Going to build my own cockpit...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dracwolley
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Dracwolley

Dracwolley

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Dracwolley
I'm going to build my own racing cockpit later this year, but I don't know how. My cousin is going to supply me with a 5 series BMW seat, and I have a DFP (hopefully upgrading to a G25 by then). Problem is, though, that I really have no clue whatsoever what to do after that. I will probably end up paying a friend of mine who's a great carpenter to build it out of wood, but that may be too expensive for my liking, and I would probably be able to enjoy it more (custom fit) if I built it myself. Does anyone have any tips?
 
Hey,
Im no builder either and i built my own cockpit, its fairly easy to do if you just take your time, i had mine build within about 3 hours.
I went out to my car and measured up how far the front of chair is from steering wheel, steer wheel height, steering wheel to gear stick ect so its setup exactly how i like it.

Its built out of 2"x4" wood and is very strong doesnt shake around etc and is braced with a couple of nail plates, that should be available at any hardware/home DIY store.

The chair is out of my old 1985 Mazda 323, put on there more for sentimental reasons (and its very comfortable) but will be easy enough to change it when i decide to finish the cockpit off.

Iv got a 5.1 surround sound unit for it, going to do something with the foot pedals, possibly close in all the side (so cant see feet etc), paint it, tidy up cords etc etc..

Good luck with your build tho, feel free to ask me any questions about it as i designed it myself (i call it the Z-Design as the main uprights when looking at it from birds-eye-view is kinda like a Z)

Cheers :)

Pictures:

DSC02003.jpg

DSC02005.jpg

DSC02007.jpg
 
First of all, are you planning on using wood or metal?
Here's mine, it's as simple as it can get (if you handy with metal and have the tools):
IMG_0185.jpg

All the material cost me about 75$, the seat is from a friend and he let me have it for 80$.
I would start measuring your car seating position (in a real car) like: how high is the bottom of the seat from the floor, how high your steering wheel from the floor and the distance from your seat to the pedals.
After that, draw out a plan on paper or PC, decide what you like and go with it.
 
HN7
Here's mine, it's as simple as it can get .
Click to expand...

This is the first setup I've seen with climate control though.

Nice. :)

To Dracwolley.

Have a look through the cheap cockpit thread for ideas too. Probably did.
There are many materials used to build these things.
I started with an old BarBQ grill and boat seat.
 
01GTP
This is the first setup I've seen with climate control though.

Nice. :)
Click to expand...

Hahaha, yeah, the vent was perfectly placed in the middle of the living room so I put the seat there :lol:
Now all I need is a industrial fan to simulate driving a F1 car :sly:
 
Holy crap, the setup above is amazing. I don't have that much time, though, and I know I'd mess something up if I tried. I think I'll be mimicking (if not duplicating) mickstanz's setup. Clean and simple without looking rubbish, and three hours is not long at all. Should be interesting with the BMW seat...

Mickstanz, can you measure the height of the vertical beam for me (not including the base 2 by 4, just the one beam)? I'm probably going to build a near-exact replica of this.
 
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Its 520mm high from the points you wanted. Iv got full hand-drawn (rough) and AutoCAD drawings of it somewhere as i could draw it in 3D and put a too-scale person in it etc will let you know if i find them as i did them at my previous job just mucking around.
 
Thanks for that. I've just built my own, painted and everything. It's only missing a
seat, but I have a replacement for now. Also, I don't have a G25 or G27 yet, so the mount for the gear lever is empty until O have enough money. Shall I post pictures?
 
Nice nice, Yeah i never had the G25 or any other wheel for that matter but i really rate the G27 its great. Yeah deffinitly post some pic's up wouldnt mind seeing what your've done! :)
 

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