R107 Bulkhead Repair: Damp carpets, water in the footwell, temperamental blower motor, unpredictable electrics… There’s no doubt that these are symptoms of a rusty bulkhead. Unfortunately, the well-documented Achilles heel of the R107 SL has ruined many cars. Even later galvanised cars are not immune, because the metal inside the bulkhead was not galvanised by the factory.

Our Bulkhead Process

1. As part of our Vehicle Health Check, we’ll inspect your bulkhead, removing the Blower Motor Cover and inspecting the seals beneath before removing the Blower Motor. At this stage, any corrosion of the Plenum Chamber will present itself and will be confirmed by blocked drainage holes along with the signs listed above.

2. Our technicians will then strip your vehicle, removing the entire dashboard, heating, and electrical components.

3. The car is then handed over to our expert craftsmen who will spend a minimum of 50 hours restoring your Bulkhead to ORIGINAL specification.

4. The work begins with the centre section – this is to avoid the structure sagging or giving way which is the case if you were to remove the bulkhead in one fell swoop.

5. Once the old centre section is removed, it is replaced with our patented Bulkhead repair panel. The focus then shifts to the corners, which are cut off one by one and recreated with bespoke replacements produced according to original blueprints.

6. A preventative weld is then used to stop water sitting beneath the bonnet brackets, and is redirected to flow through the inner wing and out of the bottom of the sill as it should.

7. The bulkhead is seam-sealed, sprayed with stone-chip (wax-based spray that sets hard), painted (colour-coded to original standard) and waxoyled to ensure it is waterproof from the metal up.

Post Restoration

8. Now you have a restored bulkhead, our craftsmen will then reset the heating system levels and heating box to ensure the system works as new. Part of this process includes resetting the wiper linkages to ensure their positioning is correct when static and in use.

9. Our team will then inspect all bulkhead grommets to establish which need replacing or sealing. This is carried out from the inside and out of the vehicle.

10. The reassembly process is part of our Quality Check process to enable us to ensure that all work carried out meets our internationally renowned standards.

Finally, each bulkhead job we do comes fully photo documented. In addition, you’ll get a unique bulkhead certificate. Also, we’ll give you a sticker verifying that the work has been carried out to the highest standards by SLSHOP. See our video for more details.