If you have never worn a 4 or more point harness, have a strong buddy stand behind you while you are seated in an easy chair and pin your shoulders tightly against the chair back. Now try to reach anything past your knees and/or look at anything more than 45* to either side of you.
In a vehicle it is difficult to near impossible to reach any controls on the dashboard, turn to look at your blind spot, look out the rear window to back up, look down an intersecting street that comes in at an angle, look around someone in the passenger seat. In the case of a roll over accident a 3 pt harness allows you to lay over sideways onto the seat, a 4 pt would hold you upright while the roof caves in on your head or your neck breaks from the sideways whip lash. (racing organizations like the SCCA do not allow 4 pt harnesses or upper body restaints unless the vehicle has an approved roll bar installed above the top of the head/helmet.)

 

Ok i understand. I have 4 point belts in my gocart and definitely know what youre saying.

 

Lap belts are easy to install correctly in a stock truck and they work. You may contact the dash or column but it will likely be survivable in all but the worst collisions. If worn correctly it will also prevent ejection which is by far the killer in an accident.

A three point can get a little tricky....
1. If the angle is not correct it could do more harm than good. An example is a fractured neck this is especially true on a child.
2. Most are junkyard refits and may have too much or not enough slack.
3. There is not really a good mounting point. The three point mount has to be pretty substantial for the forces involved. A tacked on mount may pop loose or worse rip the sheet metal causing potential injury. Some have admitted that their three point mounts are weak but they will serve the purpose in a lower speed collision. So will lap belts.
Why risk a half assed mount that may do more harm than good? Sometimes it's real easy to make or invest in a "paper tiger" safety system.

Now if you go with a three point system the cab mount and bracing will need to be properly braced. If you go that route make sure it's designed well.

As far as legalitys. Any restraint system bet it a rope like Mr. Haney's or a full roll cage with a computerized a bag system is a retrofit.

For a collision with intrusion into the cab, that kind of accident is often fatal in the newest of vehicles. Ive' seen a man killed in a brand new car, a big one. He was a short person, the dash came in on a offset head on and the airbag deployed. He was busted up like a sack of potatoes, I suspect the airbag did more harm than good in this case, like kill him. So even with the latest features when it's your time it's your time.

In other instances I've seen where people religiously wear their seat belts but for some reason did not. They were ejected but nearly uninjured and were walking around on the scene. Had they stayed in the car they would have most likely died, I mean the engine was in the front seat. These instances are very rare and honestly seem more like Divine intervention.

Another case a 16 year old was thrown out and killed on a rural road 100 feet from her drive way. Her friend talking on the phone ran off the road over corrected and rolled the car. She lay dead in her own front yard. It was a low speed accident.

Do the best you can do. For me lap belts are fine, others may not be comfortable with that but.....

 

Hmmm.. Getting kind of morbid on this one. We've got a bench seat in our '50 & we installed a lap belt for that middle position. We went with brand new 3 point seat belts with reinforcing - the tricky part is the shoulder harness attachment up high but we reinforced that one with flat steel welded in as well.

I believe our steering column we used also has a collapsible piece down at the floor - that's the best we could do on that one. You also have a decision to make on the seat - there are numerous options for later model seats that have the headrest between you & the rear cab - but it sticks up in the window & can be seen from the outside.

Good luck over there in Keller. (I don't know if I've ever wished an Aggie good luck - well let's exclude football at least).

Ben in Austin
1950 F1 (351W/AOD)

 

Not a good idea. Run them through the floor properly. Ive read about wrecks in the 50s when it was common for owners to retrofit their vehicles. A fellow was severely injured in a two car collision. He was found in the middle of the highway still in the seat. Driver, seat and all were ejected.

The seat frame and it's mounts were not designed for that kind of force. Even in a high speed collision you have a much better chance if the belts are mounted correctly.

 

Ben, UT is on a downslide right now and the Aggies have the best QB in the country and the best coach - formally of U of H. While I have never, ever, been an Aggie fan before, with Sumlin I have to say that I have become a fan. He has to be the most exiting head coach in the game today.

 

Hey Topper
Luckily for us we don:t have to play the Aggies. They are exciting - I like Sumlin too! I'm always hopeful with the Longhorns. We should play each other.

Ben in Austin

 

U of H is back to a really lousy football program again with the exit of Sumlin and Case Keenum. They got hammered last year by almost everybody, and will again for several years to come. UT would kill them! But we did beat them in BB last season...

 

Lots of folks want their truck to look period correct. My '51 would be period correct with no seat belts.

I drove a 1970 Camaro backwards off a 30 foot embankment at 85 MPH (according to the Highway Patrol) flipped end over end 3 times and came to rest upside down.

I'm writing this to you now because I was wearing both the seat belt, and the shoulder harness (they were separate on that car).

So, my truck has the 3-point belts on both sides. Nothing in the middle, as there isn't enough room to put anyone there anyway.

I got my belts and shoulder harness anchor plates from Mid-Fifties/Classic Haulers. They weren't cheap, but I wanted new and safe. The anchor plates are welded in (thanks again Doug).

You can see some of this in my build thread (in my signature) on page 42.

Here's what I got, if you're interested...

 

When it comes to seat belts, screw period correct unless you (don't) drive a trailer queen. You could unbolt them for shows. I won't trouble you with details, but, I'd be ground meat several times over without them.
Collapsible steering columns are not a bad invention either.

 

I can (thankfully) attest to that. Some minor details after all: in this accident, the truck rolled so hard that my torso slipped out of the shoulder harness and into the passenger seat. Truck was flattened down to the floor of the bed. Three football players stopped and bent the bottom (now top) of the passenger door to make a hole from where I crawled out. Only real damage: my watch broke my wrist and the pedals cut my RedWing boot. .
Oh, yeah, and the stupid Datsun truck with the seized brakes. It was scrap.

 

Hi Just joined a few days ago. A week ago I bought a '51 F1 that is mostly stock, with bench seat and no belts. I want to put three sets of lap belts in. Was thinking if I reinforce under the floor and buy a set of angle brackets for the center belts, I might attach the middle belts and the inner belt of each side to the same brackets so I would only drill 4 holes in the floor instead of 6. Bad idea?

 

That is how a lot of cars were done from the factory. Shouldn't be an issue. Just make sure you reinforce the flooring and use high grade bolts as suggested in this thread.

Peace,
Jim

 

B. Todd, it's much better (and works out ergonomically) to mount your belts on the front flange of the crossmember under the gas tank. The seat uses this stronger point to mount at the rear. Use new holes in that with the bolts and big washers supplied with the belts.

 

Thanks! That's my plan.