That is nice!, i use BITBANGING with Deumilanove but never had damaged pin's out or in the ZIF socket because of some simple procedure to get the chip out(sticking something soft like some flat plastic card beneath the chip's space between the ZIF socket and giving it slow movement's) or the other idea i had is to use another ZIF socket and mount the ATmega on it and then mount ZIF on the ZIF!! ,yes it works no damage to anything PLus! smooth working very easy to take it out.
As you use the ZIF socket's too in your standalone (if you really do that ,you can too use this for Good!).