I am doing some sleuthing to buy seatbelts. Seeing that my kids will probably drive this when they get their license on special occasions I would like to install seatbelts and quite possibly shoulder belts.
I think lap belts have their place for originality, but I don't want ym kids to die in a wreck if one should happen.
I see all sorts of options for lapbelts, and have read Lugnutz awesome writeup on installing shoulder belts. My questions are as follows:
1. I seem to have seatbelt anchors in the floor. If I buy lapbelts do the center two anchors also hold the center belt or did GM not care about the center passenger? 2. Does matter what I buy if I want a GM belt? I am not sure what to buy for a retractor? 3. What length did other get for the inside latch? I imagine I will need the seat forward for my kids. I am guessing 15", but I am not sure without the cab together.
No one replied, I’ll jump in since I just did belts in my 46, I looked around a lot and ended up buying from Julianos. Why, many on this site have bought there, for me total package with hardware was most complete, products thought out and including everything prices were competitive. They have instructions pages you will want to review in any case.
Tying the center belt to the same mounts as the sides should be fine, but review how those mounts are backed up, standards have changed since the 60’s and if you don’t like what you see adding mounts is a easy task. We used to use large round washers, now we use curve edged rectanglular plates, standards do evolve. Shoulder belt mounts are the task, look at youtube, brothers trucking has a video on a 60’s truck I believe, David Welsh? is pretty good, having said that I don’t know why folks feel the need to weld in the shoulder mount when rivets will hold that backing plate in place with no mess, either way it is just sheet metal you mount to, each his own… (As a side note: on my 46 (which is a fully finished truck) I could install a 10x10” 16 ga roll curved plate behind the shoulder area sheet metal, secured it to structural members at both the belt line & door frame, then mounted a under floor sized bolt plate behind that), each his own…
Chuck
Last edited by Hanks custodian; Fri Feb 17 2023 03:51 AM.
Contacted Julianos. What a great company to deal with so far. They are sending me color swatches so I can match with my seat colors. Their pricing is just a hair more than others, but the information and service is more than worth it.
I received the color swatches yesterday. I think the outer belts will be a dark blue and center light blue to match the seat color combo. Have to get them coming so I can modify the cab.
I followed Lugnutz directions on placement. (have to give him a huge shoutout for all of his videos and write ups) I couldn't bring myself to drill and weld more holes in this cab, so I epoxied the backing plate to the cab to hold it in place. Think it will hold?
Did you epoxy the mounting plate to the face of the cab (inside the cab)? Or did you drill the large bolt hole and epoxy the plate inside the pillar?
If you epoxied it inside the pillar and were able to tighten the seat belt mounting bolt, you should be good. The purpose of drilling/welding the extra holes is to keep the backing plate from falling out while you attach the interior pieces.
I just finished installation of 3 point seat belts in my 63 C10. I bought the belts from Seatbeltplanet. I bought from them when I did my 1965. You can review my DIY here. Seat belt DIY. [lugnutz65chevystepside.weebly.com]
Someone who used my DIY commented that he was able to install the shoulder belt anchor without tack welding the fender washer/nut assembly to inside wall of the B pillar. That made me rethink my methods.
So I will update my DIY soon with the BETTER way.
In my 1963 I used epoxy to glue the nut to the fender washer. I then strapped the appropriate size crescent wrench to a heavy duty paint stick. I used a very small amount of masking take to hold the fender washer/nut to the wrench. Just enough so I could release the wrench once everything was tightened down. Works great. A whole lot easier than welding the nut to the washer and then the B pillar sheet metal.
I still recommend doing the install with the gas tank removed because the gas tank filler neck is in the way on the driver’s side. I struggled for over 30 minutes trying to get my filler neck repositioned while the tank stayed in place.
That was me who tried the epoxy! Last weekend I loosened the bolts and the poxy didn't break free!!!!!
So you left the bolt in the nut while the epoxy was bench drying? I only put the bolt in the nut long enough to center the nut on the washer while I apply epoxy to the edges of the nut. The epoxy is only good for keeping the nut and fender washer together during the time when you slide things up inside the B pillar. After the shoulder strap anchor bolt is tightened down, the epoxy is nonessential.
No my seatbelt anchor came with a large backing plate already on it. I gooped it up held in place and got the bolt tight. Left it there for a few weeks before I dared loosen the bolt.
We cheat when it comes to the mid 60's Chevy trucks. We pull the "Custom" cab trim piece on the B pillar, cut a 3 sided hole where the trim was, weld anchor plate in place. fold tin back into place, weld, and finally reinstall custom emblem to make work invisible.
