@BobW,
Great job and detailed instructions for those of us who wish to follow your lead. I am saving that webpage for later use. I just happen to have an extra Mac SuperDrive (DVD-RW I think, or some such DVD-R format) It was working when removed, but I had some trouble writing with it intermittently, which might have been software related.
Was there a reason to have the CD-ROM drive eject out the back instead of the left side?