[carve]

I was thinking of making a carbon or leather covered thin box to put on my dash. I'd like to put a GPS screen, and maybe a radar detector, on a tray in it and either...

Have them automatically electrically deploy and retract when the power comes on and off. I have an old PC CD-ROM drive that I may be able to use for the sliders and motors, but I haven't figured out how to make it retract once the power is cut. Suggestions?

Alternatively, it'd be cool if it was one of those push to open/push to close sprung hinges, like what we have covering the ash tray, or like in a Lexus RX where a button push opens and closes it. If I go this route I'd probably just have the screen fold down on a hinge rather than come out on a tray. Any ideas on where I could get damped, sprung, hinges and latches like that? It'd preferably be a more powerful spring than your typical ash tray door.

I took kinematics in college, so I think I should be able to figure out all the pivots and linkages- it's just the actuators and hinges that I'm having trouble sourcing. What design I go with will depend on what parts I can find.

Is there an off-the-shelf solution for something like this?

[Menno11]

Good luck! sounds interesting! No idea where to get the items, unless you check the scrap yards for old E90 dash parts.