My oh-so-nearly-finished driving cabinet

[AdamDawes]

Thought you guys might like to hear about and see some pictures of my driving cabinet. I sent it up as an example project a few days ago, but while I'm waiting for it to appear I'd love to hear any comments anyone has.

I decided a bit over a year ago that I really wanted a sit-down driving cabinet. Sadly getting hold of an old cab from the local arcade companies turned out to be impossible to I took a deep breath and decided to make one from scratch.

Considering my limited DIY abilities, I think it came out pretty well. The various phases I went through were:

- I have a car seat. This is going to be very cool.

- I have started putting it all together but it's still flat pieces so far. Really enjoying making this.

- I have entered the third dimension. Suddenly this is all much more difficult to visualise and construct.

- Hmm, it's starting to go where I want, but have I actually just made a big wooden box with a TV in it?

- With the wheel and speakers installed and the whole unit finished, it definitely has become more than a sum of its parts. It does definitely feel like a driving arcade machine rather than just a wooden box.

I've had friends over to play with it (we all sat out in my garage where it resides at the moment!) and we had a whale of a time. Admittedly it's getting used most for PS2 games, but the PC is all hooked up and I've spent many happy hours playing the original Out Run (which I'm still useless at!)

The one thing I still want to do it decorate it in some way so that it's not just black all over. I've really no idea what kind of thing to do with it though. I'd love to hear from anyone that has any suggestions.

A few pictures are attached below, and you can read the full construction diary (with lots more pictures) on my web site at http://www.adamdawes.com/retrogaming/drivingcab.html.

Adam.

[meltman]

That thing is sweet.

I think you should paint a giant gran turismo "GT" on the side.

[IG-88]

I'd go with bright vibrant colors and stick decals all over it. Make it look "NASCARish" if you get what I'm meaning.

Does it come apart to transport? You would need a forklift it looks like to move that sucker. Nice job.

[meltman]

I'd go with bright vibrant colors and stick decals all over it. Make it look "NASCARish" if you get what I'm meaning.

Please, please DONT make it look nascarish.

[AdamDawes]

It is a bit on the heavy side but two people together should be able to lift it OK. The TV comes out fairly easily and obviously all the computer bits in the back do too, but the rest of it is pretty much a single unit. The TV support block could be removed with a little work too but it'd make it much more effort to put it back together again.

[Ninten-doh]

Hey Adam, nice driving cab!

If you want to play Out Run with the force feedback, use this modified version of the Final Burn emulator:  http://www.geocities.com/finalburnff/

Enjoy!   

[AdamDawes]

Ooh, Out Run with FF -- will definitely have to check that out. Thanks for the link!

[theCoder]

Considering my limited DIY abilities, I think it came out pretty well....

I'd agree.  Nice job.  How much time do you have into it?  Any problems painting it?

[AdamDawes]

Hmm, total time... Hard to answer that one. Longer than I had planned for sure. I reckon if I could work solidly on it every day, I would have finished it in about 8-10 days. That doesn't sound like that much actually, but it was hard work at the time.

Painting it was fine, I primed it all up first and then gave it two or three coats depending on what it needed. In hindsight a satin paint would probably have been better than the gloss paint I used, just to be a bit less shiny, but I don't mind too much. :-)