Installing a new stereo
 

I am considering replacing the stock stereo with something bigger and much nicer but am running into minor snags in my planning phase and just wanted to get some opinions. I am wanting to upgrade the system to a 2 din deck so I was planning on relocating the heater controls to where the cd changer would of gone and using the hole space there in the dash for the deck. I am just curious if anyone knows how vital that piece of metal that goes on top of the original deck is to the structure of the vehicle? I would have to cut at least some if not all of the way through this to make space enough to fit a larger deck and dont want the hole dash to rattle afterwards. Any help or advice from someone who has installed a larger stereo into a car would be appreciated...

Don't do it. It'll look like crap. The metal is not vital to the structure of the car, but you won't have anything but cheap plastic to mount the stereo to so it'll soon shake loose and hang out. Get something that fits.