Brad,
good idea about the wood. The veneer is micron-thin, so be extremely careful in stripping it or steel wooling off the old finish. Also, you may want to use a UV protectant top coat of whatever you do.
In order to get to the blue nuts that hold it in, you need to take out the gauges in your dash. Having just done this myself, you may want to consider either refurbing your tach and speedo (2 weeks in texas), or at least replacing your tach cable (speedo too?). One doesn't have the opportunity to have these out of the car often during their stewardship tenure. The gray rubber gaskets around your gauges may need replacing as well, as they may be brittle and cracked.
In addition, I replaced all my dashboard lighting with LED's which doubled the brightness, without causing any heat problems. I'm a huge fan.
Don't want to cause more work and expense, but a few hundred dollars here may greatly improve your driving satisfaction, while you have your dash apart anyway.
Mike Mizesko
Columbus, OH