The Seat Belts Are No Snap!
Mar. 18-28, 2007
 Penny with her new seat belts. |
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Some details (left-to-right):
selected anchor points on B-pillar;
two pairs of anchor plates are fabricated (one pair of upper and lower plates are shown after
brazing on nut);
upper anchor point plate after installation (hand held reference plate is incorrectly positioned
for correct installation);
lower anchor point plate after installation; after the
trim panels and new belt retractor is installed;
short belts with locks in center of bench seat.
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To improve the safety of passengers in Penny, Lynn decides that three-point safety belts are needed. Not surprisingly the installation turns out to be more effort than Lynn expects. (Everything seems to take Lynn more effort than he expects.) The problem is creating suitable anchor points for the belts.
Lynn acquires the belts and mounting hardware from SeatBeltPros.com. To install the belts, four anchor points need to be established in the car for each belt. The hardest part was creating the two anchor points on the B-pillar of the car.
Lynn creates the B-pillar anchor points by fabricating mounting plates that have a suitable nut brazed to the back side. These plates are then bolted to the back side of the sheet metal of the B-pillar to form two of the four anchor points needed for the belts. These plates will distribute the load from the belts over a wider area of the sheet metal that Lynn finds in the B-pillar. However, Lynn remains concerned that the seat belts will distort the B-pillar in an relatively minor accident.
The other two anchor points of the belts are made on the bench seat. Replacing the existing bolt that attaches the two seat backs to the center of the seat base with a longer bolt provides an anchor point for the short belt with the release button. A 90° angle bracket is bolted to the outboard side of the seat base to form the final anchor point.
Lynn is generally pleased with the resulting installation, with three exceptions. The inertial reels of the SeatBeltPros.com belts are "touchy" and it requires work to tease out enough slack to buckle up. This is a minor annoyance. The return policy of SeatBeltPros.com does not allow for returns once installation is attempted. If Lynn had it to do again, he'd buy his belts from another vendor hoping for a smoother operation of the reels.
(Lynn installed SeatBeltPros.com belts in another one of his cars and the "touchy" behavior of the reels has not improved with use. Instead, the user gets better trained and learns that with a slow, steady pull one can get enough slack after 3 or 4 hits.)
The second issue involves the short section of belt with the lock. Lynn did not install the stiff plastic outer cover (sheath) for this part so that the belts could be easily "tucked" inside the seat. This allows Lynn to hide the belts when the doors are closed. This can be desirable at car shows, for example. The drawback is that its harder to buckle the belts for use. Connecting the belts takes two hands, or a fancy maneuver with one hand. This is a second minor annoyance that can be rectified with installation of the sheaths.
Lynn's biggest concern is that it's likely that his anchor points are only moderately strong and that the strain from even a minor accident might distort the B-pillar. Lynn rationalizes that it's more important to protect the occupants than the car, but he is concerned that the belts may unduly damage the roof of the car.
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with your comments or questionsCopyright © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Lynn Kissel
Last updated: May 24, 2009