Rusty Wallace 2001 Ford Taurus Winston Cup Car machine

4th July 2004, 06:59

Well, if you could actually call it just a 'Mod.'

Here's my Rusty Wallace 2001 Ford Taurus Winston Cup Car machine. I took some inspiration from the GTR-PC everybody's seen and decided to add a different twist to it. The machine itself is really nothing special since it's just a Router/Firewall/WWW & FTP Server. The big thing I was going for was integration into my NASCAR Die-Cast Car collection living on the shelves above my computer desk. Plus, it gets my second machine away from the first machine, which helps keep it a little cooler. The big (not yet polished) write-up can be found on my website HERE

Here's a couple of pics though. Sorry for the slow load time - my ADSL is kinda slow on the upload... but the ISP says they're upgrading soon. We'll see. But it is mostly definitely NOT the machine's fault. Despite that it's only a 1300 Duron w/512MB DDR, it runs pretty fast, all things considered.

It all started like this:

After cutting it out, drilling for the mobo and HDD mounts, cutting out a hole for the power supply fan, and in the middle of polishing. You can see the 'body' in the background, after I had already laid down the blue basecoat paint and white trim stripe. Like a dumb-***, I'd already pop-riveted the wheel mounts in-place before I started polishing.

Everything installed, and test-fitting the body to figure out where to cut the wheel openings and whatnot.

Loading the OS - Win2K Server - I chose not to permanently install the floppy drive for space consideration. After I had already loaded the OS, I realized I could've just set the BIOS to boot from the CD... duh. The HDD lives under the motherboard (which is on risers made from stacked stand-offs) which gives the cables a place to live as well:

Here's the 'other' side of the machine. I fabbed a bulkhead for the HDD light, Power light, Power switch, and Reset switch. The CD-ROM is a laptop unit and stuck down with 3M R/C Servo tape.

And finally, the 'case' itself. It's a 1/10th scale 2001 Ford Taurus Superspeedway R/C car body. I used only a few of the decals from the body kit, but made the rest through various mediums using Windows Paint, PaintShop Pro, and PhotoShop. They were printed on a Lexmark Z-11 inkjet onto some adhesive-back photo-paper. Turned out pretty good, I must say.

And finally, here it is, in action and all it's glory as part of my NASCAR car collection, on its shelf above my computer desk - serving up the pictures you see.

Whatcha think?

4th July 2004, 10:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Mister 4x4
Whatcha think?

that the pictures wont load

4th July 2004, 12:56

Verry nice

4th July 2004, 13:22

woehoe the pictures load now

WOOOOW thats very nice.

4th July 2004, 17:54

Quote:

Originally posted by kr15t0f

that the pictures wont load

Apologies - my connection can be flaky at times, sporadically dropping for no reason. I've traced the problem down to the link between Verizon's default gateway and my ISP's DNS server (West Central Net, a local ISP using Verizon for ADSL access). Supposedly, Verizon is 'upgrading' our DSL service, so it should be a little quicker (maybe) and more consisten (I hope...).

Thanks for your patience and comments on my NASCAR machine though.

Sidney · 4th July 2004, 20:36

Nice work. How does the other side with all the connections look? Any access to CD drive?

4th July 2004, 21:20

lol, this looks really cool dude

5th July 2004, 17:49

There's a standard ATX plate-sized hole in the other side of the body for the connections. I wasn't too concerned with that since it's on the shelf and against the wall. There isn't much room in there to run the cables to a more opportune outlet, and I wasn't confident enough to solder the mobo directly - not yet anyway.

I had originally planned on cutting the front and attaching it to the CD/ROM's 'door,' but quite honestly, this machine hardly ever gets accessed unless via the network or KVM switch, so I never bothered with that either. The body's held on with 4 velcro attachment point (in front of the front and behind the rear wheels), so lifting the body to access the CD/ROM is no problem.

I'm working on a 2004 Dodge Intrepid body for the machine (the beauty of using R/C car bodies) and might address those issues then, but I'll probably just leave it as is. The velcro makes it handy to swap out bodies as well.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

13th July 2004, 21:56

Quote:

Originally posted by Mister 4x4
There's a standard ATX plate-sized hole in the other side of the body for the connections. I wasn't too concerned with that since it's on the shelf and against the wall. There isn't much room in there to run the cables to a more opportune outlet, and I wasn't confident enough to solder the mobo directly - not yet anyway.

I had originally planned on cutting the front and attaching it to the CD/ROM's 'door,' but quite honestly, this machine hardly ever gets accessed unless via the network or KVM switch, so I never bothered with that either. The body's held on with 4 velcro attachment point (in front of the front and behind the rear wheels), so lifting the body to access the CD/ROM is no problem.

I'm working on a 2004 Dodge Intrepid body for the machine (the beauty of using R/C car bodies) and might address those issues then, but I'll probably just leave it as is. The velcro makes it handy to swap out bodies as well.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Damn thats some fine work you made there , thumbs up

jmke · 13th July 2004, 21:57

how can I have missed this thread? great work!

4th July 2004, 06:59	#1
Mister 4x4 Posts: n/a	My latest Case Mod Well, if you could actually call it just a 'Mod.' Here's my Rusty Wallace 2001 Ford Taurus Winston Cup Car machine. I took some inspiration from the GTR-PC everybody's seen and decided to add a different twist to it. The machine itself is really nothing special since it's just a Router/Firewall/WWW & FTP Server. The big thing I was going for was integration into my NASCAR Die-Cast Car collection living on the shelves above my computer desk. Plus, it gets my second machine away from the first machine, which helps keep it a little cooler. The big (not yet polished) write-up can be found on my website HERE Here's a couple of pics though. Sorry for the slow load time - my ADSL is kinda slow on the upload... but the ISP says they're upgrading soon. We'll see. But it is mostly definitely NOT the machine's fault. Despite that it's only a 1300 Duron w/512MB DDR, it runs pretty fast, all things considered. It all started like this: After cutting it out, drilling for the mobo and HDD mounts, cutting out a hole for the power supply fan, and in the middle of polishing. You can see the 'body' in the background, after I had already laid down the blue basecoat paint and white trim stripe. Like a dumb-***, I'd already pop-riveted the wheel mounts in-place before I started polishing. Everything installed, and test-fitting the body to figure out where to cut the wheel openings and whatnot. Loading the OS - Win2K Server - I chose not to permanently install the floppy drive for space consideration. After I had already loaded the OS, I realized I could've just set the BIOS to boot from the CD... duh. The HDD lives under the motherboard (which is on risers made from stacked stand-offs) which gives the cables a place to live as well: Here's the 'other' side of the machine. I fabbed a bulkhead for the HDD light, Power light, Power switch, and Reset switch. The CD-ROM is a laptop unit and stuck down with 3M R/C Servo tape. And finally, the 'case' itself. It's a 1/10th scale 2001 Ford Taurus Superspeedway R/C car body. I used only a few of the decals from the body kit, but made the rest through various mediums using Windows Paint, PaintShop Pro, and PhotoShop. They were printed on a Lexmark Z-11 inkjet onto some adhesive-back photo-paper. Turned out pretty good, I must say. And finally, here it is, in action and all it's glory as part of my NASCAR car collection, on its shelf above my computer desk - serving up the pictures you see. Whatcha think?

4th July 2004, 20:36	#6
Sidney Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 15,738	Nice work. How does the other side with all the connections look? Any access to CD drive? __________________ lazyman Opteron 165 (2) @2.85 1.42 vcore AMD Stock HSF + Chill Vent II

13th July 2004, 21:57	#10
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,013	how can I have missed this thread? great work! __________________

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4th July 2004, 13:22	#4
kr15t0f Posts: n/a	woehoe the pictures load now WOOOOW thats very nice.

4th July 2004, 21:20	#7
kristos Posts: n/a	lol, this looks really cool dude

5th July 2004, 17:49	#8
Mister 4x4 Posts: n/a	There's a standard ATX plate-sized hole in the other side of the body for the connections. I wasn't too concerned with that since it's on the shelf and against the wall. There isn't much room in there to run the cables to a more opportune outlet, and I wasn't confident enough to solder the mobo directly - not yet anyway. I had originally planned on cutting the front and attaching it to the CD/ROM's 'door,' but quite honestly, this machine hardly ever gets accessed unless via the network or KVM switch, so I never bothered with that either. The body's held on with 4 velcro attachment point (in front of the front and behind the rear wheels), so lifting the body to access the CD/ROM is no problem. I'm working on a 2004 Dodge Intrepid body for the machine (the beauty of using R/C car bodies) and might address those issues then, but I'll probably just leave it as is. The velcro makes it handy to swap out bodies as well. Thanks for the kind words, guys.