As far as the black bay, the paint in the bay was nastyness, and one of my friends rebuilt his motor (B series..but oh well) Gloss black bay, with a bright silver motor. Just looked clean as hell. So thats what I'm doing. Car is staying silver, but the stripped interior is gloss black as well as the engine bay. Some people may not like it, but I guess its one of those personal preference deals, right?
Sound deadening is staying, for now anyways.
And yeah I'm notching the block today by the way, I read about that before I bought the rods
But thanks for the replies, I'll keep everyone updated!

Interior:
still not done, will probably finish today. There will also be a 6 Pt. roll cage going in..this is gonna be my track car 
And after many days of waiting for a 10 minute job, I finally get my rods done...fit perfectly, ride smoothly, and yeah, free floating for the win. Now I just have to put the snap rings in, but im just going to pick up a set of snap ring pliers tomorrow. I've been needing a set anyways..
Engine re-build will start tomorrow