• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

correct BJ8 seatbelt

Share this page

H

Hoghead

Jedi Trainee
Offline
What is the correct seat belt for a US or Canadian market 67 BJ8?

I see plastic buckle Kangol and BMC stickered ones for sale from time to time. New stickers are also available. Another forum shows metal buckle ones with the AH winged logo that I think are Britax or Irvin brand- anyone know?

I could always go to Crow competition type but would rather have the period correct and/or orignal ones

looks like they are 3 point static type
 
A bit more research shows that factory fitted seat belts were compulsory in Canada from Dec 1, 63

Usage in my province B.C. became compulsory in 77

My car is ex USA so US seatbelts would be fine
 
Seat belts in U.S. cars were a dealer installed item. One style I have seen during the period look like these:

1zmyxxi.png


The belts themselves were manufactured by Beam's Industries which is still in business at seatbeltplanet.com. They don't come with the labels, however. They show up on eBay like this fairly often: https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMC-Style-Seatbe...=item35ba36ce5e I'd check the date of manufacture on ebay ones, seatbelts deteriorate with age.
 
Bob_Spidell said:
My '67 BJ8 has 'BMC' labelled buckles. The car was delivered to the USA.
Click to expand...

Bob,

Are your buckles metal or plastic? There are two styles of BMC stickers available on eBay UK: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMC-Seatbelt-S...=item20bedcce1c and these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMC-Seatbelt-S...=item20bede01af Are your buckles and stickers like either of these?

I don't believe seat belts are a concours judged item, but I don't have a copy of the guidelines to be sure.
 
The dealer installed belts in my '65 BJ8 are metal. I'll have to confirm the manufacture whwther BMC or another source.
 
Here's a photo of one of my buckles:

Buckle

Unfortunately, there isn't much left of the label, but it was a nickel-sized sticker with a gold 'BMC' label.

Hey Dougie, wanna swap seat belts?

BTW, how are y'all adding photo attachments? Uploading to Flickr then adding a link is too much work.
 
I use Flicker to size the photo, then download back to my MAC and attach the photo with the "File Manager" link at the bottom of the reply box.

Sorry, no trades on the buckles either...
 
Bob_Spidell said:
Here's a photo of one of my buckles:

Buckle

Unfortunately, there isn't much left of the label, but it was a nickel-sized sticker with a gold 'BMC' label.
Click to expand...

Bob,

The "pebbly" webbing on your belts is what I've seen pictures of for UK cars. It's still available here: https://www.quickfitsbs.com/ It looks like the indentation in your buckle was specially made for the BMC label to be fitted. Somebody needs to do the definitive guide for BMC seatbelts.

Here's a pic from Barney Gaylord's MGA Guru site of MGA factory belts:

jzjjgp.jpg


Note the floor fixing plate and release are the same as those for the Healeys. The sticker is a bit hard to make out: More info here:

https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/interior/int120b.htm
 
The Beam ones are readily available on-line at JC Whitney for a reasonable 43.00

this belt plus the UK sourced BMC sticker looks the part, but I am still not clear if this would have come on a 67 or if they would have been plastic buckle BMC ones

Better yet with a good pic of Dougie's winged AH sticker I could reproduce this and make available at cost

When did US cars come with factory belts rather than a dealer installed accessory or option.
 
If I remember correctly, the bj8 handbook on the last few pages has the advert for the seatbelts, being the kangol plastic magnetic seat belts, which I guess was the BMC accessory.
I guess they were available to you yanks :wink:
 
Back
Top