I want to put inertial reel seatbelts, front and back, in a 420G. Has anyone had any experience with this?
I have a MKX wreck with them fitted.
presently advertised new on Ebay (coming from from Germany), various colors
fitment appears to use the same location in the front
(not sure if wreck has rear inertia)…some drilling and fitment of plates and approved seatbelt mounts would be needed for rears
shouldnt be too difficult.
I would only do the rears if I carried rear passengers regularly
I intend to transplant those from the wreck to my 420G, except they are black, not grey, and the chrome is rusty
I bought non-retractable 3-pt belts from Andover Auto.
They are really nice and look original but are modern materials, etc. They seem to offer retractable belts though I have no experience with those.
The front’s bolted into the existing mounts on the floor, then there were existing welded nuts behind the wood in the door pillar. Rear not sure, not nearly as much room back there. That said I have a Mk2 might be different for you.
Hey Mate,
Fair into it at this stage.
Front: Retractor on the floor. Two touch points on the way up to the existing top bolt to “bend” the belt around the seat.
Back: Horizontal Retractor on the parcel tray with huge back plate under the parcel tray. These come with a cover that will get covered in the correct parcel tray material. Busy parcel tray as it already houses period AC and speakers.
In design stage. Going back to the belt experts tomorrow. Will take pictures as we develop the solution.
Thanks for your reply.
Cheers, Phil
I fitted retractables, 3 in the back bolted to the back window shelf with plates under.
On hind site I wish that I had fitted them on the vertical bulk head behind the seat back, with slots for the belt cut into the parcel shelf. This would have looked 1000% better.
Three issues, would have been having some type of insert to stop chafing of the belt as it passes, the slot would have to be big enough to get the anchor and tong part of the buckle, through the slot and rearranging the upholstery in the trunk to cover or hide the bulk of the retractors.
Just a bit of thought and extra work required.
Thanks Nigel, appreciate your comments. I understand what you mean about the retractors on the parcel tray. Ive elected to do the same as I already have air conditioning vents and speakers on the tray anyway. I am going to tidy them all up into one housing.
The belts are on order in the correct colour so will post pictures once I have it all finished.
cheers Phil
sorry, would you mind explaining in a little more detail, exactly how & where ur proposing bolting the spool mechanism ?
in the trunk, with the belts mounting thru slots in the parcel shelf?
would this pass the strictest engineering/inspection for seat belt installation/operation ?
Good question Tony. Yes or no it depends how you go about it but the same applies to mounting them on the rear parcel shelf as well.
My car had holes and plates in the bulkhead for lap belts, I used these to mount the lower mountings, my spool mechanism are through the parcel shelf with thick steel plates underneath to give added strength.
Mounting the spools on the bulkhead could be exactly the same with steel plate affording the same added strength.
The slot in the parcel shelf could be strengthened with a thick steel plate welded in there with a slot of the correct dimensions through both. But the belt could chafe here. So you could use the supplied guides, the ones that hang on the B pillar for the fronts, they come attached to the belt when you buy them. I removed mine for mounting on the rear parcel shelf, they are not needed. But if you keep them on they could be bolted thru the plate over the slot thus preventing chafing. The slot itself could have a plastic insert of some sort to finish it off, purely cosmetic.
This is only one idea off the cuff, with some thought a better way could be found. I usually ponder these things and eventually come up with something workable and not too expensive.
Now whether this would pass engineering/inspection is subjective and dependent on who does the inspection and on local regulations. Here in BC there are no regulations that I know of and there is no MOT or annual inspection of vehicles, they did away with it in 1981.
Any ideas for a better slot or mounting idea would be appreciated by someone, though I will not change mine now I will live with them,