Fold Up Garage Simulator - UK

[p3eps]

This is my third post in this section about how I built my garage simulator. Unfortunately Photobucket have changed their “third party hosting’ rules, and want $400 a year from me to display my images - which isn’t happening! Sadly this forum doesn’t let me edit my own posts, so I have to start again. Rather than copy and paste my previous thread, I’ve decided to re-write it in a bit more detail… although there may be sections of copy / paste from the last one!

Before I start rambling, I’ll post a couple of pictures of the finished article. I say finished, however it is continually evolving - so it’s finished as of writing! If I change anything, it’ll be added to the end of this post.




** Photo with the garage door open - hence the washed out picture **




** Setup fully retracted. I had 2 cars in here 10 mins before this photo was taken! **

[p3eps]

Great build! Outstanding engineering and some very creative ideas.

I have a question regarding the distance from where your ball is to the side curtain on the left. I am playing with the distances on my build and that curtain always seems to be close to where my driver swing travels. I have attached a little drawing to show what I am looking for. Does that curtain ever get in the way?

Thanks and AMAZING job!

Thanks for the feedback.
Sorry for the delay - I actually had a car in the garage yesterday, so couldn’t measure! I’m setup away to hit some balls now, so I can tell you I’m 235cm for the measurement you want.
I don’t hit the curtain with my driver follow through, but am pretty close. I don’t really need the curtain to be that long at that side - as it’d be impossible to hit a ball there being right handed. If I was worried about hitting the curtain with my driver, then I’d just ‘close’ it a little bit!

Hope that helps?

[Little_Stickner]

That does help. Thank you very much!

For what it is worth, I am right handed too. With my swing, everything against the back wall of my garage is in the potential firing zone!

Thanks again for all the effort you put into documenting what you did. It has been a tremendous help to me.

[p3eps]

I’m glad it’s been of some use to you. I got a lot of info from the forum, so felt that I should give something back! It’s always useful to see the way other people went about making their space work for them.

I’ve managed to shank a few shots into the bottom left corner / curtain, but I’ve never come close to hitting the right hand curtain at all. I only got it because I thought it would look odd and uneven if I didn’t have it / have it a different length!

[cobig13]

I could see the pictures in this post on 12/10 but cannot today. Bummed out because I was planning on mimicking portions of this build in my own.

Has anyone had experience installing flooring like this? I am exploring the possibility of having this installed in my garage and have only found one company that can do it.

[p3eps]

I could see the pictures in this post on 12/10 but cannot today. Bummed out because I was planning on mimicking portions of this build in my own.

I am currently in the middle of the North Sea on an oil rig with internet that makes dial up look good (and that’s not an exaggeration!!) and the pics are loading for me - albeit VERY slowly! They’re definitely still there as this is the first time I’ve visited this thread on my new phone, so they’re not cached.

[p3eps]

Here are a couple of photos of the Peli (Pelican in the USA) case I had made to keep my GC2 / HMT / Protective Cover in. It's a Peli 1510 case. A bit bigger than I really wanted, but it was the only one that would fit both the GC2 (without taking the HMT bracket off) and HMT in together with a bit of padding. I think a 1500 would have taken them, but I was advised to have at LEAST 10mm foam round the edges for support.
This was done by a local company that I deal with on a frequent basis through work, so they did it as a favour!

[Tommyseb]

p3eps what metal tubing did you choose from metal store as there are various options, bright steel galvanised aluminium etc

[p3eps]

p3eps what metal tubing did you choose from metal store as there are various options, bright steel galvanised aluminium etc

I went with the galvanised Tube Clamp @ 26.9mm

[LEO MODE]

Hey p3eps great set up and I actually have the same HQ screen and velcro because I bought it from Par2pro as well. Did you get any scuff mark or stain on the screen? Par2pro told me to put into a washing machine with a light detergent. But it seemed a little hard to take it out.

How did you maintain the screen or how do you take it out and put it back in? Did you take it out before?

thanks in advance.

[p3eps]

Hey p3eps great set up and I actually have the same HQ screen and velcro because I bought it from Par2pro as well. Did you get any scuff mark or stain on the screen? Par2pro told me to put into a washing machine with a light detergent. But it seemed a little hard to take it out.

How did you maintain the screen or how do you take it out and put it back in? Did you take it out before?

thanks in advance.

I've moved onto the SQHQ Beta screen in the last few months. My HQ2 screen never had a single mark on it... other than some minor "wear" marks.
I always play with immaculately clean clubs and new balls to prevent any transfer of dirt. As soon as a ball feels slightly rough, it gets changed for a new one.

When I hung the SQHQ screen, it was really creased. I tried buying a handheld steamer to get the creases out, but that didn't work well enough.
I then tried my steam iron - holding it about 1" from the screen. That worked, but still wouldn't get a couple of really deep creases out - so I tried actually ironing the screen (still hung).
This worked really well... however my iron didn't like being vertical, and after a while spat out some brown water.
I was gutted - as the beta screen was only about 10 days old!

My wife gave me some magic stain removing carpet cleaner, and I sprayed a bit of that on the stain. Some gentle rubbing with some warm water, and eventually the water almost flushed the stain out. It was a brown line about 2" thick and covering about 1ft in length and you would never know it existed. It took about an hour to get it all out.

Regarding putting it through the washing machine... I don't think I'd be worried about the actual washing. More how difficult it would be to all the creases out after it has been through the wash!!

[LEO MODE]

Gotcha...I guess crease is harder than washing it...I do have some weird stains around the black mark because how I mistreated it by using different kinds of methods, whether it was a stain remover, water, magic eraser, rubbing alcohol, etc....I now just want to move that stain mark which is big and round now...

[Chris83d]

Lovely build! I'm going to get the same touchscreen as yours. Where did you get the little keyboard mount from? Can't seem to find one. Thanks.

[p3eps]

Can't seem to find one. Thanks.

I made it myself from a bit of aluminium, then Velcro’d the keyboard onto it.

[Chris83d]

Good job I'll try doing the same!

[Tommyseb]

if your metal working skills aren't up to scratch, i bought a keyboard bracket and mount from amazon, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Allcam-Hori...+vesa+keyboard

this attaches inbetween my screen and my wall mounted monitor arm, they company do a couple of keyboard trays, one will take a full sized keyboard and still leave room for a mouse, and the other will take one of the mine sized keyboards, its really well made and fully adjustable.

[Chris83d]

Cheers tommy! I’ll probably go for that!

[p3eps]

I couldn’t find anything available to buy when I did mine. I’d already made a similar one for the workshop at work, so just altered the bends a bit to make it fit the slightly bigger monitor.
Works well for me, as I’m primarily using FSX, so the keyboard / mouse are rarely used.

[gette]

Very nice!
Thank you for sharing all of your details.
This has certainly helped give me some ideas, especially if I my basements 8’9” ceiling ends up being to low for my SkyTrak sim and I sadly have to relocate to the garage.

[mooncry1]

I'm looking to get a SkyTrak for my sim also, my garage height is similar at 2.6m, but that is ok for me as I'm 5' 8" and a bit. I can swing the driver fine, but looking to get the ceiling raised by about a foot if at all possible a bit later.

[mooncry1]

Great set of pictures and walk through of what you have done, looks brilliant and some great info here which has given me several ideas for mine. Unfortunately haven't got quite as big a garage but I think the actual sim will be similar size. What width and height is the screen itself?