Seat Belts - 46 Merc Woodie

C

Carlsoncg

Junior Member
First of all drilling 51 flywheel to accept 38-48 clutch pressure plate and disc worked! No more rattle! Thanks again to all who helped.
I want to install seat belts. Any recommendation re best place to drill/attach belt anchor points? Thanks.
 
I have bought all of my seat belts from a company called "Seat Belts Plus". Prices are very reasonable and the have a large selection.
 
Thanks guys. I will checkout the links and the seat belt supplier. I was hoping someone had installed them on an X frame like mine.
 
Carl: The 1940 Ford and other "X" frame cars can have seat belts installed. As you may know, seat belts are not fastened to the frame or frame rails so I would think that your 1946 "x" frame is not a deterent.
 
I installed lap seat belts in my '46 Super Deluxe coupe, with two sets in the front and two sets in the rear. I considered three point units in the front, but that meant messing with the B pillar finishing and cutting/welding to mount the shoulder strap attachment points. I bought my parts from Seat Belts Plus, and fabricated 1/8"x3"x3" reinforcing plates for the floor attachment locations.
 

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This post is somewhat dated but thought this might help. In my '47 coupe the lap belts were installed thru the floor using reinforcing plates. Lacking a frame member, anchoring a shoulder belt to the car body is more involved. In the coupe (and probably a sedan) as part of the car body, there is the molded-in vertical frame around the front door. Removing the interior upholstery piece at shoulder height on the rear side of the front door exposes it. Running vertically along side the door frame with about 3/8 inch clearance is the molded-in frame for the rear window (or probably door in a sedan). At the bottom of that vertical gap I slightly widened the gap enough to insert a 5/16" bolt head with HD thick washer and slide it up thru the gap to a point just above shoulder height. I "tacked" the bolt there with a shot of hot glue, reinstalled the vertical upholstery piece and attached the shoulder belt fitting onto the bolt.
 
Thanks guys. My only experience w seat belts installation is on a 180 A Model A and they are certainly installed to the frame on the outsides and added angle iron in the middle. I thought the same might be the same for an X frame. Attaching seat belts to the floor pan seems inadequate, but perhaps does the trick . Thanks for your replies and photos.
 
Many of the seat belt suppliers also sell the mounting kits. Those large washers in the mounting kits are more than adequate to anchor the belts to the floor.
 
I believe seat belts work best when the vehicle impacts a front end object and somewhat less with a lateral (sideways) impact. They obviously are far less effective when the vehicle experiences a rear end impact but in either case, barring a fire, the benefit is they at least keep you in the vehicle. Anchoring seat belts to the floor pan can be adequate if large pieces of 1/8" to 1/4" thick "washers" are used; say 4 x4 or 6 x 6. As well, and as mentioned, one can use a steel angle fitted between the nearest frame members.
 
Thanks everyone. Seat belts are on the list after I find out why my left head light is getting no power, sealed beam is good. Maybe I’ve lost ground there…
 
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