Moving heater/AC control?
 

Serious question here guys, I'm debating putting a touch screen double-din deck into the Miata, and I absolutely HATE the heater core controls being on top, and I've long been considering moving them to the bottom, is this even remotely feasible? Mazda did it right when they put them on the bottom on the 99+...

would you also be molding a custom piece?

Likely, at the very least I would have to cut the rounded top area into a straight edge, but the controls are wire driven, correct?

I was hoping I could find someone who already did it.. God I hate pulling out the dash.

im pretty sure I've seen it done, just require a custom dash piece as you do have to cut. yes wire driven.

You could swap in a nb hvac control unit. It just requires a little extra wiring.

NB hvac controls are also cable driven. At least the 99 ones are. They are just round dials instead of the slider type. I put a 99 heater control panel in my NA, same cable drives, the only difference is that the fresh/recirc cable is about 3 inches longer in the NB. But the NA cable swapped right over.

pictures are needed...

I love it. I've always liked the NB controls better than the sliders. I went the easier route and just swapped the whole car, but your way is probably cheaper.

I don't personally care about the appearance, I just want the controls at the bottom instead of the top, I don't like the shifter in the way of the screen :P

I havent seen one installed in the stock location. Got a link to any install chronicle or just details on how its mounted?

Edit: so it just involves reversing the mounting clips and drilling 4 holes. Awesome.

I moved mine to the bottom for a short time. I had to swap some cables around to get the vent and temperature controls to work, but the remaining cable was not long enough for the recirc control. If you had two sets of cables you could probably make them all work. Its something I may try again, but for now at least I have my iPod mount at the bottom now.