I started this project by buying a new bezel for his car from nissan... this was necissary for 2 reasons, 1, that he needed to use his car in the weeks it would take me to build this, & 2, he is located in texas & I'm in ny....
this bezel comes from nissan painted the color of the dash... I decided early on that for me to have this look 100% perfect, my first goal is to maintain the factory finish.... had I decided to just graft it into the bezel & then paint the whole bezel, I'm sure I could have got it to look great, but not anywhere near as factory as I could if I kept the original finish & texture.... this bezel has a really deep checkerboard type patterned texture.... to match it would be impossible, & if I did graft it in, I'd wind up having to smooth the whole thing.... would have looked nice too, but more custom than factory....
in order for me to be able to maintain the factory finish, I have to actually build the bezel for my screen outside of the factory bezel.... all of my sanding, priming & spraying will happen totally seperate from the factory piece, but in the end it will have to fit perfectly togeather & ultimately end up as one piece...
I first start with a trim piece from some donor laptop/tablet/whatever.... this is only used to give me my final screen opening... the screen opening is critical, & whenever any bodywork is done, this edge off the opening MUST BE PROTECTED... if you nick this edge even slightly you'll never be able to get it to look as perfect... this is one of the most important parts of building any bezel... avoid even touching this edge untill final prep... you should build up no excess material on this edge too, a couple of coats of primer & then sanding, then a coupla coats of paint, & you'll wind up with a buildup that takes away the crispness..... protect the edge..
