Hey guys, I'm going to have to put a seat belt in my 51 so my on can go out on the road with me more. He is 2 yrs old and love's to take a ride, so I'm going to have to get him a belt in there. What is the best way to install the belt in the old trucks. I hate to just drill a hole in the floor and run a nut through it, is there a better way to do this. I want it safe for him but also I don't want to cause a problem with water getting in over time or any rust problem's down the road b/c I drilled a hole in my nice solid cab floor. Does anyone have any pics of your seat belt's being installed. Thanks


Scott B.
1951 F1

 

Holes with large backing plates. Tie it into a reinforced part of the cab or floor. He needs a booster seat at 2, but I think you can get one that fastens to the seat with a standard seat belt. Put belts in for all seats. Imagin your fatherless child strapped into your truck after you are ejected.....

 

I'll get some pictures up of my 4-point belts. The thought of getting impaled by the steering column made me turn to 4 pointers.

 

I plan on putting 3 seat belts in the truck, I was just trying to get one in there for him pretty fast. He does have to have a booster seat and I want to make sure he is stapped in good b/c as you guys know there are no air bags but there is alot of hard metal in that dash. I'm thinking of going with the lap belts for everyone, but I would like to see the pics of the 4-point belts though.

Scott B.
1951 F1

 

There are several on here that have installed shoulder belts and a center lap belt. I wish I could direct you to the galleries. Unfortunatly, I don't remember whos they were. There are some nice installation pics. Perhaps they will notice this thread and speak up.

I plan on doing the same thing in mine. 2 shoulder belts and a lap belt.

Places like mid-fifty sell the mounts for the shoulder straps. They are weld or bolt in. I will make my own since I have access to a steel fabrication shop though.

I was a little nervous in traffic last week driving it 181 miles (round trip). Seat belts would have made me feel a little safer.

This will bump this up again, so that hoprfully somone who has them will notice the thread.

 

I bought 2 four point harnesses from Summit, in the floor mount version.

For the front, I went to a nice seatbelt place down here in San Diego, and bought the appropriate CD sized washers. I stacked them with washers roughly half the size as well, so that it wouldn't pull through the first washer. This is a project yet to be finished, and my running boards are on their last legs, quite literally. I am going to take some angle iron, and run it across the original mounting points, and bolt it up, and have the belts run through the cab onto the angle iron, and then mount up some nice hardwood as my new running boards.

 

I have shoulder belts in my 56. I bought the shoulder mount and belts from Mid Fiftys but I used anchor mounts from Julianos (www.Julianos.com). I drilled two extra holes in the floor per mount and then welded the anchor too the underside of the floor using these two holes.

The anchor mounts were for my 54 mercury car rear belts so I need to buy another set. If I were to do it again I would buy the belts from Julianos also. It seems for me the belts are to long.

Chuck

 

On '48-'52 there is a very stout cab support beam running across the cab just in front of the gas tank. The front flange on it is wide enough to drill for the lap belts, with washers underneath of course (Sovereign is correct, you need to use at least one smaller, thick washer to let the big one work right). There are generally two lengths of belts offered most places, the 74" is very marginal for adults with the stock seat. Since you can shorten the longer ones, I'd go to the longer ones.

 

I pulled a set of 3 belts from an mid-80's F150. I fabbed a cross member between 2 of the cab corner braces at window height and attached the retractor to it.

Next I fabbed a couple of extensions from the floor in front of the tank that made the stock belts long enough to ride on the seat as they were designed to. Extensions are made from pieces of flat stock 3/16"x2" with a simple 90* bend at the floor.

However, there will hardly be room in the truck for 3 people - especially if one is in a car seat. Also, if you are using the floor shifter with the stock tranny you'll hit the car seat trying to find 3rd/4th.

I don't use the belts - old dog/new trick thing - but they're in place for my wife and grandkids.

 

Here's some pictures of the instalation in my 1955 F-100. Three points belt for driver and passenger and a a lap belt in the center. The upper mount for the driver and passenger was fabbed from sheet steel and at the bolt it is approximately 1/4 in thick and that thickness spans about 10 inches square.



Combined with the curvature, there is no way the bolt will pull through or bend the mount. A nut was welded to the back to bolt into. The braces were then welded in along 3 edges. They are SOLID.



The bottom was going to be mounted at the floor, but the belts were too short so the retractor mounts at the middle cab brace.



It has 1/4 in steel welded in the channel along with a nut welded for the bolt. The other end mounts at the floor. Underneath the floor there is a 3/16in x 2in x 4 ft strap that all the way across the bottom of the cab.
The belts were salvaged from a full sized bronco (i think).


All the steel was bought at a hardware store (or procured from my highschool metal shop) and bent over various sized objects around the shop and beat into shape with regular construction hammers, so no special tools save for a welder are really needed.

 

My gallery has pictures of 3 point belts and the plate that was fabricated for the over the shoulder mounting point

T900

 

You two related? Same pictures, same last name, same town in your profiles....

 

Funkay.

Didn't notice, but you're right.

 

Guilty. I'm the financial backer, motivator, & electrical guy

 

I had to ask. Good way to confuse us.

BTW: You want to come to AR? I could use your services.