Half Car Driving Cab

[psik0tik]

I picked up the idea from Chad in this thread
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=71614.0
To take half of a small...very small car and turn it into a driving cab. I think I've seen a project where someone tried but this is something that has to fit in my arcade room. So far I have found the donor car in the junk yard for 400 bucks. It's an 2000 Beetle with the whole backend smashed up to the backseats. There's no engine, no tranny, no backseat , and no wheels. All the front dash area is there except for the radio. I was going to go down there and cut it in half today but it started raining But I got a good look at it. It's a yellow one and the front looks great. The back like he said on the phone is in the backseat. I'm going to cut it in half right at the back of the front seat. I saw some spot welds there so I'll cut right along those. It'll need a good washing and degreasing but all in all this will be fun. Does anyone have any ideas for the a/c vents. I'm going to tint the door windows as dark as i can get them so I need some kind of ventilation to keep the cab cool inside. Would it be viable to run a small line off the house a/c vent to the car? Also I want to look into some force feedback..but what is powerful enough to rumble a car?

[HaRuMaN]

Get an O2 bottle and pump some pure oxygen in there...  prevent driving fatigue... lol.

[ChadTower]

This is going to be awesome.

I'd say just find a couple strong airflow 12v fans and feed them into the ventilation intake.  House air should be fine.

[Dmod]

This I gotta see.   

Where's the monitor going?

[psik0tik]

The monitor is going to be a messed up LCD I have in the garage. The screen works but the casing is all messed up. It's 42" wide so it's plenty of screen. I'll have to make a mount for it and a back cover. I figured up my dimensions and drew a little picture to show you what I'm thinking. From my chop and vamp experience with cars it shouldn't be too hard to do this to half a car with no frame. And since the windshield is going to be a monitor then I don't need a custom windshield. Plus it only needs one seat so I can cut the drive train hump out of the middle and that should give me my 10 inches in the middle. 10 inches because it's 8 inches to wide to fit through the sliding glass door opening in the back of the house.


 Edit: I thought about the 12 v fans but it already has one in it. The blower motor for the a/c should do just fine. I'll have to pipe the a/c since the a/c out is behind where I'll put the cab. A little PVC pipe and some vent hose will fix that. It should all squeeze underneath the frame I have to build to hold the car up. That way I can use the original a/c controls inside the car without rigging my own system. Plug n play baby!!! Also I was looking around on craigslist and I found 2 cement pounders that run off 120 so I think I'm going to go grab those for the feedback...they should have plenty of power to rattle a car. And yes yes I know pictures..you guys have to be patient on this one with the pics...it's a car not a cab welllll technically it'll be both.

[shardian]

The monitor is going to be a messed up LCD I have in the garage. The screen works but the casing is all messed up. It's 42" wide so it's plenty of screen. I'll have to make a mount for it and a back cover. I figured up my dimensions and drew a little picture to show you what I'm thinking. From my chop and vamp experience with cars it shouldn't be too hard to do this to half a car with no frame. And since the windshield is going to be a monitor then I don't need a custom windshield. Plus it only needs one seat so I can cut the drive train hump out of the middle and that should give me my 10 inches in the middle. 10 inches because it's 8 inches to wide to fit through the sliding glass door opening in the back of the house.

A real man would tear out the sliding door frame to fit the whole car in...

[boykster]

you have a 42" wide LCD that has a junked case....gez....that's a big LCD panel....


gonna be cool if you can swing it!!!

[psik0tik]

A real man would get an asswhipping from his fiancee for doing that....and have to sleep in the cab. I needed to shrink it down anyway...way to wide and I don't need anyone riding shotgun during gaming time.

Edit: I thought about putting it in the trailer but that would require cutting the side of the building off easier to get it in the house.

[shardian]

A real man would get an asswhipping from his fiancee for doing that....and have to sleep in the cab. I needed to shrink it down anyway...way to wide and I don't need anyone riding shotgun during gaming time.

Not if you promise her a pretty new sliding door...and new flooring,and a new kitchen,etc

[psik0tik]

Already did that one...can't promise a new kitchen twice. That was when I was doing the mobile home arcade and the power pole fell over and went through the kitchen window.

[HaRuMaN]

Already did that one...can't promise a new kitchen twice. That was when I was doing the mobile home arcade and the power pole fell over and went through the kitchen window.

why did the power pole fall over?

[psik0tik]

Because me and 4 other people drank 2 18 packs of Seadog and tried to raise a power pole. You forget things like concrete and digging deep enough when you are that drunk 

[shardian]

I was wondering what happened to the mobile home arcade. So it got shut down due to that, or is just on hold?

[missioncontrol]

oh yeah, forgot about that one... post the link so I can catch up on it please

[ChadTower]

Any concerns on what a 42" display will look like if you're only a couple of feet away from it?

[HaRuMaN]

Any concerns on what a 42" display will look like if you're only a couple of feet away from it?

Yeah, that's a good question...

[psik0tik]

I mostly finished the mobile arcade...just a few more things to finish it up. And nope not worried I'm just going to have to pull it away from the windshield hole a little bit and box in the sides. I'll take some pics of the mobile home arcade later tonight. The only thing that put it on hold was that the city made me stop till I got it registered as a mobile home. But since nobody lived in it I dropped it down to the ground and now legally it's a storage shed. It just sits on a frame now. I'm bad at keeping up to date with pics...I get lost in my work. I'll try to do a better job with the car project.

[psik0tik]

Ok after it quit raining I went down there and the beetle is a no go. It had mold in it and that's nasty. But I did pick up a promising substitute...for absolutely free. It was an old taxi cab...a little bigger than I wanted but I plan on cutting the hood and fenders down shorter to kinda squeeze it all in. Plus the girlygirl wants to ride shotgun while playing and she loved the taxi sooooo it's the taxi cab. Plus she said I can store the piano which gives me assloads of space. Below are some pics of the aftermath of me with a compound saw and a blow torch. I wrapped up all the shard edges with foam and duct tape for now. Tomorrow it gets shipped to the cleaners aka the carwash to be degreased. I'm taking the frame out and replacing it with aluminum to make it lighter and replacing allot of the support beams inside with fiberglass.  Sorry for the crappy pics...I was using a half dead camera and I was half dead myself. Tomorrow I will also start working on the aluminum frame for it if i can squeeze the time with the inlaws being here. Also Instead of using the lcd I think I'm going with a projector and just put silver screen on the inside of the windshield...that way I have no box sticky out of the front and the picture will conform to the screen.

[Kremmit]

...the beetle is a no go. It had mold in it and that's nasty. But I did pick up a promising substitute...for absolutely free. It was an old taxi cab...

Holy crap!  Reading through this thread, I was thinking "I'll have to suggest he add some Taxi checkering to the yellow beetle, then he can really call the thing a cab."  And you go and get an actual Taxi.

Guess you know what game you have to theme it around now.  Crazy Taxi sideart, anyone?

[psik0tik]

Any concerns on what a 42" display will look like if you're only a couple of feet away from it?

Nah not really worried about it...when your looking out a car window you don't see out of a little box

...the beetle is a no go. It had mold in it and that's nasty. But I did pick up a promising substitute...for absolutely free. It was an old taxi cab...

Holy crap!  Reading through this thread, I was thinking "I'll have to suggest he add some Taxi checkering to the yellow beetle, then he can really call the thing a cab."  And you go and get an actual Taxi.

Guess you know what game you have to theme it around now.  Crazy Taxi sideart, anyone?

Already ahead of you on that one..I can't run the real headlights so I'm going to drill holes in the top of the headlight cases and stick red leds in there. I'm going with a classic name "Hell Cab" I'll CNC some ridged teeth for the front grill and and put red neons under it. I have some red neons under the my bed (mood lighting) so I think that'll make it kinda cool.

Also I'm going to pick up some vibrators used on cement vibrators to put one in the back and one in the front. So when I go offroad I can feel it. I'll have to mount rubber donuts under the frame so I don't dig holes in the floor but I have that covered. I have some industrial sized rubber feet used on big generators to protect the flooring and make it a little more bouncy. Other than that I have all kinds of wiring and fabrication to do..I'll keep ya posted.

[danny_galaga]

youll need a dreamcast then for crazy taxi (is it dreamcast?)

[psik0tik]

youll need a dreamcast then for crazy taxi (is it dreamcast?)

Yeah it's a dreamcast...unfortunately my dreamcast died in the "Jello Shot Fight Of 2005" it was a unnecessary death in the fight against better jello flavors...damn you Bill Cosby...damn you to hell

[Mr. Three]

If you're going to the trouble to get a half a car indoors, prepped, and turned into a videogame system then I don't suspect throwing $20 on an eBay Dreamcast will be a big deal! 

[psik0tik]

It's not really the cost of the thing...it's that I can get crazy taxi pc version and have it work with my usb instrument panel. The usb interface won;t pick up the right signals from a dreamcast..meaning dead gauges. My friend on IRC just told me he will put me together a computer case that looks like an engine for cheap too. I just have to supply the materials..then again it can't be hard to build one. Just make a block out of aluminum and use the water cooler as a carb. Lol the pile is getting bigger...but it would be cool to open the hood when someone asks "whatcha got in there"

[ChadTower]

Yeah it's a dreamcast...unfortunately my dreamcast died in the "Jello Shot Fight Of 2005" it was a unnecessary death in the fight against better jello flavors...damn you Bill Cosby...damn you to hell

PM me your mailing address.  I'll send you a Dreamcast if you want to use it in this project.

BTW, when I asked about the LCD being too close, I wasn't worried about perspective, I was worried about viewing distance.  LCDs suffer a lot more than CRTs when you walk up really close to them.

[psik0tik]

Thank you for the offer but I'm going with the PC version of everything. The software I'm writing for the USB interface to the gauges won't work with the consoles. But thank you again   I figured the LCD thing out. It is way to close..I sat down in front of it this morning and it was barely visible...so I hooked up the projector and put it on the wall. It's not much better but if I tilt the screen it gets better. I'll just have to push the seat back a bit. Nothings impossible...I'll figure it out or someone will come up with something. That's whats great about BYOAC...people getting together with the intention of making bigger and better TOYS!! 

[ChadTower]

Try projecting it on the wall in front of the car.  It will actually feel a lot more real looking through the windshield and the image will be more lifesized.

[Green Giant]

What about inverting the hood and having a screen rise up to show the projector?  There should be lots of space in there and it would give a good distance increase over directly on the windshield.

[psik0tik]

Try projecting it on the wall in front of the car.  It will actually feel a lot more real looking through the windshield and the image will be more lifesized.

Thats what I'm leaning towords right now..I can make the image a pretty decent size...enough to pretty much think your in a car. I'll just have to have the car facing the wall which works out because it's going into a corner of the room.

What about inverting the hood and having a screen rise up to show the projector?  There should be lots of space in there and it would give a good distance increase over directly on the windshield.

That's possible but the engine computer case is going in there and from the drawings I've came up with I am going for a small block chevy sized computer case. I have some water cooling stuff and I want to simulate a radiator under the hood. I won't be able to open the hood if it's facing the wall but that's what plexi glass is for...all it will need is a window on the hood to look in and see the engine case.

I'm off to go shopping for metal and wood today. So far I have a pretty small list but as time goes by and the project gets more ideas I'm sure it's going to get bigger. I can see this project getting allot of the ideas I've had over time that I've never got to use anywhere else.

[dweezinator]

AWESOME project idea!  i'm struggling finishing a simple cabinet restore!  best of luck. 

have you thought about a touch screen monitor in place of the climate controls?  could be a MaLa/MameWah front-end themed as a GPS navigation unit.

[psik0tik]

OK I guess I have to mock up an engine case so i can build the front aluminum frame right. Here's what I have so far. 2 cases tilted inwards with some extra metal holding it together.

[Paladin]

I knew I had seen this same sort of project online before.  I just searched for it and couldn't find the one I saw a few years ago, but found another one.

http://realvirtualcar.blogspot.com/


There's also a fairly famous V8 PC Mod that was done a while ago:

[psik0tik]

I'll just have to build it better And I'll have to redesign the engine...I wanna be original.

[leapinlew]

This thread needs some pics or proof of actual build. I'm not even going to read it anymore unless it says "CAR PURCHASED" in the title.

This is a PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT thread - until you cut some wood (or in your case, a car) it's just pie in the sky. We have enough "projects" that don't go anywhere.

[psik0tik]

I don't really care who thinks I'm doing this or not..I'm not here to impress just to share...if you look up there theres 2 pics of a Taxi cut in half. If you choose not to read then don;t read 

[theCoder]

Cool premise.  You'll be taking up a bunch of room but hey if it works out...

I'd vote for projection.  That way, others can see what you're experiencing.  One way or another, you will want to make sure guests at a party can see what's going on.  My driving cab draws them in like moths to a light.  Now if I could only get them to use coasters on the Plexiglas roof.

A concrete tapper?  Man, those things draw a lot of current.  Your house will brown out when you play the thing.  Have you considered base shakers, or maybe a homemade eccentric motor to vibrate only the chair?

On the Xcelerator thread (referenced in my footer below) I and a lot of others came up with some cool ideas.  You may want to give it a scan.

Good luck with the project.

[ChadTower]

This thread needs some pics or proof of actual build. I'm not even going to read it anymore unless it says "CAR PURCHASED" in the title.

This is a PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT thread - until you cut some wood (or in your case, a car) it's just pie in the sky. We have enough "projects" that don't go anywhere.

So the post that states he bought the car and the pic of the car cut in half aren't enough for you?

[shardian]

i don't like the idea of projecting onto a wall. It really defeats the purpose of using a real car in the first place. I have played Daytona USA inside a real nascar and it was badass.

If you want people to see what is going on inside, do what the mentioned nascar setup did: use two monitors on top of the car: one showing what is going on in game, and another focused on the driver.

[blueznl]

How large is your game room? You might put the screen (or projected screen) on one side, and put your cab on the other... Especially if using a projecter. Just darken the room a little, hop in and drive away. Tunnelvision takes care of all that distracting bling bling of all the other cabs 

[psik0tik]

It's not going in the game room it's going in the florida room (2nd living room) so I don't have much room to play with. I'm just going to have to experiment with both and see which ones works best. The idea of a second screen for people to watch sounds good...it would give me and my friends something to bet on. The concrete pounder I was looking at is just the motor and it runs a regular 120 current. It's a home use model and it's not industrial strength by any means. Yes it will suck down allot of juice to play it but I wouldn't be running it 24/7. I could just put vibrators under the seat but there has to be a real difference in the feel if the whole car shakes. Well this project has been put on hold till Saturday due to the fact that my company wants me to go to an onsite call..meaning I get to go play on an oil rig for a few days and get away from the future inlaws. When I get back I'll start the aluminum frame that the car will sit on..plus I need to find a trailer axle to mount the front wheels on seeing that I'm taking the frame out.