[warthog5]

The way Roger said it is what I had in mind, but using lauan covered in fiberglass cloth unstead of Plexiglass.

It's going to take some work on your part as to the recess you talk about. The 1st thing you need in your hands is the electronics that you intend to use. It would be ashame to build all this and then find out the the panel was 1/2in to deep to fit the electronics. Some times the layout print is not enough to take measurements off of. This is because those prints don't take into consideration the cables comming out of the back and not squeezing the hell out of them.