Hi Chris,
Given your equipment and the images your have produced, I am surprised you are the one asking fort advice :-) I am sure you know most people would go for astrosolar sheets, but of course, they would essentially drop the background doing so.
I wouldn't worry too much with a wide angle lens and if not tracking. People accidentally put the sun in wide field images all the time and, unless the shutter is wide open for relatively long exposures, nothing bad happens. I've done quite a few time lapse videos where the sun appeared from behind clouds and the cameras used haven't suffered. It's a bit different if you are tracking the sun because there will be some heat buildup at the shutter especially if you keep the mirror up. But if the sun is low on the horizon, this is not an issue.
Looking forward to seeing the result!