Alistair,

With unlimited access to aluminum stock and a machine shop and there is no
end to your creativity!

I can tell you that the early rear cabinets were hung only from the top of
the sides by four L brackets to the bed plywood shelf, and the bottom can
sag. The later cabinets with A/C are attached at the front the same way, but
the rear has beefy brackets that go from the roof to the bottom of the
cabinet and are attached with a screw through the bottom. Much stronger and
supportive for the larger A/C unit.  I rebuilt my '85s A/C cabinet (found a
door for it too) with new grey laminate for my son's van when we removed the
A/C, and re-used these brackets.

I'd recommend that you add some L brackets to the bottom of the side panels
to keep the bottom from falling completely off!  It's only attached by glue
to the two side pieces.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Alistair Bel
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2016 7:24 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Westy rear shelf support

Made a brace to stiffen up the rear edge of my Westy overhead rear shelf. It
was sagging after many years of use. Westfalia, bless 'em, did a good job
with the cabinetry but there is a limit to the abuse that plywood can take.

Made provision for another one of the new dimmer switches in the brace. The
switch controls the strip of lights under the rear edge of the shelf. I was
using a dimmer switch attached to the van wall, but I think having it up on
the shelf is neater. Yup, you can still reach the switch when hatch closed.

Not the most complicated mod, and some less than perfect edges ( I just went
at the cut outs quickly with a roughing end mill) but it worked out.

https://shufti.wordpress.com/2016/06/16/vanagon-rear-shelf-support/

Alistair=