easiest way is to take the dash out.... 3 bolts in the top of the dash near the windscreen, and to underneath at the ends, just in front of the doors. There's also two in the steering column. disconnect the heater cables and wires, disconnect ignition plug/flasher unit cable/ brake light cables (probably a good idea to label these) Theres also 3 or 4 plugs where the wires go through the firewall. disconncet those as well. The dash should pull straight out.

The insert is held in by whatever sticks through it.

lights/windscreen wiper switches:
push the nob, and turn counter clockwise, and they come off. Then unscrew the little round nut, and the switch should pull straight through the dash.

back unscrews of the cigarrette lighter, take that out. remove radio/cd player or whatever if you have one
heater nobs have one screw in the bottom of each, just pull them off
remove the choke if you still have that
then just unscrew the gauges from the back of the dash insert. if you have the coupe dash, be carefull, beacause the glass in front of them is held in place by the gauge.

should come out after that. and this whole process shouldn't take you longer than 20 mins to half an hour.

colour choice is personal. i prefer silver, my dash below: