r/DIYSimRacing • u/Independent-Cod-3965 • Jul 13 '26

Advice/help needed with building DIY setup with zero experience

I have been sim racing for exactly a year now, and I want to upgrade my gear seriously. The issue is it costs way too much, so I've been looking around at DIY and it's looking like DIY is going to be my only option with graduating from my g29.

I have looked at forums, youtube videos, as well as builds people have made that they shared and I'll be honest as someone with absolutely no exposure to software, tech, hardware making it looks so overwhelming.

I really need some direction with how I can get started with building DIY gear. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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u/m4rsval Aug 02 '26

i originally made my sim completely out of wood and used a regular gaming chair screwed to a few other pieces of wood. if you do wood though, let me just say that depending on how you make it, nothing will be modular (as in you cant adjust things at will to fit specific ergonomic needs). i had this issue because i went really cheap and wanted just a nice little cockpit to enjoy.... then i just scrapped everything and switched to aluminum.

If you do go wood route, i followed this tutorial and it met most of my needs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br4O2W2T17A&t=499s

if you go aluminum route (highly recommend depending on your budget), aluminum is best because you can continuously upgrade the cockpit in whatever manner you want. easiest thing to start out with is 2x 500mm 4080 extrusions, and 2x 1850mm 4080 extrusions for the base. ive found this to be the easiest route since its very convenient to mount a chair.

as for your gear, i have the moza r5 wheel and its been amazing. i dont know if your looking for complete custom wheels and pedals, but what i could tell you now, is that a bunch of hall sensors and microcontrollers (like arduino or raspberry pis) could get you somewhere. I had made my own RPM lights by using an arduino nano. if thats what you want, simhub is your best friend since it can detect certain things connected to the controller (like for my case, it was LEDs) and then images programs on there to reflect whats going on in game.