"Streets of Rage - Robinson Edition" : Racing Cab Project

[ghetoprobe]

Hey everyone, not too familiar with the BYOAC forum, but I figured I'd post here since this seems like the "hip" place to be.  I see a lot of really nice cabs on here and I took a few ideas from some of your builds.  Thanks to the mods and thank you for taking the time to check out my project!

Anyway, the reason for this post - a new racing cabinet build!  My father happened to be over at TNT Amusements in Southampton, PA earlier this summer and he noticed they had a gutted Cruis’n Exotica cabinet out back, waiting to be trashed.  He called, asked if I wanted it, and threw it in the back of his van.  It’s been sitting in my basement ever since and I’ve finally gotten around to “breaking ground” on the project.  This build thread is going to move quickly and will likely be all over the place – I’m a bit scatterbrained - so try to keep up.  Many build threads take months (or even years) to see the final product, but I have already done the majority of the prep work and have really been making a lot of progress over the last few weeks.  I’m hoping to have it 100% functional with a Playstation3 by the new year.  A custom PC build and Hyperspin configuration will come later in 2015.

Thank you :

• To my wife and daughter for being patient with my temper when working on these types of projects and for helping me throughout the build.  Love you both so much.
  
• To my parents for giving me the skills to take on a project like this from start to finish (well, almost finished).  I hope I make them proud doing stupid projects like this.
  
• To “Bad Boy Bill” (Hyperspin) for changing my life.  Some people may think that’s a ridiculous statement, but I literally spent two years straight working on my first Hyperspin setup, back when things were slowly being pieced together around there.  He is a visionary and I always appreciated how well he handled the ungrateful a-holes – with class.
  
• To “gbeef”, for giving me the inspiration to build this cab in the first place.  He may or may not frequent this forum any longer, but his “OutRun Paradise” build blew me away and his artwork and attention to detail are second to none.  Very, very impressive.  :  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,111231.0.html
  
• To “Lucian045” aka, Brad.  He generously gives back to our community by printing professional-quality artwork at extremely reasonable prices.  Nicest guy you’ll ever talk to and a fellow pin-head to boot.  Very knowledgeable about the printing process and what cab-builders need.  Couldn’t be happier with the process!  I would never use anyone else.  :  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134866.msg1391705.html#msg1391705
  
• To “BadMouth” on the BYOAC forum.  I haven’t spent too much time on this forum (yet), but I liked the buttons on his racing cabinet so much I stole the artwork (sorry!).  Really appreciate the inspiration.  :  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,105003.0.html
  

I’m sure there will be more thank-yous to add, but I really need to start posting some build pics or I may start putting people to sleep.  Now, some people like pictures of every step of the process – myself being one of them.  I’m trying to take as many pictures as possible throughout and if there’s anything that I can help with or clarify, please don’t hesitate to ask.  This community has done a lot for me and I have done relatively little to contribute.

Thanks for looking and please pardon the mess!  Without further ado, on to the build…



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Current Build Pics :

[ghetoprobe]

Here she is!  In all her beat-to-death glory!  This cabinet has seen better days, but I intend to resurrect the dead.  You can see the decal damage goes to the wood and there were some spray paint touch-ups done at some point.  The first step of the process was to find a matching seat/base for the cabinet since it didn’t come with them.  I found a guy about an hour away that had one from an “Off Road Thunder”.  It was expensive ($70), but I really didn’t feel like making one from scratch.  And, it wasn’t a perfect match either – the lip of the cab and the lip of the seat base are about 1/2in off.  Oh well, not a showstopper.  I’ve already pealed the artwork off of the seat base in these pictures.

[ghetoprobe]

The next steps were removing the artwork, pulling the t-molding, and removing the chewed up diamond plate.  The adhesive used on the original decals is insane.  It took two bottles of Goof-Off and a flat razor blade to get the decals off the cabinet.  Well over two or three hours of work to get every last bit clean.

[ghetoprobe]

Next up; creating the panels that will hold the 32" TV in place while hiding the bezel.  There was only one TV I could find that would fit within the precise 28.5" width of the cabinet.  It's a Samsung UN32H5500 and it juuust barely fit.  Maybe a 16th of an inch to spare.  It's more expensive than most 32" TVs, but I didn't want to have to cut channels or modify the cabinet more than I already had to.  After test fitting the TV I have to say that it fits perfectly.  I hit the panels with 5 coats of Glossy Black Enamel and they came out looking great. 

You can see in the second pic that the front-facing piece is 1/2" thick and shorter than the 3/4" pieces of MDF.  The front piece sits perfectly between the 1/2" vertical pieces already mounted to the cabinet.  These kind of act as the TV's bezel.

[ghetoprobe]

NEXT!  What's the first thing you do to a brand new set of racing pedals?  Correct!  Tear them apart.

I decided to go with the Logitech G27.  One, because it was cheap ($190) and, two, because the next step up to the T500RS is just too expensive for me to justify.  Yes, I'd love to dump a couple grand into a Fanatec setup, but this is just an arcade - not a racing simulator.

So, first things first, swap the pedal plates for reverse mounted pedal installation.  Referring to the "Chili Coke" instructional (http://chilicoke.com/mods/reversepedal.htm) I carefully tore apart the pedals and flipped them around the other way.  This feels much more natural than keeping your feet on the plastic foot rest the G27 pedal base has.

[ghetoprobe]

Let's spin this thing around and move to the back of the cabinet.  It didn't come with a door so I had to create my own.  I used 3/4" particle board and painted it with Glossy Black Enamel.  I ran into an issue when mounting the new lock where the locking arm would not reach the metal holding bracket.  The old locking arm had a square hole and the new arm had a oval-shaped hole, so I ended up epoxying them together so the lock would turn the new arm while still getting the reach of the old.  Confusing, yes, but it needed to be done.  Hopefully the pictures do a better job of explaining it than I just did...

[ghetoprobe]

So, the next step was quite the challenge.  I got a "leather" racing seat off eBay which came with sliders.  The seat itself was far too wide to fit within the narrow 14" channel that the wooden seat base had.  Two pieces of wood needed to be cut, one to fit within the 14" channel and the other needed to be wide enough to accommodate the seat rails.  Almost every bolt needed to be recessed so they wouldn't interfere with the rails or the sandwiching of the boards.

[ghetoprobe]

I also cut a slot for black t-molding to keep a nice, clean look.  The four holes toward the center of the boards are for mounting to the metal plate that mounts to the wooden base.  The outer four holes are for mounting the rails.  A larger hole was also cut in case I needed to run cabling.  These were hit with Glossy Black Enamel paint.

My lovely wife helping with the heavy-lifting while I took my sweet time mounting the seat to the rails, the rails to the boards, the boards to the metal mounting plate and the metal mounting plate to the base of the cabinet.  It’s much heavier than it looks.  "Just stand right there sweetie while I take this picture".

[ghetoprobe]

Here's everything put back together.  I mounted the steering wheel to get a feel for the control position and it feels like a million bucks.  The seat slides like butter and can handle anyone from 6'5" down to a kid.  My daughter (2), can't quite reach yet.

[ghetoprobe]

As you may have noticed, the marquee/enclosure/topper is missing.  I thought it would be nearly impossible to track one of these down.  I checked eBay, called all the local arcade restorers, asked around online...  nothing.  I finally put a "want ad" up on Craigslist and wouldn't you know, later THAT DAY a guy responded saying he had one available.  It was cracked, beaten and bruised, it didn't even have the Plexiglass piece for the marquee, but I didn't care.  I drove the hour to his place and sure enough, there was the silver marquee housing.  I believe they only made this marquee housing for a handful of games; "Cruis'n Exotica", "Faster Than Speed", "Fury Championship Racing" and "Ford Racing Full Blown".

$40 and half a tank of gas later, I had it in my possession!  I thought for sure I was never going to find one.  Thanks to "Tony Pinball" for helping me out!  Here's a few pics of it being prepped before paint.

[ghetoprobe]

Now I'm ready to hit it with some Krylon Fusion Glossy Black paint.  It goes on so nicely - specifically designed for painting plastics.  5 coats later I hit it with 4 coats of clear - it's gorgeous... it's perfect...

[ghetoprobe]

... I take it outside to see it in the sun and I drop it on a concrete slab.  Please kill me. 

I had to sand it down, fill the damage and prep the entire thing again.

[ghetoprobe]

Okay, so 5 MORE coats of Krylon Fusion Glossy Black and 4 MORE coats of clear and we're good to go!  This time I didn't care what it looked like in the sun...

It looks nice in the pictures, but in person it's just gorgeous.  Very little "orange peel".  The Krylon Fusion lies very flat and kind of works out any imperfections on its own.  I highly recommend it.

[ghetoprobe]

Next up are the speaker grills.  I cut up a mesh terrarium top and painted two pieces black.  Then I got two 140mm computer fan grills that had a honeycomb pattern, flattened them out, and painted them with Glossy Orange Enamel paint.  The reason behind the two layers was to hide the speaker a little better behind them.  The holes in the honeycomb are pretty large.

[ghetoprobe]

Black mesh is installed, downward facing speakers are mounted and orange grills are in place.  By some miracle the speakers fit PERFECTLY in the existing mounting slots.  The feet of the speakers even fit perfectly over the wooden bar that runs the width of the cabinet.  The speaker system I'm using is a Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Surround system.  Not exactly sure where I'm going to put the massive sub woofer yet.

[ghetoprobe]

Began cutting the boards for the pedals.  Getting the perfect angle where the pedals felt good yet the board wasn't coming past the inner curve of the cabinet was time consuming.  In the end I was able to get the best of both worlds and things feel just right.

[ghetoprobe]

Finally, time to mount the pedals!  I drive a Honda Civic SI and love the pedal layout.  I emulated them as closely as possible - same height from the floor and same distance from each other.  They feel just like I'm sitting in my car.  Very happy with the way they turned out.

[ghetoprobe]

Painting the pedal boards and screws in Glossy Black Enamel paint.

[ghetoprobe]

Mounting the pedals to the finished board.  I managed to drill the holes for the wiring so close to the pots that I had to use tweezers to pull them through.  Tight tolerances lend themselves to a clean look (I keep telling myself), although tight tolerances can cause more work, too.  The wiring on the back went well, but I had to be careful not to pinch it between the board and cabinet.  Looks good!

[ghetoprobe]

Pedal boards are permanently mounted!  You can see a little wood showing where the screws went in.  I'll just dab a drop of glossy black paint from a Sharpie paint stick and you'll never notice. 

I had to drill a hole for the "center" channel of the 5.1 surround system.  This speaker will be mounted underneath the dashboard area, just behind the steering wheel.  You won't be able to see it , but you'll definitely hear it.

[ghetoprobe]

Let's get some air flowing, shall we?  The lower fan (140mm) is mounted to the same mounting posts as the cab's old sub woofer.  This fan will pull air through the lower cutout and up toward the middle of the cabinet.  The upper fan is another 140mm.  Used a hole cutter and tried to center it as much as possible.  If you'll notice in the first few pics in this thread, you can see someone had cut three smaller holes in the top of the cab.  I wanted to cut them out completely so the center hole ended up being slightly off-center to cut those out entirely.  I was worried it would look "off" at first, but it came out looking fine.  A lot of wood was showing so I had to hit the entire cutout with a glossy black Sharpie stick.

Lower Fan :


Upper Fan :

[ghetoprobe]

Forgot to mention I cut the basic dashboard and then drilled the mounting holes.  :

[ghetoprobe]

Next up:  wiring the "left" and "right" speakers and mounting the "center" speaker.  I purchased a bulk roll of 12 gauge speaker wire on eBay (250FT Speaker Cable 12AWG Bulk Audio Wire CL2 In Wall 12/2 Gauge).  It barely fit in the speaker terminals, but it's some serious wire and I'm glad I went with such a thick gauge.  For the "center" speaker I just covered the white cable with some black 3/8" shrink tubing so it wouldn't stand out.  I'm sure no one will ever look behind the speaker, behind the steering wheel, under the dashboard...  but I'm anal.  What if someone drops a pretzel and looks up at this hideous white cable?!  We can't have that.

And I know the "center" speaker looks like it would get in the way or you might hit your knees on it, but it's tucked back further than you would think.  The steering wheel will completely hide it from view.
 

[yotsuya]

I was with you right up until the center speaker. Other than that, I've been watching with interest. 

[ghetoprobe]

I promise you won't even notice it once everything is put together.  Thanks for looking!

(I don't really know where else I could put it that would still be "hidden")

[Malenko]

I was with you right up until the center speaker. Other than that, I've been watching with interest. 

same boat, thought you'd cut a hole in the pedal back board and mount it behind that. What plans do you have for the flooring and tmolding?

[yotsuya]

I was with you right up until the center speaker. Other than that, I've been watching with interest. 

same boat, thought you'd cut a hole in the pedal back board and mount it behind that.

 

I think everything else looks outstanding, and I'm enjoying the thread.

[ghetoprobe]

I was with you right up until the center speaker. Other than that, I've been watching with interest. 

same boat, thought you'd cut a hole in the pedal back board and mount it behind that. What plans do you have for the flooring and tmolding?

Funny you should say that.  I was thinking of cutting slots in the pedal board, or maybe just putting in a mesh speaker grill and cutting a hole.  My concern was that if you set the "center" channel back into the cab that far, it wouldn't be loud enough compared to the downward facing "left" and "right" speakers.  When I tested the 5.1 system it just sounded weak.  Maybe I'll reconsider at some point...  but believe me when I say you won't even notice it once everything is in place.  It just blends in behind the steering wheel.

Thanks for commenting.  I thought I was posting all this and no one was interested...

Flooring will be chrome diamond plate and the t-molding...  should I ruin the surprise? 

[Malenko]

Ive been watching along too but didnt want to be the first comment, and it not be 100% positive I NEVER realized my Faster than Speed cab is the same as a Cruisn' Cab till I looked at your pix.  My cab has chrome molding, and I think it looks neat. I figured yours would be orange to match the speaker insets.


If you make a piece of plexi to fill in the marquee hole, feel free to make me 3 of them as well.

[ghetoprobe]

I figured yours would be orange to match the speaker insets.

If you make a piece of plexi to fill in the marquee hole, feel free to make me 3 of them as well.

Yep, it's the same orange as the speaker inserts.  It really looks nice considering the rest of the cab is mostly black.  And don't worry about not being 100% positive. I'll either take your advice or I won't.  Constructive criticism is ALWAYS welcome and appreciated.

I looked everywhere trying to find that plexi piece, but came up short.  I knew the plexi was going to be a challenge to make, but man...  it was hours of work and it still didn't come out 100%.  Sorry, but I don't want to ever make one of those again. 

[yotsuya]

Ive been watching along too but didnt want to be the first comment, and it not be 100% positive

Same here. I didn't want to break the flow.

[yotsuya]

And don't worry about not being 100% positive. I'll either take your advice or I won't.  Constructive criticism is ALWAYS welcome and appreciated.

Someone who GETS it! 

[ghetoprobe]

It's like the name we chose for the cab "Streets of Rage - Robinson Edition".  TERRIBLE name, but I can't hold up the entire project just because I'm indecisive.  I loved Streets of Rage on Genesis and it just seemed like a good fit for a racing cab.  And I'm proud of my family name, so I figure I'd go with something along the lines of "Gran Turismo 5 - XL Edition".  Anyway, feel free to critique all you want, I appreciate you taking the time to contribute.

[ghetoprobe]

So I've started on the shifter housing.  I've read a lot of threads and seen quite a few ways people have tried tackling these.  The shifter seems to be beat up more than any other part of the arcade controls.  People just slam on them.  In other builds I've seen they're either mounted directly to the dashboard, which makes you unnaturally reach out for the shifter - not like a true car at all.  Or, the shifter is precariously hanging off the console and wiggles around, looking as if it will break off at any moment.

It needed to come out away from the dashboard to be in a "real" driving position.  It needed to mount to the cabinet in a straightforward way so I could easily remove it in the future.  I also wanted it to look as attractive as possible.  Oh, and it needed to be build like a tank.  Hmmmmm.  Here was my solution :

[ghetoprobe]

Now, to mount the shifter housing to the cab.  Like I mentioned, I wanted this thing to be SOLID.  I drilled four pilot holes, clamped it in place and drilled 1/4" holes for the 3" bolts.  I also used over-sized washers and those locking nylon threaded nuts to really help hold this thing in place.  I can literally grab the shifter and move the entire cabinet back and forth without any wiggle.  SOLID.

[ghetoprobe]

Before I permanently mounted the shifter housing I wanted to get the dashboard made up to be sure everything fit together nicely.  First things first, the top piece of 3/4" MDF needed to be attached to the dashboard - this piece will cover the upper gap between the dashboard and the glass.  I also cut a template for the steering wheel, traced it to the dashboard and made my cuts on a scroll saw.

[ghetoprobe]

Time to attach the bottom piece of 3/4" MDF to the dashboard.  This piece tightly fits between the shifter housing and the main board in the cabinet.  Everything fit together perfectly!  It's actually kind of starting to look like a racing cabinet.

[ghetoprobe]

Next step is to break out the router and cut the slot for the dashboard's t-molding.  This will just be regular black t-molding, but I wanted a durable surface so the dashboard wouldn't get messed up pulling the steering wheel in and out.  Not to mention it looks much nicer than painted MDF.

I also rounded the corners  of the dashboard to give it a cleaner look.

[Malenko]

Streets of Race is funnier.

[ghetoprobe]

See, now that's funny.  It dawned on me that I should have asked around the forums for some suggestions first.  I got impatient and just wanted to get things moving so it is what it is, the marquee and decals have already been printed.  Next build I'm definitely asking for some suggestions...