuning knob used to be. I used some hot glue and nylon cable clip to keep it in place.

Installed an electric guitar style 9v battery holder in the base of the case.

Controller board with ATmega328, voltage regulator to run off 9v battery, audio filter, audio amp, ISP connector for programming, and connector for 5 way switch all soldered up.

Roughly where everything will reside in the case.

Now it's time to start coding...