rear shoulder belts January 01, 2012, 08:50:40 PM Anyone ever put them in an '87 or '88?I have 2 kids, one is 3, the other will be 2 next month. His seat needs a shoulder belt, hers will in another year. I want to drive my Thunderbird this summer, and I'll probably need to take them with me most of those drives. What would be some good donor cars to pull the belts from..and more importantly, mounting them safely and with a factory stock appearance would be the biggest things.Lay it on me... Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #1 – January 01, 2012, 08:56:35 PM I got some from a mustang vert that I'm going to install in the 85 vert... I don't see why the belts from the fronts of our cars wouldn't work with some fabbing. Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #2 – January 01, 2012, 09:01:23 PM Well, I did find this: http://www.tntrafficsafety.org/pdf/Retro.pdf ...but, most of the work I think would be in the mounting of the top anchor. I've got a spare set of front shoulder belts.... Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #3 – January 01, 2012, 09:09:15 PM the only problem I can see using front belts, is that the retract button wouldn't work, unless you could make a manual release out of it, after you unbuckle it. Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #4 – January 01, 2012, 09:10:36 PM the stang vert rear belts don't have the retract button Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #5 – January 01, 2012, 09:11:19 PM or maybe use newer crown vic belts Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #6 – January 01, 2012, 09:24:43 PM Good point about the retract button. I could live with manually having to reel them back, if need be. 99% of their usage will just be keeping the car seats in place. Any ideas where and how to mount the anchor? I have an idea that it would have to be behind the seat cushion area or else the belts would have "slack" in them from being too far forward at the bottom anchor. That, and there's really no feasible area to put them in anyway.My '90 Stang has rear shoulder belts...guess I could pop off the rear seat and trim panels and see how it's set up. Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #7 – January 01, 2012, 09:43:45 PM I would try and copy the stang... you would have to set the back seats up almost exactly like the fronts using the same belts.... you would have to went an anchor point behind the side window somewhere. or behind the seat somehow on a bracket, or weld something structurally sound to withstand pulling force on impact. in that area... cougars have more space to do this at a lower point because of the window shape. Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #8 – January 01, 2012, 09:45:58 PM Depending on the size of the child and local carseat laws......My kids are 4 and 6. They both ride in boosters in our other vehicles, but in my tbird they both still ride in full carseats. I have put non-retracting lap belts in both outer seat positions to lock the seats in place. For me, buying a couple additional carseats was a safer, simpler solution vs. trying to mount shoulder belts that werent intended for the application. Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #9 – January 02, 2012, 06:57:55 AM This would actually be illegal in Canada - it's against the law to modify seat belts in any way here.How about MN12 rear belts? Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #10 – January 02, 2012, 01:52:32 PM Well, the 89+ cars are a possibility, too. I'll have to do some digging on a warmer day and see which car(s) are a possible donor.Gumby, I'd do what you've suggested, but I think I could add in the rear belts for cheaper, depending on what I have to have done to mount them...obviously safety is the first priority, and then some.This wouldn't be something that would be done half-assed. Not with my kid's safety on the line. Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #11 – January 02, 2012, 04:54:01 PM If you look at aftermarket seat belts.. They usually give you grade 8 bolts, nuts, and oversized washers to use. And they tell you to drill it through the sheet metal floor to mount them. Seems to me, you don't need a lot of surface area to install them safely... Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #12 – January 02, 2012, 05:47:43 PM '90+ Mark VIIs had rear shoulder belts so they might work. Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #13 – January 03, 2012, 01:22:26 AM Thanks for the words fellas. :)In a coupla weeks or so, I'm going to go scavenging for what I need to finish my 5 lug rear, I'll check out some Mark VII's and MN12 Birds to gather some ideas and get a basic plan going on. Quote Selected
rear shoulder belts Reply #14 – January 03, 2012, 08:20:53 AM Quote from: ThunderbirdSport302;376878Thanks for the words fellas. :)In a coupla weeks or so, I'm going to go scavenging for what I need to finish my 5 lug rear, I'll check out some Mark VII's and MN12 Birds to gather some ideas and get a basic plan going on. take some pics of setups you find... could be interesting to see the differences in diff cars Quote Selected
Topic: rear shoulder belts (Read 2109 times)
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