1950s Dealer-Installed Seatbelts

Although U.S. automakers did not provide seatbelts as standard equipment until about 1962, seatbelts were offered as dealer-installed optional equipment as far back as the early 1950s. Some of these dealer-installed seatbelts were sourced from companies that provided seatbelts to the aviation industry. Below I’ve attached photos of the seatbelts in my November 1953 XK120 OTS. The reverse side of the seatbelt buckles are stamped:

Rupert Parachute Co.
Wheeling Ill.
S2 1954

I believe “S2 1954” is the date stamp. A friend who owns a very original 1957 XK140 DHC has identical Rupert Parachute Co. seatbelts, but those are stamped “S2 1957.”

Here’s the front side of the buckle, which has an alloy flip handle.

Here’s a close-up of the “square-weave” belt fabric.

And here’s a full view of the seatbelts. (The steel tips that keep the ends of the seatbelts from unraveling are also stamped Rupert Parachute Co.).

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Please send photos of anchor points !

John, there are two anchors for each seatbelt. The plywood floor and part of the steel support for the plywood floor were drilled. Each anchor has a large washer that spans the steel support for the plywood floor. Not ideal. It would be stronger with a piece of drilled angle iron to wrap around the rear 90 degree corner instead of large washers.

I think that looks better than nothing to me. And I’m sure Roger Payne would be highly critical of this setup.

John Feng
508-789-8195

No John,

I am not ‘highly critical’ of the set-up, indeed I was rather impressed with Mike’s advice of this being a seat belt installation done in 1954. Of course this 1954 seat belt installation would not equal nor comply with current regulation safety standards for seat belt anchorages, but equally his XK120 engine would not come close to complying with current emissions standards either.

I have copied all Mikes photos and advice, for my ongoing reference files, as this is the first time I had heard of such efforts dating back as far as 1954.

Jaguar themselves did not engineer/include seat belt anchorages until introducing them in (by memory) 1962/3 and there are detailed Service Bulletins showing these newly introduced arrangements for Mark 2, Mark 10 and E-type, so even the first E-types and Mark 10s introduced in 1961 still had nothing. Jaguar thereafter did offer compatible Seat Belts as an optional extra, but only for these cars built including their properly designed anchorages (its a package design - belts and anchorages). Indeed in my published Papers on E-type Literature Packs, I do include mention of the included Seat Belt pamphlet included with the Literature Packs of any E-types so optioned.

But the honor of the FIRST jurisdiction in the world that legally mandated the compulsory fitment of Seat Belts (in all makes/models of cars) was the Australian State of Victoria, and that was for cars built from January 1965 onwards. The rest of Australia followed a couple years later, ahead of anywhere else in the world. USA got hung up with ‘personal liberties’ excuses/reasons for not mandating the wearing of seat belts, and went through a period of crazy designs of special door rails/guides that automatically fitted seat belts to the driver, when he closed the door. Not sure about current state of play in USA, I think now a legal requirement to fit them, albeit others can advise.

My point in all of this is that you need to be realistic about what you are trying to achieve fitting seat belts to an XK120/140 OTS as per the original question. AS before, my personal view (based on a not insignificant amount of direct first-hand experience) is don’t bother trying to fit a lap/sash seat belt that requires a properly engineered and located upper mounting point for the sash. But a well thought out, properly executed, lap-belt only installation, with of course only a need for the two ‘floor-level’ mounting points, is quite achievable.

But the emphasis is on ‘properly executed’, as anything less is pretty well a waste of time, and little more than just a ‘feel good’ installation. And yes, as has Ed from his earlier posting, I too have seen seat belts mounted into timber floors (only), and indeed during debate (at a Federal Government to State Government level) with VicRoads they claimed ‘anything was better than nothing’ when introducing State Legislation mandating retrospective fitment of seat belts for pre 1965 cars (that did not necessarily include factory designed/installed anchorages - Jaguars DID have them, but only back to 1962/3, and never in any model XK).
I did offer the advice, that if anyone was serious about installing a ‘properly executed’ seat belt and anchorages installation, then the Australian Regulation ADR5 was a useful reference/guideline, but that’s not to say there are not others who cant properly engineer anchorages, but realistically there is a lot more to occupant protection in a modern motor car, than just the seat belts and their anchorages.

Roger

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Roger

i never doubt Your good intentions.

You are very rarely Inaccurate with information you post.

I suppose I’m poking at you and Paul a bit because at times you both come off as a bit of the, “give me perfection or nothing at all,” type, and i feel.quite strongly that a sharp minded enthusiast who does a bit of online study can learn enough to fit up. a set of two.or three point safety belts that will (on the whole) make an xk120 OTS safer in the event of a crash. Yes splitting hairs about precise anchor strength or sash angles can be important when a crash creates injuries right on the exact threshold of life and death. But, in the other 97% of accidents i think belts that are almost ideally fitted are better than nothing.

My posts are an attempt to encourage others to explorer adding seat belts using a bit of common sense and a little guidance to prevent the worst of blunders

john

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John,

Here are photos of my seat belt mounts. I did not put these in but I am not upset about their location. I will only make the centre mount plate a bit bigger as it has to take the strain of two people.
The outside mounts have been put through the body and come out in the rear wheel arch and the inner mount serves both belts and comes out through the wall just above the driveshaft tunnel.

If you cant work it out from the photos I can take more.

Yes the belts are old and need to be replaced and don’t even look at the state of the car, for some reason I have started the clean up and rebuild from the back forward. You should see the diff. :kissing_smiling_eyes:





Mike,

Yours must have come with the ejector seat option. Whatever you do don’t push the red button hidden under the dash. :scream:

Matt

Rather clever mounting scheme. Looks very strong.

Thanks for the photos.

Car looks to be in decent shape too.

john

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We are in complete agreement…:yum:

In the US, seat belts were offered by American automobile manufacturers starting at latest in the late 1940s (e.g., Nash, Tucker). Wisconsin claims to the be the first US state to require seat belts to be installed in cars, with legislation in 1961. By 1963 about half the states in the US required seat belts to be installed in cars. Vague in my memory is that all American cars had seat belts installed starting in 1964, but first federal legislation requiring installation was 1968 based on 1966 federal law? Compulsory use by an occupant of a required installed seatbelt lagged by about 20 years in the US.

While searching for something else, I happened to find this advert from 1958.

and this 4 page brochure from 1962.

Another undated one from a parachute maker.


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Some interesting pamphlets/adverts Rob. Things have certainly advanced since the 1950s/60s - as you would expect. The effectiveness, or otherwise, of seat belts, is of course the combination of the Seat Belts themselves, and their anchorages. Aftermarket seat belt suppliers rely on the car manufacturer to provide properly engineered anchorages - strength and their geometry/location, or if no original equipment anchorages, the enterprise of whoever is installing the seat belts.

As advised earlier, in Jaguars case, they first provided factory designed/installed anchorages in ‘about 1962/63’ in Mark 2, Mark 10 and E-type. I detailed the fitting of optional extra seat belts (and the associated supplied flier) in my paper on E-type literature packs as published in THE E-TYPE magazine in February 2016 edition, but for those not in receipt of this excellent magazine, my text was as follows:-

8b. SEAT BELT flier. Service Bulletin N.11 of January 1962 advised the introduction of Seat Belt Attachment Points from Chassis Numbers 850301/ 876359 and 860113/ 885318 for O2S RHD/LHD and FHC respectively. Service Bulletin N.14 of April 1962 advised for cars with built-in seat-belt anchorages, that official Jaguar seat belts will soon be available but only through the Jaguar Spares Division. There must have been a supply problem as SB N.14 (2nd issue) of March 1963 restated that official Jaguar seat belts will soon be available, but solely through the Jaguar Spares Division. Presumably Jaguar seat-belts must have been available as an optional extra from sometime in this 1962/3 period, and thus provision in the so-equipped E-types Literature Pack of the four-page flier:- it’s a question of safety . The simple flier shown in photo.17a, had its text in four languages and noted “Made Exclusively for Jaguar Cars Ltd. England” by BRITAX.

Seat-belt take up was initially slow, especially for E-types with the earliest seen literature pack with this flier being in an E/122/3 handbook-Pack for an April 1963 USA delivered FHC. Conceivably this undated flier could well be found for any E-types from the above December 1961 chassis-numbers onwards, if retrospectively fitted, or if factory optional-equipment fitted from mid-1962 onwards – but only if the authorised Jaguar-Britax seat-belts with the chrome Jaguar ‘leaper’ on their ‘lift-up’ buckle were fitted. This identical Jaguar-Britax flier has been found in various other literature packs from mid-1962 to 1965 build Jaguars saloons, thus no variations for 3.8 E-types to report.

__Note: This flier as-included within certain original literature packs should not to be confused with the small 4” x 4¼” card folder also shown in photo.17b on HOW TO USE YOUR JAGUAR SEAT BELTS that was tied with string to the new E-types seat-belts.

The Seat Belt flier referenced is shown below - especially made for Jaguar by BRITAX; and note the chrome ‘Leaper’ on the buckle. These belts were specifically made to suit the factory anchorage points, so were not a ‘universal’ belt as provided to aftermarket installation.

As also noted, these factory optional extra seat belts, when installed, include a small instruction card tied to the belt by a piece of string - such then was the novelty of having seat belts.

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Yesterday, I took some photos of the seat belts in my friend’s 1957 XK140 DHC. I was mistaken about the 1957 date stamp. They are date stamped “S3 1959”. Therefore, these Rupert Parachute Co. seat belts appear to have been installed about two years after the car was sold. Thus, these seatbelts may not have been a dealer option. Rupert Parachute Co. was able to provide a nice color match for the biscuit interior.

A few months ago we were discussing early seatbelts and what was available as a dealer option before seatbelts were mandated. Here’s another example made by an American company that also made parachutes. Apparently, these Irving Air Chute Co. seatbelts were originally installed in a 1961 E-Type. See eBay item 223275419386

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Mike,
1961 E-type?
Hard to imagine fitting seat belts to an E-type prior to the factory installed anchorage points as per SB N.11 - wouldn’t be easy to cobble up satisfactory home-made anchorage points and geometry.
Certainly a pretty nice effort with the belts themselves - complete with Jaguar Wings badge (presumably before trade-mark legal concerns suggesting Jaguar sanctioned/supplied)

Roger

in 1962 I installed the wide 3 in competition lap and double over shoulder belts in my 120 OTS. Not much after, A head on…a drunk into me , at about 40mph each car, tore the engine off its mounts, blew both front tires,car bent back to behind the doors. I hopped out with a cut on my chin from the rather close steering wheel. Sketchy anchors of large washers in wheel wells, below battery boxes and in side curtain tray saved my bacon. Current 120 has similar belts, Simpson, both sides, with best I could do sheet metal plate reinforcement backing plates and the large washers. If I roll it I am toast. Nick

My July 54 XK120 had a similar mounting arrangement although probably not original. I figured why keep them, if I was to be involved in a severe crash I’m going to be speared by the steering column anyways.

Mike
As a quick and dirty you could weld the edge of the washer to the overlapped metal floor edge.

John