Drifts from Scratch It has been some time since Tom and I built the 4 Cruis'n USA cabinets. I've done quite a bit of cabinet building since and decided to try again this time to building a 4 player line up of The Fast and The Furious Toyko Drift. Drifts have been out long enough now to be available as a conversion kit for various cabinets. Cabinets that are newer than Cruis'n USA have lots of pricey custom plastic pieces which was another good reason to stay with Cruis'n cabinets. I started with a tired Cruis'n cabinet to use as a guide/template for building the new cabinets. Click on any of the pictures for a larger version.

 

25" higher resolution monitors are getting hard to come by so I decided to use a flat screen 27" CRT which is a common monitor these days. I found that it fit without too much trouble.	As with a 25" monitor the frame sticks out the back which always seemed like a lot of extra work.
I needed to make router templates for the cabinet sides so I laid the Cruis'n cabinet on a piece of MDF and outlined the edges.	Rather than having the monitor frame sticking out the back I decided to modify the sides a bit. The pencil line arc will be the new cabinet size.
Here is my MDF template positioned on top of some black melamine ready to cut.	After the router cut.
Here is a trick I didn't do the first time around. To really build consistant cabinets it's a must to have a guide for positioning the inside supports.	With the help of the router template and the guild for the inside supports I'm able to make 4 left and 4 right sides.
The beginnings of assembly.	Here is a seat base laid out.
And a seat base being assembled.	More assembly.
Another view.	4 raw cabinets.
4 seat bases.	Getting past the wood work.
From the back side.	With the Drift PC installed.
The end cabinet. The kit came with full cabinet artwork.	The new line up!