I am using a laptop right now while i get my parts all hooked up. I don't have a dock so I have the ghetto "open the trunk and turn the laptop on" method going for me. It sucks. I will not keep this as my setup even if i wired a power button to the front because i don't want my laptop lcd screen to crack because of temperature/bumping reasons.
Remember its so much easier to replace a desktop component than it is to replace a laptop component. Plus its a lot cheaper.
Mark, if you follow my steps for when I did my fabrication I would change a few things.
First, use 3m or higher quality bumper repair. In the long run it'll be worth it, especially after putting so much time into it.
Second, before applying the plastic repair kit, make sure you rough up the areas on the bezel that you will apply it to. I mean deep cuts so that the plastic forms to it an holds the plastics casing and the bezel together nicely.
Last, make sure you go to the edge of the bezel when applying the plastic. This will hide all the imperfections between the plastic repair substance and the actual bezel.
Hope this helps! Matrix will vouch for this also, working with the bezel in an mkiii is a pain and you will spend a lot of time and frustration with it. Mine took about 20+ hours to finish
but it was def worth it all.
cheers