Technical Whose seat belts do you use? Why?

I now have Clarence back in my possession and need to install seat belts. There are a lot of companies out there manufacturing aftermarket seat belts. Juliano's is probably the best known Maybe they are the best and maybe they aren't.

• What brand is your favorite?
• Why?
• Retractable or nonretractable?
• Where did you get them?

 

I use Julianos. Nice belts, lots of colors.

 

depends on the car. When I go fast, I have Simpson, less than two years old (per NHRA rules)

everything else, I take my chances....

 

RJS, Simpson expired belts. Only 2 years old and generally like new condition.

 

Simpson in both my roadster and my Nova.

 

I should have mentioned that this is a cruiser and not a go-fast racer. Competition belts not required.

 

this picture reminds me that racing seat belts are the very last part you should buy...they go stale so fast!

 

That roll bar going to pass tech? The crossbar is supposed to be level or not more than 4" below your shoulders. The door bars are supposed to pass midway between your shoulder and elbow.

 

Dated belts and roll bar will pass tech anywhere the groceries are procured.
Oh yeh, tire dates have never been a concern of mine either!

 

Mark,

You're absolutely correct. That said, however, yesterday when I drove Clarence to the tire shop with no belts I felt really naked. Before the rebuild I had belts in Clarence for the last 30 years. This was the first ride, other than on and off trailers, since the rebuild. I'm going to install lap belts.

There was a (probably false) sense of security with the old belts. The floor was so rotten that in an accident the belts would probably have pulled the bolts right through the floor even with the HUGE and THICK washers under the floor.

New floors; new seats; will have new belts. b-t-w; I pulled the previous belts from the same car that I pulled the previous seats from.

 

My roadster belts had to be tan, Julianos had tons of colors chose from and sent me swatches before hand.

My PU was easier, just black belts but same type belts and the same width. I don't care for the 3" belts in non race cars.

To be honest I don't use 'em much. I should but I don't. My wife uses them every time she gets in though and that is why they are there.

 

Since my hotrods are built in the 60's style Gassers I use race harnesses, or at least race lap belts.

 

I used Crow. Like the purple color.

 

Yeah, not so much !
The first thing most tech guys do is look at the belt date.
Tracks "sometimes"...let you run THAT day, but you won't get to run next weekend without new belts at most tracks.

Street driving...that's on you.
Dale Earnhardt remembered.

Mike

 

Thanx. I had never heard of Crow so I Googled them. Most of their stuff is competition but they do have some street type belts.

b-t-w; I looked at Summit and Jegs. Theirs are almost all competition style and black.

b-t-w (again): here's where they are going:

 

I use Julianos. I've used other brands and was not satisfied with the holding of the belt under tension. I purchased his universal retractors and am not satisfied with them. I think buying a complete unit is better.

 

C1 Corvettes came from the factory with provisions for belts, and were installed by the dealer...beats getting impaled by that non-collapsing, rigid steering column.

Out dated, but NOS race belts are just fine for my heap:

 

Must I be the first to say it....Seat belts are not traditional..
But like mentioned, I feel naked without one. I still have not put one in my 32 coupe but I intend to. I bought a set but don't recall who made them. I like the lift up buckle the best.

 

Traditional is good but when it comes to safety such as seat belts, tires and other safety equipment it’s foolish not to include them in you vehicle.

 

After a pretty long search and missing out on a few different sets of belts, I found a neat set of NOS 1960s lap belts (still in their packages) that were for upgrading vehicles without belts.

 

I have always liked that latch-link style buckle, but they don't meet vehicle safety standards. Interesting that they're okay for drag racing but not highway use. I use the lift-latch ones. They work well for me.

 

Not using a seat belt is something like not wearing underwear. You don't see the benefit every day, but on the day you do, you'll be happy you had it.

Here in Alberta, the rule is if the car didn't come with factory-installed seat belts it doesn't have to have them. If it does have them installed, you have to use them. My 62 Bel Air had the spot to install them, but they were an option. Mine had them added in the 60's, and they decided to drill a hole in the floor, right beside the factory mounting location...

 

I have Juliano’s in my roadster. I will soon purchase ones for the coupe I’m working on. Not using seat belts is just plain foolish. The aviation latch ones look good in traditional hot rods.

 

I got a whole pile of aircraft buckle looking ones from Holley's garage sale last year for like $4 each, I think they were marked as Scott Drake brand. They're very period looking and seem like quality, my only gripe being they're kinda short. I put a set in my dad's 65 GMC truck and I had to make little extended floor brackets to get a comfortable length.

I have two pairs of aircraft buckle belts in my '57, one across the lap and one that makes a shoulder harness. I'd really like to find a retractable, 3 point belt that isn't obviously modern looking. Haven't found the right ones yet but if anyone knows of some good looking 3 point retractors, please let me know.

Seat belts were around in the 1940's already, the right ones are absolutely period-correct. Volvo had 3 pointers as early as 1959. I am hoping to find something that looks like it was from that era, or maybe just a bit later, but that doesn't require two separate buckles.

 

Pretty sure that in even a fairly minor accident the possibility that the doors of my truck would fly open is very high. Since I would prefer to stay inside the cab I used Julianos's belts. They come in many colors and appear to be high quality. If you install belts fasten them to something substantial or they may not do any good if you need them.

 

My guess is the average automobile consumer wouldn't have a clue how to do up a latch-link belt.

 

I just bought a set of lap belts from Summit. I'm not very impressed with them. They are the retractable lap belts. One doesn't work. It wouldn't pull out, and once I got it to pull out, I found out the it was assembled at the factory, (I'm sure it's Chinese made crap), without the spring that makes it retract. I wish I had looked into it further before I bought these. It was a spur of the moment purchase. I would look at Julianos's belts. I might end up buying a set from him.

 

Option in 56 Fords and they ran out of them. I had them in 1960 in my 49 pickup because the door might fly open over rail road tracks…traditional enough for me!