New Properties and Search Question

Compound question:
We're selling motorcycle parts which have a start and end year for application. I want to add the start and end years as two new properties to our products, and display them on the the product page- this seems somewhat doable from the searching through the forums.

However, I also would like to alter the advanced search to include a year drop-down menu, and tweak the search to return products who's date range includes the selected year.

I'm guessing that this is a difficult (impossible?) request and probably not a DIY job. So anyone who might be able to get this done, or any feedback about how feasible it is, would be greatly appreciated.

I'm looking for something similar. I noticed last night that Zen has a built-in property I need called read-only attributes. Beautiful! Now I need to create (or beg for) an advanced search that picks from those attributes in specific ways. Details:
I sell plants. They are good to grow in a range of hardiness zones 3 through 11. They will grow in full sun, partial shade and/or full shade. They have a range of colors Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Purple. Some are natives.
I'd like my customers to be able to select their zone and light conditions (and maybe more if they have a color preference) from radio buttons, check boxes and dropdowns. I'd prefer this to 85 categories, if you know what I mean. Essentially, this would be a "plant picker" Check out the bottom of the page here:
http://www.gardencrossings.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.search/index.htm