Homemade controls on mercury 25xd

i have a 1968 starcraft 14ft, with a 1985 mercury 25xd motor onit, i am in the process of restroing the boat, i have already repainted the hull beefed up the transom installed a steering console, installed a cable pulley steering system i made from scratch, and redid the trailer. now i want to intall controls on the tiller steer motor. it is a recoil start motor and i plan to istall throttle and shift controls to use from my new steering console. my question is has anybody ever made there own controls, i know i can buy the kit but i like the idea of making it all myself like the steering, so i plan to buy the actual calbles but has anybody ever made the adapter parts at the outboart end and a control box type of unit for the operator side, tools and experience are no problem as i have acess to a full machine shop and have been a machinist for a long time i just was looking for a few ideas

here is something along the lines to what im talking about
http://www.dillon-racing.com/pro-vee/plans/images/construction74.jpg