REAR shoulder belts, 3 point.

[Kern Dog]

I heard recently about how some of the 68-70 cars came with rear shoulder belts for the left and right passenger in the back. It is an interesting thing to learn since of all the cars that I have seen in person and at car shows, I don't recall ever seeing a car with them. The following picture is from a 1970 Road Runner but the Charger is similar. Note the rectangular slot:



Now from the front looking back.



A member of another forum used an existing hole to mount a retractor just below the package tray.





The stock retractor is mounted to the floor with the lap belt cars, with the setup this guy used, the end of the belt just bolted in the same place. Here you can see where he mounted the retractor:



I wonder how the belts were attached. See, in the last picture, it seems that the belt was slipped through the package tray and the retractor was bolted down. Looking one picture back....



The belt is attached to the floor at the other end. The buckle is in the middle, it had to go through the package tray hole somehow, right? I don't know how you could remove the buckle to attach the belt, then reattach the buckle. The package tray slot is 3/4" and I'm sure the buckle is thicker than that.
I could buy these new but I'm going to see if I can make use of belts from a late model Charger or Challenger.
More to come....

[70 sublime]

If you have a set of factory front seat belt shoulder belts could you not just get another set from the front and mount them the same way in the back ?

When the shoulder part was not being used the belt could just be shoved back through the slot and hang down inside the trunk out of the way ?

For as many times anyone would be sitting in the back seat using it vs going to a cruise night and having the extra set of buckles sitting on the seat cushion and having others trying to figure it out might be more interesting

[Kern Dog]

Factory type front seat belts....That is not a bad idea.
I have a set of XV Motorsports belts on the front, 3 point retractable with dogbone sashes that lower the belt down so it goes across the chest, not my face. XV is out of stock of their seat belts at the moment.
In keeping with my junkyard nature, today I was at a local Pick N Pull with a friend. We looked at a few late model Chargers and Chrysler 300s. Their belts are identical. They put the retractors in the C pillars and anchored the other end in the floor sort of where our retractors go.
These could work for our cars.
The retractors are mounted parallel with the length of the car but will also work if parallel with the width. we found that the retractors allow free movement of the belts as long as the retractor assembly stays plum and vertical. Any tilt from that and the belts lock up. This makes mounting them critical. They have to be installed correctly or they will not extend to wear. The locking action is activated when the belt is pulled out too fast, like when you are thrown forward quickly in a collision. It was some bonehead, shade tree engineering experimentation in the junkyard but it looks like this will be a cheaper way to have rear shoulder belts. The junkyard gets $45 per side, $90 total. A new kit is $300 so that is a nice savings.

[Kern Dog]

The stock Chrysler 300 seat belts:



The retractors will be mounted in the trunk below the package tray. The belt will pass UP through the package tray like so:



I'll cut slots in the package tray for the belts and cover the holes with OEM plastic covers of some sort. These were from the Chrysler:



When the retractors are plumb like this, the belt moves in and out fine.



A little tilt like this still allows free movement:



At this point, the retractor locks and the belt will not come out.



More to come...
 

[Nacho-RT74]

LOOOOOG time ago... maybe even on the OLD board we had discussed this and somebody posted pics what I think was original factory assembled??? Can't recall

[Kern Dog]

I did a search and came up with nothing. I wrote about this at FBBO and someone mentioned the thread that was here. If I scrolled though this section of the forum I may be able to find it.

[Nacho-RT74]

Hence why I said it could be on the old board we had before 2007, not on this really.

But being an old post, still on this "new" board, mostly sure attachments are not uploading

[Kern Dog]

A friend of mine with this car....



Bought the belts that I showed a couple posts back. He is going to install them in the Dodge along with tie down loops like new cars have. He drives his grandkids to school sometimes and wants to be able to tether the safety seats.
More to come...

[doctor4766]

I did a search and came up with nothing. I wrote about this at FBBO and someone mentioned the thread that was here. If I scrolled though this section of the forum I may be able to find it.

I remember there being a post on here about someone's installation of rear shoulder belts.
I just can't remember who posted

[Kern Dog]

Hence why I said it could be on the old board we had before 2007, not on this really.

But being an old post, still on this "new" board, mostly sure attachments are not uploading

By that, do you mean that it would be lost and not accessible?

[Kern Dog]

I'm up to page 31 of 106 and haven't found it.

[Nacho-RT74]

Hence why I said it could be on the old board we had before 2007, not on this really.

But being an old post, still on this "new" board, mostly sure attachments are not uploading

By that, do you mean that it would be lost and not accessible?

Thread still existant, but without visible attachments

[Kern Dog]

Here is the package tray of a 69 Satellite:



It is weird how they has a front/back angle for the oval hole used with the speaker on the right but on the left, it is just a round hole.

[Kern Dog]

One thing I need to figure is how to mount the retractors. I do want them to be as upright and plumb as possible to ensure the belts extend for use when needed instead of failing to reel out. Rich, the Coronet guy, has found that the retractors can be out of plumb over 10 degrees before they lock up. Still, I want to aim for as true vertical/plumb as I can get. This means I have to make mounts that take into account the slope of the trunk divider panel the upper section of the seat is attached to. Something like this is needed...



This is 10 gauge, way thicker than I'd need.



The diagonal bracing will need to be considered. You can't just cut this stuff out, it is structural.

[Kern Dog]

Here is something that I never noticed...look at how the bracing is attached to the panel.



Look how close it runs to the underside of the package tray on the left.



Now, the right.



Not only is the angle flatter, the brace is way lower and shorter.

[Kern Dog]

The retractors have to attach somehow, that means working around those diagonal braces. I was curious about if the braces in other cars were just as sloppy as the ones in Jigsaw.

The trunk in my red car.





Those look pretty even. How about a 67 Dart?





Those look good too. Next up. 72 Duster.





Looking better than Jigsaw. Now a 69 Dart. Note the 67 had no slots in the package tray for shoulder belts. The 70 Chargers did, the 72 Duster did...





the 69 Dart has even braces and the shoulder belt slots.
It doesn't matter much but was interesting to me to learn this.