I did some searching around but haven't found any good threads on installs. Im thinking about buying a 54 Ford Customline from my dad but since I have a 5 and a 3 year old I want seat belts. So Could some one help me out with a good way to retro fit the car with atleast lap belts front and rear? Thanks for the help.
speedway selles a kit. The big thing is not to use grade 8 bolts(use grade 5), I guess you want the bolts to bend in a crash. I have a lap belt for me but a 5 point for the kids when they ride in my roadster.
Good tip. How about the floor? Is just drilling a hole and putting washers on either side ok? Or does additional plating need to be done to help in the event of an accident? Just don't want the bolts to pull through the floor incase something were to happen.
Julianos sells a nice plate that goes under the floor comes with the bolts and all. I just got a bunch of them for my 51 that I'll be installing belts in. -Pat
Wow, I did not know that about using Grade 5 instead of Grade 8. Ida thunk more is better, and I'm days from putting belts in my coupe. Thanks, JMP!
I like to make the foot print as big as possible when mounting seat belts. I use a 2"x1/4'x the width I want the belts mounted. I drill the plate and weld nuts for the belt bolts, two more 1/8" inch threaded holes and mount the plate under the car. The mounting plate stays in place, this makes for easy on and off mounting of the belts without ever going under the car again. I think ,this works better then to large washer's. CRUISER
where did you hear this? grade 5 bending is better than a grade 8? i don't believe it! i just try to imagine the force on your waist/lap to effect either one. i don't know for sure but i have never stripped, either the head or threads of a seat belt bolt, even when really rusty. i have always thought they were grade 8.
I got all the belts, brackets, bolts, backing plates, et cetera from a place called Planet Seatbelt - good quality stuff and cost less than Juliano's. They had lots of information on installation, and when I ordered them, the guy walked me through each one to make sure I was ordering the right stuff. https://www.seatbeltplanet.com/
Hi ,i retro fit belts to vans in New Zealand and we have very strict regs on the placement and fittings.Doubler plates for anchorages with a min of 3000 square mm and 3 mm thick. Spacings play a big part too,for an adult you will need a min of 350mm and max of 500mm,less and this can crush the belt wearer and wider have to much leverage and fail. The optimim angle is from hip point to floor hieght x 17% to 100% of that hieght behind the hip point, and thats just the lap belt and yes 7/16 UNF grade 5 bolts. JW