Cockpit Clevohead's Project: "Dragula"

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Ok so I have mentioned to some of you guys about my upcoming cockpit/rig project, it will be in the style of a racing Ottoman as done by a few guys over at www.overclockers.com.au
from what I can tell Lyshco was one of the first, and then Dorz who took it to the next level (pic below) also there is one over at www.insidesimracing.com in their forums as well.

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Pictures credit: Dorz from www.overclockers.com.au​

The name: Dragula, basically I was thinking what will I call this? And looking at essentially a wooden box, I thought coffin? Then I thought who drives a coffin? Grandpa Muster of course! plus it is pretty cool song buy Rob Zombie (that takes me back ) So we shall now be referring to this as "Project Dragula"

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So below is the beginning of the project that I completed today, I didn't bother with taking pics of the whole process of making the box as I thought if someone is going to attempt this they should at least be able to work out how to screw a box together :lol:

I obtained a melamine 32mm desktop (1800 x 900) off of my father in law and this now forms the base of the rig, I purchased my no-name race seat off a co worker for the fair sum of $20 (bit faded but we will address that later on, but in otherwise good nick)

I then purchased 2 x 2400 x 1200 sheets of 18mm MDF for the sides, lid, and internal components.

This project will be done as economically as possible, and to a high level of finish as I am a fussy bastard

So here are the pics, please excuse the mess.

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So like I said not much to see yet, but it is now finally under way.

I will be lining this with a carpet of some kind, yet to be determined, have been looking at various indoor/outdoor, automotive, and speaker carpets.

The exterior will be covered using a product available at Bunnings that is essentially floating floorboards but 2-3mm thick self adhesive strips that look pretty close to the solid timber the rest of our lounge furniture is made of, this brings me to the "wife factor" when not in use this will blend into the surroundings looking like an Ottoman that accentuates our existing furniture = happy wife, happy life , and then on race nights I have a pretty comfy cockpit that will hopefully help my lap times and slash set-up and pack up time considerably (I hope)

I will have a powered USB hub, my G27 , keyboard and holder, turtle beach headset, and thinking of integrating a 2.1 speaker set-up (seeing as I need to run my audio cables anyway) so i will probably use a small 3.5 splitter, and the speakers' amp can be powered from the on-board power, leading to the next point.

Another little idea I have is: I have our old vacuum cleaner and I am going to pull it down, and get the cable rewind hardware from it and mount in the front left corner (hole saw a hole for the plug) of the Dragula so I can pull the power cable out and plug in, when finished unplug from the power point and hit the button and auto rewind baby, yeah! with this I will mount a surge protector (maybe) and two double power points in the cable compartment.
This is yet to be researched to see if I can make this work but I think I can.

So that is it at the moment, as I make progress I will keep this updated, but don't expect progress every night this will be done over a few months most likely, as like a lot of others on here I am fairly time poor.

Look forward to your guys feed back and feel free to throw any ideas at me as I am still thinking how to do my steering wheel shelf/bridge as I want to make it adjustable and have the wheel hard mounted.

06/11/12

So tonight I took to the vacuum cleaner with a screwdriver and jigsaw, the recoil is going to work fine and I just need to cut the hole for the plug to go through once I have found a nice bezel/surround to fit in the hole. But otherwise it is fitted.

Tomorrow I will get a terminal block from work, and mount and wire the power cables, and hope to install the cable/power management compartment tomorrow night or the next along with the pedal board.

Also measured up my seat base to get my brackets made by my bro at work.

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16/11/12

Ok so tonight I had a tinker and finished off the recoil and wired a cable into it, ran some cable track/conduit, fitted the plug bezel from the vacuum cleaner to house the plug for when not in use, and measured up my pedal board and realised I couldn't cut it because it was after midnight :/

I found the cable track in the shed that I had left over from an old home theatre project, so bonus! See boys just because I'm on a budget means I don't need to be messy with my cables they don't call me "the cable nazi" @ work for nothing :lol:

Just note: the power supply is only two pin, and is not an earthed unit, so only twin pin plugged peripherals will only be able to be used. Which will be fine as everything intended for use in the "Dragula" will be on transformer power packs (normally twin pin) wheel, usb hub, etc...

The bezel was cut out of the vacuum cleaner trimmed up, and contact adhesive in place. Once dry I filed and sanded the bezel flush with the MDF, so once covered in vinyl etc, it will be a nice, neat flush/slightly recessed fit.

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Recoil unit, and cable track.​

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With cover on cable track.​

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Plug bezel/housing retracted.​

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Plug bezel/housing with some cable out.​

18/11/12

Ok, so today I mocked up pedal board and cable tray, and found I had made a mis-measure and my hinge idea wouldn't work for the pedal board So I ended up screwing a batten across the bottom edge of the pedal board and let gravity hold it in place (K.I.S.S). Tried out the pedals in their intended place and the rake on the board is perfect and with the seat they feel great. Just the right angle

Screwed in cable tray, console side, and shifter mount panel as well. Cut out top plate, and mocked up steering wheel and got centre lines etc.. Ready to cut out relief for wheel and fit hinged wheel board and latches next.

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Cable tray, this will hold power packs, USB hub etc...​

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Pedal board with hinges removed and batten across bottom edge.​

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Showing pedal cable management.​

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Top board and shifter panel mocked up.​

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This shows relief to be cut to allow raising and lowering of wheel.​

27/11/12

Ok, got relief cut out for steering wheel, made up wheel deck, upholstered the shifter base, wheel deck, and deck top. Starting to look good, ran out of spray adhesive. Please bear in mind I am not finished yet and I am not an upholsterer

Quadstretch has donated some GOV building looking carpet, thanks mate This will be used on the floor. Will fit this after upholstering the interior sides.

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Top and wheel deck covered.​

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Top and wheel deck again.​

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Seat in pack up position with wheel deck lowered. (this is where the wheel will rest when top is on)​

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Seat in reclined pack up position.​

26/12/12

First update in a while, been really busy with work, Christmas out of the way, and a day off here and there, got some things done.

I have installed the latches to secure the wheel deck, they are really stable and no movement at all (the polar fleece compresses and keeps pressure on the latches) I started lining the interior walls with the Government building carpet and I am quite pleased with the outcome so far. Any way, enough talk and on to the pics.

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Latches, one on either side of deck.​

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Close up latch.​

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Progress on lining so far.​

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The old government building carpet actually doesn't look that bad (Thanks Quadstretch )​

30/12/12

Went to Bunnings, and they had sold out of the vinyl flooring I wanted for the sides , well the old bloke there said they will have more in next week. So while I was there I got the castors for the bottom I picked up 6 x 40kg rubber wheeled swivel castors for $1.98 ea bargain
Fitted those up tonight and finished off the carpet. Have a lid to make for the side compartment, finish lining the cable tray, and fit up the power points. Can't wait to get it done. And please excuse the mess been flat out at work and doing bits when I can .

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6 castors, placed the centre ones inward slightly to offer more support for the centre.​

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Close up of one of the castors.​

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This will be final ride height no more milk crates.​

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Getting there, can't wait.​

07/01/13

Vinyl will be in on the 9th, and while I was waiting the seat was bugging me cause I'm a fussy bugger.

It had a bar that was poking through the thigh bolster and was uncomfortable, so I went for a trip Kmart and found some black seat covers for $15 ( I didn't want to spend a fortune and mess them up ) So I pulled the seat apart and tended to the bolster, you will see in the pics how badly torn it was, so I held it together with a bit of tape, brushed contact adhesive in the splits. Then I took an offcut off the polar fleece sprayed the bolster with spray adhesive and wrapped it to hold it together, smoothed out the creases, and refit it to the seat base.

While I had the seat apart, I fitted and trimmed the seat covers to the seat components, cut the holes and fitted the surrounds to make it look a bit more authentic. There is a bit of stretch in the seat cover and needs to be used a bit to conform the covers to the seat better, but otherwise I am really happy with the outcome.

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Tears in the bolster foam​

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Tear with contact adhesive in it.​

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The contact adhesive I use, and I use Kwik Grip spray adhesive.​

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Taped together.​

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Applying the polar fleece.​

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Wrapped and dry.​

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Seat covered, needs some use to stretch and settle the upholstery now.​

09/01/13

Tonight I lined the cable tray, wired up, and fitted the power points.

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19/02/13

So some of you already know that I have been racing in Dragula for the last few weeks now (and I promised Rumbles pics), I haven't done a top yet, but pretty much everything else is done here are pics of her in place ready to race

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This is my console.​

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You can see here she is a right fit, just ​

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Need to tweak the lounge a tad to get centred up, but it ain't too bad.​

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Looking pretty good Clevo.

I'm guessing the seat slides forward then tilts back to put the cover on top of the "ottoman"???

Keep the pics coming.

Yeah mate, the seat will be mounted on a "floating" board that will be made to a predetermined length to push hard up to the back wall of the Dragula (will also make spacers to space the seat forward for shorter people) , and then simply slide seat forwards, recline seat, lower wheel, and fit lid (well that's the plan anyway :/).

Currently measuring up mounting brackets to tilt the seat base back on a slight angle to offer more support to the back of my legs.

Hey Clevo, Sound like ur handbrake has go you by the short & curlies :lol:

Ummmm Just a couple of tips for ya.

The vaccum cleaner (top idea by the way)
be careful when pull it apart!!! if you let housing of the cord winder fall apart they are real pain the arse to re-assemble.
(did it before ) when my old & me built a couple separator/extractor for bird seed. (pretty much divided the good seed from the husk and crap)

The interior

do not use speaker carpet. yes its easy to put in but it holds onto every single piece or hair, dirt and other crap that touchs it. (Real pain to keep clean)
i'd just go to a carpet shop and find a good hardie house carpet. (In a colour you like of course )
The up side to house carpet is ; Its stronger, more durable and easier to keep clean.
down side is ; Its heavy and can be tricky to work with in tight curved areas.
(but a man with ur talent/s of knowing how to screw a box together should have no problems) :lol:

& hard mounting your wheel.
i had an idea ages ago of ripping a dashboard out of a small car and then mounting my wheel into it.
Handbrake squoshed my hopes of this as it was going to be too big. :lol:
Not to sure how you would fitting it into The Dragula.

Na mate just limited on space, if it was a perfect world I would have a man cave with something like a Ricmotech cockpit set-up full time. Plus the missus likes the Ottoman idea as do I.

Doing this project as the student desk and couch just aren't cutting it any more.

Thanks for the tips on the vacuum cleaner and carpet as well mate

Too easy mate, Can't have a dirty office!!!

Post and pics moved into first post for ease of editing

:Cool:
See you got it out without if falling apart on you.
where is the cord winder going, Front or Back corner?

Yeah mate, these blokes that can screw boxes together are cluey buggers The casting in the plastic base is what holds the unit together, so I cut all the unnecessary parts of the base plate off with the jig saw, screwed the base plate to the floor of the rig, and then just clipped the recoil unit back in place.

It is in the front left corner, figured I will be there when getting the USB cable out to plug in the PS3, plus the power point it will be running off is next to the tv unit.

I use flickr, which I can sign into using my facebook account, then copy the BB code for the pic and paste into my post

It's not too late mate, you already have half the gear and some materials you could recycle into it

Cheers mate, you have any pics of yours?

New pics in first post guys, will keep editing that from now on for easier reading and reference

Thanks mate, that's what I was thinking along the line of too

Screwed the cable tray/compartment together this morning and mount pedal board to get heights, angles etc..

Will post some more pics over the weekend.

18/11/12 updated first post