Seat Belts

[Bill Hursh]

Hi all,

Its time for my not yet named car to recieve seat belts. I have a set from the chevette donor car, but Iam not impressed. I am concerned about the lenth of them as well as mounting position.Has anyone used the belts that MG Magic offers? They mount to same bolts that hold the seat in according to salesman.

Thanks, Bill Hursh

[Mark Hendrickson]

My BCW Chevette based kit uses the Chevette belts. They are mounted though the floor and anchor directly to the frame. The outboard belts mount to a 1/2″ nut welded to the frame rail. The inboard belt mounts to a steel bracket also welded to the frame. 

When you mount your belts, whatever you use, be sure to mount them to the frame NOT THE SHEETMETAL FLOOR. If you do mount them to the sheetmetal use huge fender washers (2″ O.D. or larger) on both sides of the mounting bolt.

Also, do not cut and re-sew the belts to shorten them. That is what killed Dale Earnhardt. It is better to use one of those adjustable, buckle style anchors.

The grim reality of these MGTD kit cars is, that even with the best belts, if you get hit or hit something, you are in big trouble. They are really only 4 wheeled motorcycles with an MGTD shaped body faring.

In the future, I plane to mount a roll bar in the Pink MG and add shoulder belts to a cross-bar between the roll bar upright tubes. I’ll replace the current Chevette lap belts with a 4 point system. 

[Dan & Marti Motley]

I concur, Bill. The seat belts may to let you comply with your state’s seat belt law, but in an accident they’re not likely to help you a bit due to the car’s lack of stuctural strength & integrity. Also, I concur to bolt them to the frame or any kind of cross membering you can find. If you do cut & sew to make them shorter, you absolutely MUST use heavy nylon thread, cross-stitched like you see them made. And, I don’t encourage shortening them either. I agree on using the large washers. I’ve seen fellows use 1/8″ steel plates like 3″x3″ for the ‘washers’ just to make sure the pan doesn’t tear through. Good luck………Dan

[Brian]

I use racing seat belts in my rear engine BCW. The 3″ wide lap

belt is bolted to the tunnel on the inside and to the reinforced

corner of the floor pan (near the rear torsion bar) on the

outside. They have worked very well for me in these mounting

positions and are comfortable.

You don’t want to skip using a shoulder restraint —- you and

your passenger WILL regret it. A friend of mine wrecked her TD

replicar. It was a small front end collision but because she

didn’t have a shoulder harness she hit the steering wheel and

caused serious damage to her face and throat.

I have a 2″ racing shoulder harness with my belt. It has two

straps (one for each shoulder) and they connect to the lap belt

at the clasp. I connected it to a steel frame that I made that sits

in front of the engine, underneath the body and roof. The frame

connects to BCW’s subframe.

The lap and shoulder belts work very well for me. They make

driving the car more enjoyable because I don’t move around at

all. The only disadvantage (a small price to pay) is that the

racing seat belts take longer to put on than a standard car

seatbelt.

I would be happy to provide more information if anyone would

like it.

Brian

[B Harrington]

The Seat belts need to be mounted to or underneath the seat. However, make certain that they go through a frame member. There should be one close in the car you have as it came with it’s own steel frame. If you need to weld a support bracket – then do so. Under no circumstances rely on just bolting through the fiberglass floor. Even with large fender washers.In the case of VW owners the pan is not sufficient by itself.

After all is said and done the real area of concern is the windshield. Generally you have two 5/16″ bolts going through fiberglass holding up a big wind catcher. Post Caps Help by adding a couple of extra bolts and the Fiberfab MIGI had a steel support plate in the mounting area. CMC did not.

Part of CMC problems were brought on by a decapitation law suit they spent hundreds of thousands fighting.

 

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