seat belts placement???????

[Daveyboy]

Ok it is time to put seat belts in the coupe.  I have a glide seat.
Some have told me to bolt the belts to the seat frame ?
or should i bolt it in the steel of the body? The frame is bolted to the steel in the body now the frame is big but i am just asking?

[38HAULR]

Dunno about in the US.Here in OZ we have to use the floor,and fit appropriate spreader plates under the floor  at the anchorage point.These plates also have the edge against the floor champhered to prevent punching a square hole and ripping out of the floor in a collision.  There are also dimensional rules . ie spacing apart of the floor mounting points,and also the upper mount for  shoulder sash with relation to the seat base. Measurement here uses a 600mm disc  on the seatbase at the rear where it meets the back rest.  The centre of the disc to the upper pillar mount has a spec  distance also .  If you tour the wreckers and look at factory installs,they should be dimensionally all in the same ballpark,at least here they are.........Frank.

[chimp koose]

I think that if the body is bolted to the frame you should bolt the belts to the floor,not the frame. If a collision was to break the body mounts ,then frame mounted belts would allow the body movement to possibly crush passengers.If your coupe is fiberglass then look at how the belts are installed in a Vette.

[enjenjo]

A lot of the new cars are bolting the seat belt to the seat frame. But I also notice that the seat mounting bolts are bigger than they used to be too, on the order of 12mm.

[Daveyboy]

Glide says just mount the belts to the seat frame.
With 3/8 grade 8 bolts and i am good.
Sound right to you?

[enjenjo]

Who am I to argue with Glide?

[C9]

Most seat belts come with 7/16" bolts for the floor mounting points.


There's been a lot of argument about whether to bolt to floor or frame.

If you're gonna use the floor for a seat belt mount better make sure the body is well mounted.
More than a few T-buckets are running the streets with four body mounts.

Recently one of the hot rod sites posted some pics of a T-bucket involved in a wreck and the body came off.

I note as well that SCTA and NHRA require the floor belts be bolted to the frame of the race car.

As far as using modern - and stock - seats with their built in seat belts I'd make sure to have the seat well bolted to the frame and in the case of the middle two belts like in the pic, I'd run a metal strap to the floor or frame and tie it to the seat belt area proper.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

on occasion I have wondered about the  late model GM trucks with seat belt shoulder attachments at the top of the seat back , not to the body structure.