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willows40

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Looking for opinions on mounting of seat belts to an early Herald coupe. Being an early car doesn't have to have seatbelts fitted and previously they were bolted through the floor and rear inner wheel arch. Very much like a Herald convertible.
I'm thinking of fitting interia belts this time round, what is the opinion if the top of the B post is suitable as top mount? Also thinking about making some brackets to bolt the base at the bottom of the B post/rear seat panel, then the final fitting at usual Herald place at side of floor.
The middle mount, I'm thinking off bolting both sides to one mount at middle of tunnel.
I know about the need for spreader plate etc
What do people think? Or any better ideas
Cheers Andy

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Andy,
Have you examined the B-post?
It's a 3 sided pressing, fixed top and bottom by two screws at each end.    About as much impact strength as the proverbial wet paper bag.   And as it holds up the middle of the roof edge, placing an anchor there would be as weak.

The other points you mention are fine, well chosen and well used.

Aftermarket anchors come as nuts welded to small - too small - plates.     I don't imagine that you intend to race your car, but the Safety Regulations of the Motor Sports Association are probably the best resource for anyone modifying a car in respect of safety matters.   They insist that counterplates should have an area of at least 40 square cms.     And they are best if they are welded to the body panels.
They also deal with the other reason for not using an anchor point high above the user's shoulder.  The shoulder belt should run no more than 10 degrees above or below horizontal and 20 degrees from directly behind.   See the diagram.

Good luck!
John

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Hi John
Thanks for info. Think you might be getting confused, not talking about a saloon but a coupe. The top of the B post is the corner of the tub not the little bit that holds the window in on a saloon. I can put extra strength in if needed as have to rebuild the B post at bottom anyhow

Cheers Andy

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  • 1 month later...

I face a similar issue with my 59 coupe my wife is insistent that I should fit seat belts but the upper anchor point for lap and sash belts is problematic even with a coupe mainly because I don't want to wreck the head lining to weld in an anchor point so I'm thinking of just fitting lap belts which would be a step up from nothing but not as intrusive into the structure of the car. Keep in mind that these cars are hardly designed to be "crash worthy' like a modern car anyway and this old bloke will not be driving like a maniac either. So what do you guys think of just putting lap belts in the front?    

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Lap belts would be all I would fit to your 59 coupe.
The car is not designed for 3 point belts and in an accident you could be a lot worse off.
Here in NZ if you fit seat belts to a car that wasnt designed to have them and you get found out by the WOF/certification people you are opening a very large can of worms.

Adrian

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Yeah what you say about the lack of designed in seat belts makes sense to me I have previously built a Locost Clubman and the design requirements for seat belt anchorages are a bit more than just putting big washers on the inside of sheet metal. Personally I would be happy to leave her just as she came out form the factory without seat belts but my beautiful wife is very insistent that I fit them if I am going to carry either of our children in the car.

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My coupe is undergoing some serious welding at moment, so have been able to add a lot of extra steel and bracing to give a decent top mount for the seat belt. I'm not a fan of lap belts so wouldn't go that route myself but better than nothing

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I ran my Herald 1200 saloon for many years with inertia belts.  The inertia unit was mounted at the base of the B pillar on a floor bracket (with a big re-enforcement plate plate under the floor) with the upper mounting point/slide on the  B pillar just below the roof attachment bolt.  This was just a hole drilled through the rather thin panel, but I welded the nut to the biggest spreader plate I could fit in there (ISTR it was a pretty odd shape).  It worked ok and in fact the car came with to me with static 3 point belts which had their upper connection point on the same panel but about a 12" further back.  The two (reasonably minor) issues with it were (i)that the gap between the inertia reel unit and the upper slide was about a foot shorter than than the reel designer had planned for so it was always a bit reluctant to fully retract (ii) the low upper mount made the belt pull on the shoulder a bit.  My Vitesse, with inertia reel units mounted on the rear wheel tubs does that too.

Nick

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