mounting hu face separate from chassis

I saw this done once years ago - the guy mounted the face of the HU where the rear view mirror was, and the body/chassis was in the glovebox.

Has anyone here ever done this? And of so, is it just a matter of soldering extensions to the ribbon cable between the face and chassis?

I have an older European car I'm finally fixing up. The radio pocket is 1.5 DIN and sits at the bottom of the center console. At night its hard to see and I'm not crazy about feeling for buttons down low while driving.

I was thinking of using a marine radio like this one:



....and mounting the chassis in the glovebox (because to flush mount this would be too deep w/chassis) so I could still use the CD player (I have a 10 disc changer so its not crucial). The buttons are simple and big - the display is large, and its capable of HD radio, changer controls, etc.

Thoughts from the experts?

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Subtlety is EVERYTHING.

It's been done.

I think most prefer to make an extension cable (so that it can be returned to original) else soldered internally rather than soldering the original connector surfaces.   

Whether it works over whatever distance depends on the unit & interference - ie, unit/panel interface method & signal strength, and any injected EMI etc.
Probably shielded cable is best, but may not be essential. (Cat-5&6 etc is 8-core but as 4-pairs (do not mix interfering signals), but other shielded multicore exists too - whether 40pair (with ground = 80 core) shielded ribbon or round or less....

If it's a 2-wire or few-wire interface, there is probably a better chance over distance.