Adding Seat Belts

[Texas_Cicada]

I want to add seat belts to my 1960 Mk. I Bugeye. Any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Most installations in Bugeyes I have seen bolt the belts through the floor immediately behind the seat rails, as close to the the corners of the floor/rear wall as possible. This would be for standard lap belts. If you are considering something more than that (such as multi-point racing belts), then you may also need to connect into the tranny tunnel. My car had four-point racing belts installed when I bought it, but I replaced them with standard two-point lap belts, since I am not racing it.

Tim C.

 

[Texas_Cicada]

Thanks. I am thinking in terms of lap belts. I will not be racing and there is no roll bar or anything of substance to bolt a shoulder harness to. What about a backing plate or somethingother than the frame/floor pan? Would that be overkill?

 

[spritenut]

Use the correct size bolt to fit snug in the seatbelt bracket hole and also use a large thick flat washer on the underside of the floor pan.
Or a 2" square 3/16 thick piece of steel.
If you rip this out in an accident, the steering wheel shaft already aimed at your heart already did you in.

 

[regularman]

be very careful when installing lap belts. Make sure the belt fastens on the inside near the tranmission hump and not on the outside near the door. I bought a midget that had buckle fasten near the door and since the midget seats are smaller than most seats, there was a lot of excess hanging out from the buckle whe the belt was tightened up. This exess seat belt accidentally ended up hanging out of the door and went up under the rear tire and nearly killed me.

 

[RobSelina]

I've done the large fender washer setup before, but welding a 2x2 or better 4x4 section of 1/8 steel to the underside of the body is much more secure.....