The console in my car was pretty hacked up. the heater conmtrols and the head unit were mounted in the console. My conputer is going in the console, the controls and ports will go in a panel where the head unit is along with the laptop cd-rw drive. The problem is I would have to mount the stuff in the console and then put the console in place and hook everything up. Not too easy when the console covers the places where the connections have to be made.
My solution was to build a subframe for the console out of some steel tubing. It will hold the heater controls and the control panel in place without the console. I'll be able to hook everything up and test it, then the console will just go on top of everything with a few screws.
It took a little time to make this but it makes the computer much easier to install and service.