Vixen Seatbelts

[Astacus]

At some point in the next year(!) I will have to consider how to add seatbelts to my Series One. The originals were non inertia reel items. The clip end appears to have been attached, via a shackle, to a bar welded into the chassis next to the tunnel. The rest I am not sure. One end probably was attached similarly to a bar welded to the out rigger, but the third point, no idea.

I am not planning on replicating this arrangement and was thinking of fitting an inertia reel belt.

Does anyone have any experience of upgrading seatbelt mounts they could share?

One possibility could be a roll bar, with a seat belt mounting.......

Edited to add photo of original seatbelt mountings

Edited by Astacus on Sunday 21st October 23:22

[ATE399J]

Mine are fitted to the top of the wheel arch with a steel spreader plate beneath. I thought it would be useless but having had the car stopped by an immoveable object (many years ago) I had the bruises (shoulder and both hips) that proved that it WAS strong enough!

Phil.

[Moto]

On my S3 I fitted a set of Kangol statics, as per original fit. Fixings are through the fibreglass floor and wheel arches with 2" washers used to spread the load (round used under floor and square in wheel arch). This was how the original belts had been fitted and it looked from the state of them as if they were probably original. Unfortunately they had used steel washers which had rusted to such an extent they fell apart when removed so probably wouldn't have stopped the bolt pulling through. For the replacements I used stainless steel.

Like the previous poster I don't think in an accident it's likely that the 2" washer could break through but hopefully I'll never find out. My bigger concern is the single bolt that holds the spare wheel to rear floor would fail much earlier and that 20kg of spare wheel hitting the back of my head at 50mph would give me more than a head ache!

[Astacus]

Thanks all, that gives me some ideas.

I was considering 2 small plates welded to the chassis, one on the outrigger and one ont the lower tunnel tube, with captive bolts to take the floor mountings for the belt and clip. How to mount the reel/over shoulder belt is an issue. I am interested tO hear that "crash test data" supports the idea of using a spreader plate of some kind!

[S1Vixen]

Hello Group,

My attachment points for the lap belt are through the glass fibre floor and crucially also through the chassis plates on which the body sits.

For the shoulder point, the plan is also to attach to the wheel arch but I will add a bracket to the damper top mount so the wheel arch is sandwiched but does not bear any load.

Steve

[daza]

Motor, my understanding was that stainless is softer is softer than steel.....


D

[Moto]

daza said:

Motor, my understanding was that stainless is softer is softer than steel.....


D

Darren, I thought stainless was harder although it is comparatively brittle, but I'm no metalagist. The reason I used it was so that it did not deteriorate as the steel had done.

[daza]

Galvanize

D