- 3
- iprento
- iprento
Hi all,
Inspired by this design, I built my own PVC-based rig last week. Added some modifications though - gearshift mount and wheels to move the damn thing around the room.
Actually, the initial spark was lit by my wife, who is in charge of the TV remote all day/night. I had no other option but to move both consoles (PS3 and Xbox) from the living room to my kid's room. Before that I've been using this contraption in front of a sofa. Since I moved everything to a room with no sofa, just a regular bed, I decided to build a full size rig from the ground up (and upgraded the wheel+pedals from Logitech DFGT to Fanatec PWTS in the process...
) That's when I started sniffing around and ended up with this.
I got an original seat from my mate's 1995 Subaru Impreza. He bought himself bucket seats and gave me one of the old ones for free. Here it is, drying in the sun, after a thorough cleaning.
The skeleton is made of Ø50 mm. (2 in.) PVC tubing. It was an ugly gray shade of recycled plastic, so I had to paint it. I used black, both for the skeleton and the appropriate binding panels.
Here's how it looks from (behind) the driver's seat. The two steel bars stretching right from the wheel are used to mount a shifter. Fanatec's Porsche wheel comes with two shifters - sequential and gated. I keep the gated one firmly in place and put the sequential on instead of a handbrake (for rallying or drifting), while shifting with the paddles behind the wheel. Unfortunately, I could not bolt the shifter down, as it is not designed to be bolted, but mounted on those steel bars. And its bottom is slightly curved, which makes things even more complicated, so I improvised.
I bolted both the steering wheel and the pedals to the MDF panels, and put the wiring through the tubes. The AC power adapter is fixed beneath the pedals.
The MDF panels are not fixed to the tubes, but loosely attached to them, by utilizing plastic fittings (the white bits). This makes the construction firm enough, yet flexible to dismantle if needed.
A significant modification that I made is the "undercarriage" of two horizontal wooden beams with wheels attached to them. This is done for two reasons: increase the seating position and add mobility to the rig. After all, the room in which it resides is also used for other purposes. As you can see on the pictures, there are two MDF panels above and below the beams. The upper ones are there to mount the seat and pedals, while the lower ones solely to add rigidity and prevent rotation around the longitudinal axis (yaw). I tried without the lower ones first and was unpleasantly surprised when it all toppled over :shock:
Finally, I made another modification to the original design by adding two cross-sections between the horizontal pipes on the top, where the wheel is attached. It might not be essential, since the panel that holds the wheel also holds the pipes together, but just in case...
So that's it folks. It took a lot of work to put it all together, but I think it's worth! There are plenty better rigs out there - mine is a bit wobbly, and it is not quite a looker - but it serves the purpose. On the other hand, it cost me no more than 40 (AU$ 60) to buy the material (didn't bought the panels, re-used existing ones from old furniture). As for the work invested... the pleasure is all mine. Thanks for the motivation, wify
Inspired by this design, I built my own PVC-based rig last week. Added some modifications though - gearshift mount and wheels to move the damn thing around the room.
Actually, the initial spark was lit by my wife, who is in charge of the TV remote all day/night. I had no other option but to move both consoles (PS3 and Xbox) from the living room to my kid's room. Before that I've been using this contraption in front of a sofa. Since I moved everything to a room with no sofa, just a regular bed, I decided to build a full size rig from the ground up (and upgraded the wheel+pedals from Logitech DFGT to Fanatec PWTS in the process...
) That's when I started sniffing around and ended up with this.
I got an original seat from my mate's 1995 Subaru Impreza. He bought himself bucket seats and gave me one of the old ones for free. Here it is, drying in the sun, after a thorough cleaning.
The skeleton is made of Ø50 mm. (2 in.) PVC tubing. It was an ugly gray shade of recycled plastic, so I had to paint it. I used black, both for the skeleton and the appropriate binding panels.
Here's how it looks from (behind) the driver's seat. The two steel bars stretching right from the wheel are used to mount a shifter. Fanatec's Porsche wheel comes with two shifters - sequential and gated. I keep the gated one firmly in place and put the sequential on instead of a handbrake (for rallying or drifting), while shifting with the paddles behind the wheel. Unfortunately, I could not bolt the shifter down, as it is not designed to be bolted, but mounted on those steel bars. And its bottom is slightly curved, which makes things even more complicated, so I improvised.
I bolted both the steering wheel and the pedals to the MDF panels, and put the wiring through the tubes. The AC power adapter is fixed beneath the pedals.
The MDF panels are not fixed to the tubes, but loosely attached to them, by utilizing plastic fittings (the white bits). This makes the construction firm enough, yet flexible to dismantle if needed.
A significant modification that I made is the "undercarriage" of two horizontal wooden beams with wheels attached to them. This is done for two reasons: increase the seating position and add mobility to the rig. After all, the room in which it resides is also used for other purposes. As you can see on the pictures, there are two MDF panels above and below the beams. The upper ones are there to mount the seat and pedals, while the lower ones solely to add rigidity and prevent rotation around the longitudinal axis (yaw). I tried without the lower ones first and was unpleasantly surprised when it all toppled over :shock:
Finally, I made another modification to the original design by adding two cross-sections between the horizontal pipes on the top, where the wheel is attached. It might not be essential, since the panel that holds the wheel also holds the pipes together, but just in case...
So that's it folks. It took a lot of work to put it all together, but I think it's worth! There are plenty better rigs out there - mine is a bit wobbly, and it is not quite a looker - but it serves the purpose. On the other hand, it cost me no more than 40 (AU$ 60) to buy the material (didn't bought the panels, re-used existing ones from old furniture). As for the work invested... the pleasure is all mine. Thanks for the motivation, wify
I should really get round to finishing mine 
