Frito's Bulkhead

[glasseye]

With the holidays over and Frito in the shop for his annual winter rest, I can finally turn to the bulkhead project. After a year or so of on-the-road layout testing, I've settled on a removable gaucho bed behind the driver's seat. This, combined with a LHS forward RV-style window, makes for a very nice place to spend the night. The bulkheads will provide sound insulation and shelf space. Everything except the bulkheads themselves will be easily removable for occasional large cargo hauling.




The single bunk provides for storage underneath in easily removable plastic tubs and leaves plenty of reserve space aft of the bunk for motorcycles, tripods and other camping gear.





For the occasional overnight guest, I'll take the "lower bunk" - the floor.

The two bulkhead sections will be 20" apart, leaving plenty of room to access the cab from the cargo area and vice versa. They'll be made of 3/4" oak plywood and supported by framing of fir material left over from a household flooring project. So far, the bulkheads consist of scraps of wood taped in place and the bed is a sheet of cardboard resting on plastic crates and water jugs. So far so good.



Last year, Theo Kindermans sent me a full-sized template of an existing T1N cargo partition. You can imagine how valuable this is for matching the plywood to Frito's complex side curvatures. THANK YOU THEO!



Punching through the template with a tiny screwdriver into the cardboard below to create an intermediate template for testing and fitting.




Check out the great job Theo did of ensuring a good matchup of the three sheets of tracing paper that he used to create the template.

[maxextz]

omg what a workshop and the toolswhat fun to be had.
and indoors.....fantastic id love something like that.

dont forget more pictures needed.
subbed.
love your side window.

[sikwan]

Originally Posted by maxextz

omg what a workshop and the toolswhat fun to be had.
and indoors.....fantastic id love something like that.

Dang place has a fireplace too.

[Narcis Dragomir]

Glasseye,

where did you get the window on the side? Did the van come with it? I would like to get a sliding window to put on my van, even two, one on each side. Anybody has any ideas? Thanks,

narcis

[teamtexas]

Glasseye, run back up camera wiring NOW!!! How easy it would have been at that stage

Your shop is way too clean, can't wait to see the after pictures!

Happy Building
Dan

[Aqua Puttana]

Originally Posted by glasseye

,,,

For the occasional overnight guest, I'll take the "lower bunk" - the floor.

...

THANK YOU THEO!

...

Not that you asked... If you're serious about the lower bunk, I know I would be, don't forget to leave yourself an access slot between the upper bunk and the door latch so you can reach up from below (or above depending upon bed platform hieght) and get out. I know this because I ended up cutting an opening in my loft bed so we could access the rear door latch to open it. The bed platform blocked us from it. In the case of our platform bed it actually had some safety reasons for escape if there was a fire in the front section. Your situation is probably similar.

As Max said, what a great looking shop. Looks real workable and cozy complete with fireplace. Have fun. vic

[glasseye]

Not sure what you mean by accessing the door, Vic. You mean the slider? The only doors I won't be able to easily reach will be the cab doors. Since my bulkhead has a door in it, I shouldn't have any problems getting out.

Now removing the big, single-piece front floor mat. Not easy! I'm taking pix as I go so I might have a chance of getting it back in.

It is wonderful having a heated garage to work in. It's not shanemac weather out there, but it's sn*wing.

[Aqua Puttana]

Yep, the slider. Even if both your bulkheads have access doors the slider is a way out if there's a problem in the front (fire, heaven forbid) when your gear blocks a rear exit through the bulkhead. Maybe I should have waited for pictures to comment, but thought that maybe it would be easier to plan ahead for it.

Originally Posted by glasseye

It is wonderful having a heated garage to work in.

Sure, rub it in. Have fun. vic

[Gulf SV]

Looks pretty nice, Glasseye. I'm envious as I sit here while the interior warms up enough to get back outside. A couple of questions for you.

Whose window is on the driver side? Looks like it fits nicely to the factory indents.
Why a bulkhead?
And is that a factory window in the slider?

I'm ready to pull my front mat. Planning on using the extra relay sockets to run accessories, and I'm looking for paths to the console area for wire.

Looking forward to your progress.

[hkpierce]

Originally Posted by Gulf SV

Whose window is on the driver side? Looks like it fits nicely to the factory indents.

Looks like a Creation Window: http://www.sprinter-source.com/forum...window#post339