The seatbelts
in our convertible 'Bessie' were of the old 'hook-and-magnet'
type, and I HATE them! You just need to move your elbow and your
jacket flicks the catch open. And if the belt is a little bit
loose you don't even notice as it falls off. Not a Good Thing
in an accident! So, we had Alan Hill, from Over
the Hill Motor Company, fit some inertia-reel seatbelts front
and rear.
Morris
Minors were never actually designed to have seatbelts fitted
- they didn't become required by law in the UK until 1967 (it
was then back-dated to 1965). Morris did begin providing bolt
holes in the right places as an after-thought but seatbelts
were a dealer-fitted 'perk' - the dealers got to choose what
type and quality they wanted to fit. That's why you'll find
any number of different types of belts in Minors.
Remove
your old seat belts and store them in a box for that 'one day'
in the future when you plan on doing a full restoration of your
Minor (yeah, like that will REALLY happen!).
Inertia-reel
seatbelts are usually mounted on the floor and bolted into the
sill using the 'standard' seatbelt bolt holes. This is all very
well but can a reel pain :) for passengers climbing into the
back seat. The latest inertia-reel units are now quite compact
and so, on the 2-door Minors, they can be fitted up on the chassis
rail behind the door pillar instead of down on the floor. It's
a little trickier to fit them here because you have to remove
the interior side panel and, using the tips of your fingers,
hold the washer and nut for the mounting bolt down inside the
sill rails whilst you screw the bolt in. Use a spanner to hold
the nut as you tighten the bolt.
Don't drop the nut or spanner becuase you'll never get it back
if you do!
The
strength of the steel at this point is not a problem because
it's where two parts of the sill come up and join together,
so it's double thickness and is of fairly short length.
You
may find that the pivot point for the belt on the window sill
is a bit too far back
or you may want to move it forward so that the brlt doesn't
touch the edge of the rear seat. 'Bessie' has an 'L'-shaped
bracket which is bolted to the underside of the window sill
which could easily be repositioned without leaving unsightly
holes. Other cars have the bolt going straight into the side
of the window sill leaving holes that will have to be filled.
Bolt
the socket portion of the seat belt to the floor either side
of the driveshaft tunnel using an oblong plate underneath to
help spread the load. Just make sure that when you drill the
holes that there's no brake lines or wiring in the way on the
other side!
The
rear belts are easy to fit. Remove the rear seat and drill holes
near the centre of the car for the lower belt mounts, again
checking for wiring and brake lines on the other side. Do the
same for the short socket portion of the belt at the side of
the floor. Mount the inertia-reels in the centre of the parcel
shelf. If the laws in your country are particularly strict you
may have to mount the reels on the rear wheel arch in the boot
and cut a slot in the rear shelf for the belt to pass through.
If you do this then make sure that the slot doesn't have any
sharp edges - a modern car may be able to supply a plastic hole
that you can use. Let me know if you find something useful!
With
luck and a bit of planning you should be able to do something
like Bessie.
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