My first custom rig (PVC)

2
United States
United States
Chillidog7
Hey All. I’m extremely new to the sim racing world and even DIY. Seriously before recently I had played like 3 racing games Gran Turismo for the PS2, Need for Speed for the PS3 and Mario Cart for the Wii. I fortunately have a friend who not only has an Oculus DK2 and is a iRacing fanatic! He has a great setup and has invested a good deal into it. I cannot stress just how quickly I was sold on racing. I got bit by the racing bug! iRacing is so much fun, and challenging!

So I decided to dive in head first, fortunately I have an amazing wife for letting be blow way more money than I should. Without any further ado I can’t help but show off my rig, I’m so happy with how it turned out. I researched for a while on PVC vs wood and I decided to go with PVC because of the lack of cutting tools I own and Painted it looks so bad @$$. My buddy had some old racing wheels and pedals he let me try and eventually by his better back up set. But I started out with his Logitec setup and eventually purchased his Fanatec wheel and pedals (amazing quality). I had so much fun building this rig, I still need to paint a few last pieces but I have taken a break to play and now I’m losing the desire to finish but I’m sure I will, the black and red just looks too good!

0115161956a_zpswqnjliix.jpg


20 ft of 2 inch pvc

22 sanitary t’s

6 45 degree elbow

8 90 degree elbow

13ebcce2-db26-4ac8-ae64-84f3230b33b8_zpsbmgxkt7s.jpg


$67 in PVC honestly I over paid because it was a local hardware store. But I’m too impatient. All in all I spent about $100 in materials and stuff, and I paid $50 for my chair but I’ll get to that soon.

0115162154b_zps31goviez.jpg


My designs are based on some images I found while googling PVC racing rig, but I wanted to make sure my rig had a very small footprint. So I tried to press fit all of the connectors for the side pieces edge to edge (except for one length) so I measured the inside overlap of each and determined I needed to cut a ton of ¾ inch pieces. Still leaving almost no room in between each connector the whole height is still surprisingly tall, however as you will see Its like it all works out perfectly

0116160037_zpsa41oazip.jpg


For the rest of the pieces I basically measured the widths of my car seat and wife’s car seat averaged them and added a little for safety and the length I determined by sitting on the floor and measuring my legs :P oh yea this is a custom job built just for me!

0116161356b_zpstwjuvkc3.jpg


I’m still ecstatic about this find. Honestly, I have never gone to a local junk yard, the experience was interesting. So many wrecked cars. It’s like each car had a story and I was interested in it. Sadly most cars were trash, and exposed. And even the ones that were not, the interior was very dirty and cut up from people pulling stuff out of the car. Until out of nowhere I found a Hyundai Tiburon with the passenger door ripped off and when I took a look I was worried the driver seat (only remaining one) was going to be horrible. But I was a little rough and dirty but I had a hunch it would clean up nicely and it did! I talked the owner down to $50 took it home and some leather conditioning and cleaning wipes and boom this seat looks awesome! Not to mention is so comfortable.

0116161356_zpsj64ei9zw.jpg


Soooo good. :)

0116161424_zpseehmmv8t.jpg


I had to set the chair on the rig just to get an idea of how it was going before I started gluing, so if I needed to cut new pieces or make adjustments.

0117161342_zps03ifofpw.jpg


As I started pulling the pieces apart and though how complicated all the angles where and decided I needed to plan out my gluing carefully otherwise I would potentially glue pieces into an impossible to connect arrangement. I think leaving this connection last was a good idea.

0117161644_zpsthaiib2q.jpg


PVC glue is scary stuff. You seriously have seconds to get the pieces into place. By the end of this my arms where burning! But I got everything to fit very snugly and accurate.

0117161718_zpsmemlpocg.jpg


Black and red, like the chair. I was hoping I made a good choice and that it would turn out.

0118162206_zpsmecwqqko.jpg


As I started to paint the PVC I immediately started to get excited. Right away I realized flat black was a great choice. This thing looks soooo good.

0118162206c_zpslvrtkdim.jpg


Oh man, close up on the fantastic paint job

0119160832_zpslt9e4461.jpg


Sprayed the particle board red, and I could not be happier with the look.

0120160800a_zpsqqwtseql.jpg


I put it all together, my little man approves!


Break time and a chance to celebrate a successful project. I still have a few more pieces I wanted to finish and paint, but my impatience is getting to me… It’s time to play!

0120162247c_zpsjvye4rwr.jpg


I preordered an Oculus CV1 but in the mean time I thought it would be fun to use my projector in my basement. Yes the ottoman is a temporary solution, but I needed to elevate the rig a little so I was closer to the horizon. I shortly after this decided to use some card table chairs so I wouldn’t ruin my ottoman.

0120162247_zpskh9nzoqv.jpg


Very unsafe, but so much fun and it was great to finally have a chance to play with the result of all my hard work

0120162249_zps9pljjqme.jpg


My coworker suggested I start my first true racing experience with iRacing. Wow this is by far the hardest thing I have ever tried to do, but it is so rewarding. You truly need to practice this game in order to be good and I think there is a lot to be said about that.



My buddy talked me into streaming my real first racing endeavor. And IT has been a blast, I already can see a difference, I have been racing in iRacing for about 4 weeks now and its great to see how I have progressed over time. Fortunately iRacing doesn’t require too much hardware unfortunately my computer is far from Oculus CV1 ready, so it was time to upgrade.


0204161823_zpsaefjgeoo.jpg


New mother board processor and ram should do it right?

0204161824_zpsmjdrh79e.jpg


I love tinkering with computers, and that new hardware smell :)

0206160817a_zpslr9ebkk0.jpg


Great processor but they don’t come with fans and cooling systems anymore.

0204161825_zpsryivftqn.jpg


Slightly above average cooling system, but I’m trying to save money.

0206161522a_zpsrncijqon.jpg


My old mobo and processor, before the heart transplant

0206162021_zps8rfw57wr.jpg


My last gpu’s where 2 580GTX’s in SLI, great cards just not enough for VR gamming. Also SLI is hit or miss so I think I’m going to go back to a single great GPU for a while until I hear SLI is more widely adopted. You can save money I think with buying a little cheaper GPU’s and SLI-ing but when a game doesn’t support it you are SOL, and it feels like a waste of money. One card, it’s just simpler, not to mention this card is a beast and its now fairly affordable.

0212161850a_zps1hoy6qlz.jpg
0212161853a_zpsyftrfnzt.jpg


Oh my, n3rd p0rn!

0217162138a_zpspi00ybdy.jpg


After mounting my new HOTAS and the better Fanatec wheel and pedals from my friend I’m all done. Eventually I’ll finish painting the new mounts and the wood strips under the chair (red)

0217162138b_zpsqpeo62kl.jpg
0217162138c_zpsg5bmgrr5.jpg
0217162138_zpsumzby06w.jpg
0217162139a_zpsh3wt8j9r.jpg
0217162139_zpsxne1yfvz.jpg



About $100 for the PVC Wood paints screws sandpaper misc.
$50 for the chair
$100 for my buddy’s used wheel and pedals
Around $150 for the x52 pro HOTAS
Roughly $1300 for the pc upgrades on amazon.

If I spend any more my wife will skin me alive! :P but it was all worth it.

---------

For those interested I have started streaming, and at times it’s hilarious, I have had a few great races, still a lot of bad ones, but I’m still trying to get better.
twitch:

youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFgvD21EzF3Z1Po4v_Q04RQ

And here are a couple of my greatest race moments!! Of course I won’t post my bad ones: D
----
2nd place finish in iRacing @ Lime Rock Park! in the Mazda MX-5 Cup. Great race WOOT!!!1 -
----
Last Race for the Week at Okayama for the Cadillac Cup, Awesome Race 6th place finish! -
----
Before I started streaming and recording my voice, one of my first races and a 2nd place finish to boot!!! -
----
And for a little variety here is Elite Dangerous -


That’s it Thanks for letting me show of my work! I hope to post more in the future soon, next time i will make a full motion rig.Let me know your thoughts, or if you have any questions on the build.
 
Excellent first rig! Looks really good once sprayed. Not sure I could play with the car looking that big! Have a look at this FOV calculator http://www.projectimmersion.com/fov/index.php plug in the values correct to your setup and try the resulting correct FOV in game to see what it looks like. Posts some pics as well.

You are on the first steps of a very slippery slope. Before you know it you'll be buying a better steering wheel, button boxes, realistic handbrakes and the list goes on and on! Enjoy!
 
Oh heck yes. Honestly I have been eying the DIY direct drive wheel. However the lady has requested that based on my purchases I go on a little spending freeze. I cannot complain, I have spent a good amount on all this. Still though I saved money by building it.

I did use the iracing for calculator but I'll read up on all this and make sure I check that I did it correct. I'm eagerly awaiting an occulus at the end of the month so that should help tremendously.

Thanks for the feedback!

P.S. Anyone have plans for a budget wheel that isn't a grand and still awsome?
 
If you were to go with an OSW I can see you building a completely new rig again, but that's all part of the fun.

I'm on my second DIY rig and I'm already drawing up plans for my third.
 
Back