Thanks for the praise all. Yes i did it all myself and yes my wife thought i was nuts and my friends just didn't plain understand it.

I decided to do this for the following reasons:

1) I wanted a GPS unit, Lowrance make great GPS units, the iway recently won the best of CES award and they don't charge for map updates!

2) The unit has 10GB reserved for MP3's I have a usb cable fed into the glove box so I can connect to my laptop to update the MP3's and software (maps, firmware etc).

3) The unit is touch screen and 100% viewable in the brightest sunshine.

4) the unit plays MP3's and shows the song title while navigating and you have UI push buttons for next song pause, stop mute etc. The UI is customizable and has skins that can be hacked and created.

5) Cost: for all of that it was only $600, i then spent about another $100 on parts, bondo etc.

6) Im not a lover of flip out units, they cover too much of the dash for my liking, for a decent one they cost like $1200 plus additional parts. I also wanted to retain some of the stock look but have it cleaner looking. i also detest having a cig lighter and ashtray in a car like this, that's just plain wrong!

7) I wanted to say 'goodbye' to that cupholder and the buttons look and function really fantastic in their new position. I also wanted to retain the air vents which i would have to sacrifice if I kept the buttons where they were and moved the dash 'up'.

8) I enjoy doing this and the satisfaction it gives me, im always looking for a creative project!

9) cus i could! :-) I have 30k miles on the car so warranty wasn't really an issue.

So that's my reasoning for doing it (whether or not they are valid is down to the individual to decide) for me this is the look i wanted.

Thanks again, if anyone wants to do anything similar drop me an email/pm and i'll help out as best I can.