Adding seat belts to a uni-body old car

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I need to add seat belts to the old  1961  Dodge Lancer.  It was never built with mounts for seat belts.

From what I read ... plates at least 4x4 inches 1/8 inch thick would be added under the floor of the car.

Suggestions?

:?

[enjenjo]

I usually make them myself. I cut the plates, round the corners, and bend the edges down a bit so in an accident they won't just shear through the floor. I weld a 7/16" nut behind the plate to hold the seatbelt bolt, and rivet, or weld them to the floor so one person can install the seat belt from the top.

[C9]

Take a look under the floor, there may be factory installed threaded bungs in the floor and ready to go.

Found that to be true with my 62 Ford wagon and I think the 61 Ford hardtop had them as well.

That was about the time period when seat belts were mandated by the gov't to be available at the dealer level.
The factory threaded bungs sure made life easy.

Little brother had a 62 Plymouth 2 door post with belts in it and I'm not sure if he had to drill or not.

Even today, most aftermarket lap belts for passenger car street use come with a big washer.

[phat rat]

I'm with Frank on the way to do it. A big washer isn't enough IMHO

[sirstude]

I built a hammerform to build my seatbelt reenforcement.  It is about 4 inches long by 2.5 wide.  When you hammer the edges around it, they end up like the older factory stuff, that is pretty stiff.  I will take a picture this weekend of the form and post it.

Doug

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I've been under this 1961  car many times... no factory seat belt spots in the Dodge..

My 1962 Falcon had the bolt hole spots

[The Paisano]

Tony just make sure you use grade 8 bolts,nuts, and washers.
techtnicly this stuff nees to be able to withstand a lot of psi's on impact which I hope never happens.The channel steel you plan to install under the floor boards should be ok,just make sure you tie them into the strongest part of the floor boards.also,installing used belts might not be too good of an idea.they can be worn out or been sitting in the junk yard a long time.You never know if they were on when the reason the car ended in the junk yard to begin with.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

hi,

what I have decided to use for metal under the floor is some 2 x 3 tube I have.  It is heavy wall .  

I will cut a piece 3.5 inches long.. then split it with my plasma cutter on the 2 inch wide side.  So I then have two flat pieces with rolled up edges and corners.

[enjenjo]

That should work.

[38HAULR]

In "OZ"   The requirement is a 75x50mm    3mm thick plate, with the edges on the floor face to be bevelled ,so as to avoid "punching' the floor ,should collision occur...........Frank.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

here is the design of metal I will use... 2x3 tube split.  Each end is beveled to match the sides.

[38HAULR]

3x2 in the old imperial measurement looks close to 75x50mm in my book,took some of us "older folk" a while to adapt to this metric stuff,even though we went metric in the mid 70,s          Frank.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

the view of welded on nutz

[enjenjo]

That looks good from here.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

That looks good from here.

btw... I used 1/2 inch nutz on the plates..