Q: air conditioning problem - 2005 Nissan Sentra

It wont come on at first when I come out from work at midnight. It's sat in the sun and never had this problem before. I start the car and it wont come on period, the heating or ac, I slam the door or just wait or start and restart the car or something and it slowly comes on again and it blows cold air and hot air, it's normal in that area. The lights that show the gears to put the car in near my leg are out cola shorted it long ago. Then the ac setting's light went out at the far right that you choose where the air goes. the rest have come on normal till recently I have to thump the panel and they come on. Could it be a short in a plug to my ac or what the light panels don't bother me, I can turn on my over head light. I just want to know why it started doing this out of the blue and is it usually expensive to repair with a mechanic
My car has an automatic transmission.