Twin Sims... The Build

[simracingfanatic]

You did a very nice job with your house. I have no doubt your sim rigs will be fantastic!

 

[DrewRPh]

Room/Floor prep.

Build date minus 19 days.

Without going too far off topic, I want to share the following.

My mom passed away last year and when prepping her house for sale I had to have several things completed prior to listing the property. They had a fairly expensive kitchen added to the house roughly 15 years ago, but my dad never finished some of the final trim work. He passed away over a decade ago.

So my Mom had this new kitchen albeit with unfinished room trim, for 10 + years.

Why did I wait until she passed, and I was prepping it for the next owner, to finish off stuff she could have enjoyed?

I am guilty of the same in my own home and swore I would address this in my house.

So......

I don't want to take too many steps back on this build but have a small window here to finish up/clean up the 95% build I did when I finished by basement over a decade ago so I can fully enjoy and appreciate it NOW.

Before adding these massive rigs to the game room...

1. Fix the flooring around where I was going to add a L-shaped wet bar and complete a simple dry bar. I have decided to get rid of the L-shape and just go with 5-foot wide dry-bar with over counter cabnets. The flooring must be complete prior to my build so that is the priority. If the cabinets take longer to come in, they can be installed afterwards.

2. Finish off the hall trim. Two whole pieces... geesh.. why is this not already done???

3. Finish off the stair rail. Not even adding railing. Just throw a finished board on there. Can't believe I have waited this long to do this....

4. Final room prep for sim area. Think I will pull the dart board, patch the multiple holes, and give it a fresh coat of paint. Find an outlet cover for the box behind the TV.

5. Complete running network and additional power lines the sim wall and install wall plates. I was able to get a hole in top plate through the speaker hole opening last night. It wasn't pretty, and I may have dropped a few F-bombs in the process, but the mission was accomplished. I ordered the network lines and wall plate last night and they should be here by Thursday.

 

[DrewRPh]

Things can never be easy....

Opened this little spot to add a 2-gang outlet only to find it the joist space packed with junk Drywall!!!!

I caught the drywaller doing this in the theatre as he was hanging the drywall even through I was cleaning behind him every day. Told him to knock it off but this one may have already been covered up.

Frigging thing was PACKED. I initially tried to pull it out through the original hole but came to the determination (after about an hour) that was not going to work and was going to have to open up the space to empty it out. What is pictured below is about 1/3 of the drywall I took out of that one space...

Now I am going to have to patch this all back up after adding the outlet.

Went from needing an "Old work" electrical outlet box to now needing a "New work" one...

 

[Neilski]

I caught the drywaller doing this in the theatre as he was hanging the drywall even through I was cleaning behind him every day. Told him to knock it off but this one may have already been covered up.

What the heck was his motivation for doing that?

 

[stigs2cousin]

Unbelievable

About the motivation?

The lazy/greedy SoaB didn´t want to take the surplus away with him, let alone pay for disposal.

I think it´s too late to reduce his invoice??
At least a strongly worded letter would be in order!!

 

[DrewRPh]

The lazy/greedy SoaB didn´t want to take the surplus away with him, let alone pay for disposal.

Ya, even when in was cleaning up behind them every day, and disposing of the trash.. Just too effing lazy to walk across the room to the provided trash cans.

I think it´s too late to reduce his invoice??
At least a strongly worded letter would be in order!!

This was like 15 years ago so I will be lucky if I can even figure out who it was. If I do, Google review will here about it if he is even still in business.

 

[DrewRPh]

Build day minus 18...

Spent what seems to be hours on the phone with UPS trying to get to the bottom of when my rig will be here. Weird texts, emails and even a voice mail today from customs...

Owed them another $67.67 in "Government and Brokerage" charges for the Sim Lab stuff.

Stopped at Home Depot to get all the Drywall fixing stuff..

Also looked at options to finish off the bar cabinet.

Steering wheels should have been here today, but postal service screwed that up...

Not enough energy left in the tank to mess with drywall tonight.

 

[DrewRPh]

Build day minus 17.

The delivery men we kind today! Still one more package from Sim Lab in this order which should be here tomorrow.

Triple monitor stands were just shipped from sim Lab today.

Taking tomorrow off work. Hope to clean up the dry wall mess and get electrical ran.

Happy with the size of the wheels (300mm). Was fearing they would feel small but they do not.

Stopped at the flooring store. No easy solution. Will need to stare at that a bit longer tomorrow.

 

[DrewRPh]

Build day minus 16 (yesterday)

Last box from original Sim Lab order arrived. Now just waiting on the Triple mounts that were ordered later. They have shipped but will probably be a week or so.

Researched flooring and cabinetry.

Cabinetry: Have a friend of a friend that just sold his high-end countertop business, but he still works with them. They do cabinets as well. Think I am going to do black cabinetry with a gray countertop to tie into the room. He is drawing something up.

Flooring: The flooring has been discontinued for a decade and an internet search came up with nothing. Found 6 matching, left-over pieces in my basement. With them, and some less-than-perfect butt joints spread around, I believe I can cut the part of the bar that sticks out into the room from 63" down to 36"

Here I was pulling out some test pieces to see if they was going to be possible. I will have to pull the flooring in this entire corner, but will not have to disrupt the hall or main room.

Then onto the wiring...

Fished new power line all they way from the house breaker box for a new supply. This is a new, dedicated 20-amp line. The horizontal line in the picture is the existing line in the wall. Went a little overkill on the cross bracing to support the drywall (possibly to make up for how bad I know I am at drywalling...)

Lastly, my not-so-great drywalling. There will be lots of sanding and layers involved.

New network lines should be here today. That box will be on the other side of the joist (to the right) of the electrical. I have checked that the space is not full of junk drywall so it should be a simple low voltage run right down from the above speaker box. Not punching the hole until I clean up this drywall mess.

 

[DrewRPh]

Build date minus 15, 14, 13... Lot of progress

First, cutting this former, future bar... down to size.

Only had 6 pieces of extra flooring and they stopped making it a decade ago, so had to get my Tetris skills out..

Ended up pulling this entire corner of flooring out. This is most of they way back together.

Viola!

Also threw on a fresh coat of paint since I had to paint around the patched Drywall anyway.

 

[MarkModdy]

Love this, it’s like you are preparing the room for a newborn coming back from the maternity hospital… (or maybe make that 2 newborns )

 

[DrewRPh]

Wiring. Getting network lines to the location had another snag. (Running 3, the two I need and a spare)

When running the line down what I thought was an empty joist space... I ran into a cross brace about 23" down from the speaker in the wall.

So, out came the drill with the multiple extensions...

Just need to pick up a low voltage box to install and some fresh switch and outlet covers.

TV and Speakers resinstalled.

Corner is nearly ready!!!

 

[DrewRPh]

The room is ready...

So let the unboxing begin!!!

 

[stigs2cousin]

So it´s Christmas in your part of the woods?

 

[DrewRPh]

Some limited assembly has begun.. As time allows.

I am surprised they don't give you a suggested location for the front feet (distance from the front) so they don't interfere with other parts later.

I realize they can adjust based on where you want your steering wheel, but at least a starting point...

 

[stigs2cousin]

The feet are easily adjusted and can be shoved out of the way when you want to mount something else.
(mine are mounted to the inside of the frame to gain room for the monitor stand)

I´d say the distance between pedal deck and wheel deck would be more important.
But it also depends on your "physical atttributes" and your hardware.

For reference:

my brake pedal is ca 55cm (aprox22") behind my wheel (front) mount.
I´m six foot and a bit (1,85m)

 

[Mr Latte]

I will be disappointed if I dont see sweat on the floor...
Joking aside, hope you get to enjoy this phase though and start to see things coming together.

 

[DrewRPh]

(mine are mounted to the inside of the frame to gain room for the monitor stand)

Oh... good Point. I am doing free standing as well so that may be an issue.

 

[DrewRPh]

One down... Not even close.

The best part of these rigs is the endless adjustability.

The worst part of putting these rigs together, is the endless adjustability...

Definately going to continue putting this one together... all the way... before starting the second.

If I can get one close to where I want it, can duplicate it on the second.

 

[DrewRPh]

Parts left for rig 1

Parts for rig 2

Oh, and the 2 triple mounts.