Hey Guys ~ I would really appreciate some tips and suggestions on installing seat belts in my '34 Ford five-window coupe. It is a purely traditional street car (I'm not setting it up to race). It has solid floors, but don't know if they are strong enough by themselves, whether they are okay if reinforced some way (and if so, how), or whether they should be anchored to the frame some how (and if so, how). Thanks for your help. ~Glenn
Guys first post, he just recently joined. I wouldn't suggest attaching your seat belts to the frame, if you were to have a accident the frame wouldn't absorb any of the impact, I would recommend finding some large washers or cut some pieces of plate to attach the seat belts to the floor. HRP
I agree, never attach to a frame. The body would move before the frame during a collision. Cutting you in half. Large washers or a hat-section attached to the stiffest part of a floorboard.
Lots of seat belt vendors also sell an installation kit that includes big rectangle stiffeners for under the floor. They would make the job much easier. For the coupe I might suggest mounting the two middle belts between the seats to the same bracket.
I use big hardened washers under the floor, they are domes slightly with a stamped reinforcement, but if you are worried you can attached a steel cable to the underside like the gen II Vette used. This cable connected to the inside belt bolts and looped through a cross-member mount. I'd do this or similar in a fiberglass car.
maybe its been a work in progress for while.. ready for belts and a drive.. I but some nice stuff from Autoloc awhile back to mount belts.. had plates and hardware, worked great
How about mounting them to the seats like late model cars do? Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Just because you do not intend to go racing doesn't mean a seat belt installation should not be up to sanctioned racing specifications. The best place to get information on proper installation would be a forum where there are engineers and fabricators of race cars. You are getting a lot of bad information here.
Whatever method you choose, be it large heavy duty washers or a heavy plate that you mount to, use the fine thread bolts, they are stronger than the course thread stuff you get at places like Home Depot or Tractor Supply.
Juliano's seat belt anchors. Properly engineered. Have used them in about 10 cars. Just drill a hole in the floor at the proper place so the anchor is behind your waist. https://www.julianos.com/Juliano-s-Anchor-Plate-Kit-for-Lap-Belt-p/ju010600.htm Warren
Exactly. If the body separated from the frame(say a hard enough hit at the right angle) always plan for the worse,. You are screwed !!!!
I didn't use it on my 34. I have thick steel floors and a reinforcement to bolt through. I was just commenting that if the floor is made from glass and no brace is nearby...this is how GM did it for many years on their plastic cars. The outer was bolted directly into the frame rails. A lot of worry on here about the body coming loose from the frame in a collision, makes me worry more about the builds than the belts.
Agreed with the wrong info here. No way should you ever attach your body ci a seat belt to the frame. That is why in circle track race cars seat and belts are attached to the roll cage. If you got t boned and the cage tore off from the weld either by force or crappy welds , you move with cage. If mounted to frame or crossmember you you would be lucky to die. Major internal damage isn't going to make life any fun.
No! No! No! If the seat brakes loose from the floor in an impact it is just like not wearing a seat belt only with the extra weight of the seat mounted to your back. I am shocked the automakers are allowed to do that. I don't know any racing bodies that allow the belts to be mounted to the seat for this reason.
The seats and belts are designed for this, to handle the expected load. You can’t just attach belts to any random seat. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
First and foremost you would want to rest assured that the car body is securely attached to the frame. I attached my 34 Ford P/U cab to the frame with eight grade 8 flanged bolts with the nuts welded under the top edge of the frame which was fully boxed I would not feel secure with seat belt bolts attached to 14 gauge steel flooring even with big washers but would prefer welding in a 6"X6" steel plate under the floor and then use the thick washers.
I would like to benefit from the automakers experience since they use crash test dummies which I Don't have. Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Those are great. I would suggest going 3-point for the added safety, it can be done. On my Ford, I had some huge and thick front end washers from my old lower control arms, used these under the floor. My kit came from Wesco and they have a nice B or C pillar mounting plate for the 3rd point.
Well look how these old bodies were attached from the factory design. Not quite as strong of a design as cars that came with seat belts from the factory.
You have too build safety in as a priority. If you don't cover worse case scenario then Murphy's law and the saying, " don't write a check that your ass can't cash" is always lurking.
Australia's strict requirements for seat belt to floor attachments requires steel plates 3mm (1/8") thick with a minimum 3750 sq mm (~6 sq inches) with 7/16" UNF bolts. Each belt end requires one of these plates, no ganging up is allowed.
Good Info Bro, you peeps down under seem under the government thumb at every turn. Talk about regulated ....WOW
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