How in the hell do you take off that plastic silver cover in the front? I need to take it off so I can take out the stock radio. Do I just yank it off? I'm scared to pull to hard cause it might break on me.

This might help:

http://www.kudausa.com/manuals/099340%20Jeep%20Compass.pdf

Looks like it pops off...

Nearly Normal Jim has an awesome website with all kinds of info there for people getting into doing some mods and just good general info as well. This is from his site and should help you.
http://www.nearlynormal.biz/jeep/jeep_media/installation/Console%20Shifter%20Bezel%20Removal.pdf

Run, don't walk to Nearly Normal Jimmy's website before yanking your console bezel. You WILL break it. It is screwed on and you need to start at the beginning by removing the padding on your window pillars, then the top of the dash THEN you can access the console bezel.

Is there anybody that actually took it off already?? Cause in that first link it looks like it just pops off or something....

Yes. Many of us have.

That first link does show him removing 2 screws.
The bad part is that there are 2 more to remove to disassemble the entire face plate.

Go to the site in my signature. You will find the correct instructions there.

After removing the dash and all are the little screw covers discarded as it would seem the per the instructions? Are you left with an open screw cover on the upper panel removal? Hope this is clear.

I'm pretty much a beginner with these things. Speaker install went well and certainly an improvement. Been thinking about a new stereo unit and wondering if I can really remove all these pieces and get them back together without too much trouble. I have all the pdfs with the instructions from nearly.normal.jimmy's site. Need to get myself that little shim to work free some of the pieces.

After removing the dash and all are the little screw covers discarded as it would seem the per the instructions? Are you left with an open screw cover on the upper panel removal? Hope this is clear.

I'm pretty much a beginner with these things. Speaker install went well and certainly an improvement. Been thinking about a new stereo unit and wondering if I can really remove all these pieces and get them back together without too much trouble. I have all the pdfs with the instructions from nearly.normal.jimmy's site. Need to get myself that little shim to work free some of the pieces.

That's just to indicate that they should be recycled if you're going to dispose of them.

The screw covers have little catches on the top and bottom, so the easiest way to remove is to take your trim tool and insert it in the crack at the top or bottom, and apply pressure in and toward the bottom (from the top) or toward the top (from the bottom). Should pop right out, and you can pop them right back in when you're finished.

Also, there's a gap between the cover area and the screw holding the trim to the column, so it's helpful to use a magnetized screwdriver or else have an extendable magnet handy to help you retrieve the screw.

thanks for the clarification bag. Appreciate it.

This thing was a pain to take apart, took me about 1 hour because I did it slowly off of memory (didn't have a PC handy when I removed this) from reading it in nearly normal jimmy's entry. However in comparrison to having to completely fabricate every thing for a double din though it was a breeze! Now I can remove and put every thing back in 15 minutes if I have to.
If you go to my gallery I have a couple pix posted. However I'm not finished, I ran out of money and time to make half moons to place and mold into the bezel from the OEM radio... Man though, I admit it was fun! Nerd huh! Any way I will be purchasing some of that Carbon Fiber Vinyl that Lanzen found on eBay and slapping that on too, it looks too cool not to copy! I will get some pictures of the OEM metal frame that was holding the OEM radio and how I cut it up! hehehe... I made a mistake and was not thinking before cutting. I will post in about a week or 2 since I wont have time until then but let's hope nobody else makes the same mistake!