Electrical Bulkhead Upgrade

So, a while ago I saw a thread on The Samba where a guy had made a panel behind the kick panel in front of the driver seat to mount his electrical additions (relays, fuse blocks, terminal blocks). It was another genius moment and since then I've wanted to do it. I am anal as hell when it comes to wires and being able to hide things from sight. I love things to be neat and tidy.

I can't find the thread now but if I do, then I'll post it up here.

Went over to my parents and worked with my dad on this one. In actuality I waved my hands and described how to do it, he did the rest.

The idea is simple, Except for the fresh air vent boxes, there really isn't metal that you can mount extra items to in the front of the bus. You can secure things to races and use double stick tape I suppose, but nothing that's secure and grounded.

My goals:

• Made of metal
• Secured to other metal with rivets or screws
• located on the driver side
• as big as I could make it
• hidden but accessible
• recessed enough behind a kick panel to fit a relay or fuse block (1 - 2 inches)

My dad started with a metal case that he had had since I was a kid. He used it to carry his torch for sweating copper. In retrospective, I'm honored to have had this cut up and placed in my bus. Its one of those things that I remember vividly from my childhood.


I don't have a picture of it, but basically he took a piece of cardboard and cut a template. He worked it until he got it to where it fit. AS you will see, it's by the drivers left foot in the corner under the left headlight shroud.

This next picture shows my dad using metal benders to fold the metal edges over. This actually is pretty important. you're going to have wires and electrical around this ON TOP OF your hands being around it. I cut my fingers enough, no need to add in booby traps for when I'm fiddling around in the dark some day in the future.


To cut all this, we just used Tin Snips... nothing fancy. The metal is a thin gauge. It bends easy. The metal benders give you a upper hand. I would suggest them BUT if you don't have them, no worries.

Here's what it looked like before we painted and mounted it. The two tabs on the upper right are to mount it to the headlight shroud. The two on the bottom are for the lip of the floor. The left hand side will mount on the internal frame. These are difficult to explain. the next pictures will hopefully make sense.


This is the finished product. Scuffed it up, primed it and painted it.

In order to mount it, I used 1/8" pop rivets. I held it in place and drilled through the outside and hopefully through the bulkhead. For some reason I thought I could hold it while I drilled... So, one drilled finger later I figured out that using a pair of pliers was a much better idea. I put one rivet in each support strap AND two in the left hand side.

Anyway, after mounting it, I'm very happy. Structurally, it is rigid and looks like it will do exactly what I wanted out of it.


The next thing I'll do is put in the other end of my wire loom. When I do, I'll post a pic.

If you have questions or want more information, please comment. I'm happy to take more pics or answer whatever.

Casey