Hi,
I was toying with the idea of replacing the Empeg face with a piece of plexi/plastic that will make the empeg look like a built-in unit. I have a Sony 802.11a adapter I could mount in the car to access the ethernet if necessary.

I was thinking of using an all plexiglass piece, and media blast the non-display areas to mask off the background stuff. The result would be a custom flat face that flows with the rest of the dash.
In another scenario, I was looking at a 1976 Rolls Royce SS II recently. It has the factory 8-track in the burled wood dash. How awesome would the Empeg look mounted behind the wood, moulded in like it was a factory option?
What do you guys think?

Others have done that sort of thing, yes. If you poke around the photo gallery at riocar.org, you'll see some examples. One person replaced the four buttons with a little four-way joystick, very slick.

Can you post a photo of what it looks like today? Not that I need the help visualizing what you are doing, I just want to see how cool it would look...

So you're currently driving a Cavalier and looking to get a Rolls Royce. Interesting upgrade path.

>So you're currently driving a Cavalier and looking to get a Rolls Royce. Interesting upgrade path.

Yeah, Ex wife got the Rover because it's a 4 door (she has a kid-- not mine), I got the shaft and a 2dr cavalier. Thanks civil court system!

I was looking at a 1976 Rolls Royce SS II recently. It has the factory 8-track in the burled wood dash

I presume that we're talking US Spec. European/UK models at that time had a Blaupunkt radio with shortwave and a completely separate underdash cassette player, which didn't even sport a rewind button.
Options included a cassette recorder, which also gave you a rewind button and a mic., although I wired it up so that I could flick a switch and leave it recording the end of radio programmes after I left the car - useful!
You could also get a footswitch fitted to operate the autotune.
I still have the whole kit and wired it up just recently to answer a question in another thread.
8 tracks never really cut it this side of the pond, but I did have a friend who had a recording 8 track in his house. Fine except for the track change every 10 mins., the 80 min tapes lasted just a few uses.

You had a Rolls Royce?