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Pimp My Safe - 2012 edition MOLLE door panel, lights, and more!
So I've got this firesafe, and it was a huge mess. The guns were just piled up on the shelves, holsters were littered about randomly and important papers were in a big, unsorted, pile with a few magazines mixed in between them.
It was insane.
I got some boxes to put the papers in but that really did not help much.
After some googling I came across this on PAFOA and decided to shamelessly copy this idea.
The original idea was posted back in 2010, so I had to re-source some of the parts.
Here are some "before" pictures with nothing in the safe so you can see what I started with. It is a Visalia Safe with 30 minute fire and in a custom size to fit in my house.
The company that made his MOLLE door panel no longer lists this product on their website, so I ordered one from Wilde Built Tactical instead in coyote brown. This door panel really needs some more velcro on the back of it as some parts of it sag with all the stuff I've got hanging off it, but other then that the quality is top notch. I have not contacted Wilde with my velcro concern as I'm not really worried about it as it is not coming off the door and the sagging does not bug me.
The lights the original build used were the (now) old style "super bright" LED lights, while now we have the ultra low current LEDs. Basically this change means that instead of the bulky wiring box and AC current used in the original design that I can run my lights from a pack of 8 rechargeable AAs. This also means that I did not have to drill a hole in my firesafe for the power cables as everything is battery powered. I got my lighting kit from LightTechAuto.com when they were selling them at the Cow Palace gun show. I had them build me a custom Y-cable for the power so I can run the power to the door. I also made a custom L bracket for the safe door out of an aluminum 1.5" L bracket cut it to the length of my safe door, then spray painted black. I put some velcro on it to make it stay on the safe door.
The only issue that I had with this lighting kit is that the glue-tape thing they give you for the door switch was wholly insufficient for the job. I instead found some industrial glue that my Wife had laying around (E6000?) and used that instead. That glue smelled bad, but once it dried I no longer have to worry about the light switch moving around when I close the door.
I then got a bunch of MOLLE pouches from Voodoo Tactical and some pistol magazine pouches from TUFF. I have enough pouches to hold 16 double stack mags, 16 single stack mags, 12 of my 10/30 AR mags (with dummy bullets to make them look like 30s) and my Saiga 12 magazines all in the door.
The original project used a pistol rack to hold the handguns, but I wanted to solve the issue of having holsters littered on the floor in addition to having a place to store my handguns. I came across the modular mount system from Blade-tech. Basically how it works is that any blade tech holster (even paddle holsters!) can be run though a connector that allows the belt part of the holster to be removed in a secure way from the gun part of the holster. They make a MOLLE compatible attachment point as well. I was already using blade-tech holsters so I ordered a bunch of modular holsters and waited the 5 weeks for them to arrive.
Now I can mount the handguns on the safe door in their holster and also on my belt. I have a safe place to keep the guns, and the holsters are also kept nice. Adding the holsters to the door is a simple operation, but getting them off is a little bit more work as they are super-tight (probably because they are new). These holster start with just the paddle on the door, then you put the holster on it then slide it down till it clicks.
The biggest issue with all this was jigsaw-puzzling the parts onto the door so that no parts hit the shelves and the door could still close.
After getting it all together it is much better:
It also looks cool in the dark:
After all this I am still waiting on a few more pistol magazine pouches that are on backorder so that the magazines in the box on the shelf can also move to the door.
Overall I think this was a fun (but expensive!) project. I no longer have to rummage through my safe to find stuff, so all of this is work is worth it.
It was insane.
I got some boxes to put the papers in but that really did not help much.
After some googling I came across this on PAFOA and decided to shamelessly copy this idea.
The original idea was posted back in 2010, so I had to re-source some of the parts.
Here are some "before" pictures with nothing in the safe so you can see what I started with. It is a Visalia Safe with 30 minute fire and in a custom size to fit in my house.
The company that made his MOLLE door panel no longer lists this product on their website, so I ordered one from Wilde Built Tactical instead in coyote brown. This door panel really needs some more velcro on the back of it as some parts of it sag with all the stuff I've got hanging off it, but other then that the quality is top notch. I have not contacted Wilde with my velcro concern as I'm not really worried about it as it is not coming off the door and the sagging does not bug me.
The lights the original build used were the (now) old style "super bright" LED lights, while now we have the ultra low current LEDs. Basically this change means that instead of the bulky wiring box and AC current used in the original design that I can run my lights from a pack of 8 rechargeable AAs. This also means that I did not have to drill a hole in my firesafe for the power cables as everything is battery powered. I got my lighting kit from LightTechAuto.com when they were selling them at the Cow Palace gun show. I had them build me a custom Y-cable for the power so I can run the power to the door. I also made a custom L bracket for the safe door out of an aluminum 1.5" L bracket cut it to the length of my safe door, then spray painted black. I put some velcro on it to make it stay on the safe door.
The only issue that I had with this lighting kit is that the glue-tape thing they give you for the door switch was wholly insufficient for the job. I instead found some industrial glue that my Wife had laying around (E6000?) and used that instead. That glue smelled bad, but once it dried I no longer have to worry about the light switch moving around when I close the door.
I then got a bunch of MOLLE pouches from Voodoo Tactical and some pistol magazine pouches from TUFF. I have enough pouches to hold 16 double stack mags, 16 single stack mags, 12 of my 10/30 AR mags (with dummy bullets to make them look like 30s) and my Saiga 12 magazines all in the door.
The original project used a pistol rack to hold the handguns, but I wanted to solve the issue of having holsters littered on the floor in addition to having a place to store my handguns. I came across the modular mount system from Blade-tech. Basically how it works is that any blade tech holster (even paddle holsters!) can be run though a connector that allows the belt part of the holster to be removed in a secure way from the gun part of the holster. They make a MOLLE compatible attachment point as well. I was already using blade-tech holsters so I ordered a bunch of modular holsters and waited the 5 weeks for them to arrive.
Now I can mount the handguns on the safe door in their holster and also on my belt. I have a safe place to keep the guns, and the holsters are also kept nice. Adding the holsters to the door is a simple operation, but getting them off is a little bit more work as they are super-tight (probably because they are new). These holster start with just the paddle on the door, then you put the holster on it then slide it down till it clicks.
The biggest issue with all this was jigsaw-puzzling the parts onto the door so that no parts hit the shelves and the door could still close.
After getting it all together it is much better:
It also looks cool in the dark:
After all this I am still waiting on a few more pistol magazine pouches that are on backorder so that the magazines in the box on the shelf can also move to the door.
Overall I think this was a fun (but expensive!) project. I no longer have to rummage through my safe to find stuff, so all of this is work is worth it.
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