Fasten your Seat Belts!

Chris in WNC

Chris in WNC

Well-known member
I'm honoring RichardW's wishes that his thread about today's tragically fatal collision not become a seat belt rant.

but echoing Fred Carlton's FaceBook post earlier today, PLEASE put seat belts in your old cars and use them!

every antique car I have driven has had seat belts, I would feel naked without them. we bought a nice restored S/W Town Sedan in November of 2009. I refrained from driving it until February of 2010, because it took that long to engineer a satisfactory seat belt installation that would not bugger up the beautiful upholstery too much.
 
Chris in WNC said:
I'm honoring RichardW's wishes that his thread about today's tragically fatal collision not become a seat belt rant.

but echoing Fred Carlton's FaceBook post earlier today, PLEASE put seat belts in your old cars and use them!

every antique car I have driven has had seat belts, I would feel naked without them. we bought a nice restored S/W Town Sedan in November of 2009. I refrained from driving it until February of 2010, because it took that long to engineer a satisfactory seat belt installation that would not bugger up the beautiful upholstery too much.
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Chris,

Maybe that is something you can share with MARC and MAFCA on how to put seatbelts in your car!

I agree with you Chris.

Pluck
 
Hi Chris! I own and drive a 1930 Deluxe Fordor and would be very interested in your seatbelt installation. I plan on installing seat belts in my Fordor this winter and would appreciate any information you can give.
Thanks,

Evan
 
Les Andrews' Vol II has a chapter on installing seat belts. There have been a number of threads on the forum about installing them, including shoulder belts. I installed belts in my roadster. My Town Sedan had them when I bought it. I would not be without them, although I really hope I never need them.
 
Install seat belts and replace all plate glass with tempered glass. These things just make good sense.
 
700rpm said:
replace all plate glass with tempered glass.
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That is something I'd be interested in doing.

Any suggestions who what and where this can be done? I'll make local calls myself and see what they say. I would think it could cost bigtime though.
 
FWIW:

1. Appears that there are many concerns about attaching seat belts to known, inadequate Model A light gauge metal floor pans & light gauge metal.

2. Then the subject of attaching seat belts to the heavier steel on the Model A chassis is discussed often with safety concerns that the body "may" leave the chassis in an accident.

3. One thought may be to consider strengthening & reinforcing the bolted connections between the body & the chassis, possibly behind the front seat, & behind the rear of a Fodor or similar location for Coupes etc., to better hold the body on the chassis.

4. After achieving stronger, structurally reinforced bolted body/chassis connections, one may feel safer with seat belts securely attached to heavier steel which in turn is securely bolted & connected to the chassis.

5. Because of the liability involved, it is most doubtful that any single, duly registered professional structural designer or structural engineer, (with or without professional engineer liability insurance), will ever publish an article on how to install seat belts in a vintage vehicle that never was designed to incorporate seat belts.

6. There are several internet articles showing minimum requirements for angles of seat belts & minimum seat belt attachment bolt sizes if one is interested.

Just hope this can help one to consider several seat belt attachment design possibilities.
 
Hi guys,

The tragic accident remind us to the level of risk we are taking into consideration driving a historic vehicle. To get rid of regular glass should be priority number one, unfortunately it is pretty difficult to find. Considering the close space of the cabin, head injuries are most likely to expect, with or without seat belts. To keep bodies inside the vehicle during heavy impact is another story, if the belts cannot be fixed properly, they won't increase safety and keeping a Ford A original AND safe will not work.

I think, we should be very careful choosing the right route, right weather conditions and time of the day driving our A's and at the end of the day we need God's protection.

By the way, from own experience at Rallye Sports the 6-point belts would be the only "safe" solution paired with a special steel frame behind the seats...

Greetings
Albert
 
I drive my Model A with the same seat belts it came with....(they are the same kind that are on my motorcycle.)

For the record, I am a firm believer and advocate for belts and, with the exception of the above two vehicles, will never drive without them. But for these two vehicles I have to substitute defensive driving skills and situational awareness.

Why would I not installing seat belts in my Model A? It's a sad statement to make, but ...... it's lawyers that are stopping me from installing them on my A.

And... if I were to decide to install belts...I would make darn sure I removed them, and return the car to original, if I sold the car so that I did not continue to be liable party for them.
 
31 Model A said:
That is something I'd be interested in doing.

Any suggestions who what and where this can be done? I'll make local calls myself and see what they say. I would think it could cost bigtime though.
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It cost me about $225 from a local guy two years ago for all the glass in my Tudor except the windshield (which was already safety glass). You can order glass from many of the parts suppliers. Bratton's has coupe glass for about $500.
 
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