Your thinking is sound on the improper mounting of the belts. Unfortunately I once had to deal with an accident scene where a guy had improperly mounted his shoulder belts directly to the floor behind the drivers seat. I helped extract him from the wreckage of a car, get him immobilized on a back board in order to transport him to the hospital. Not a good thing.Silver04RS wrote:No I did not try and lube the latches or and no they were not bent. But they did not work well and the material is 40 years old. I had a brand new set of belts in my garage and this seemed like a much better option to me.okayfine wrote:Did you try to lube the latches? Is the tab bent?
You can attach the seat belt cutters to your stock stuff, but if you get knocked silly/out hitting the steering wheel or windscreen, you're not going to get out of the Simpson belt anyway.
You can mount the rest of your Simpsons to the rear belt mounting points if the angles are acceptable, or to the blind nut in the c-pillar.
And yes, if Im knocked out I know I will not be able to release a seat belt.... but its better than going through a windshield.
As for mounting the shoulder harnesses I have no intention of doing so until I have something suitable to hang them from. The last thing I need is to hit something hard and compress my spine due to having them mount to the floor or back seat.
good story and thanks for the adviceDave Patten wrote:Silver04RS wrote: Well I figured they would be better than the stock lap belts as they wouldn't trap me in my car if for some reason I needed to get out in a hurry. I spent close to 2-3 minutes yesterday at one point trying to get my lap belt loose... made me think
Your "made me think" comment reminded me of a story and a situation I was in.
Story - My Dad's buddy raced stockcars in the '60's & '70's. One night he rolled the car on its roof and couldn't get the "safety" belts undone. The emergency workers finally got him out of the car. (These were old OE type seat belts like in your 510.)
Fast forward a number of years. I was road racing my car and rolled it onto its roof. Hanging upside down from the safety harnesses, the thought of being stuck like my Dad's buddy flashed thru my head. About as fast as the thought came, I had the racing belts undone so I could get out.
Go with the latch type belts, even with 250# (then) hanging from a 5 point racing harness, they unlatched without any extra effort.
One word of advise though, if you do find yourself in an upside down car hanging from the seat belts, one hand on the roof and both knees braced against the steering wheel does little to control your free fall when you undo the belts.
-TB
On the flip side, certainly I would agree that it's a good idea to have the shoulder belts in place.
On my first auto x car, being a street car without a cage, I mounted the belts through the vertical panel above the rear package tray just below the rear window. Structurally it's a very strong area across the car. I built a 10" long doubler plate formed to the curve of the panel and drilled and mounted the seat belt eye bolts through it all.the height was better than using the lower belt points but you will require long shoulder belts to do this.
Just an experience I thought I'd share with you.
The topic is close to my heart. My brother and a friend crashed my rally car on a back road, both were only wearing the lower section of their harnesses. Both were air lifted to the ICU, my brother made it out in three weeks with a broken sternum and various internal injuries which now 6 years later he still suffers from. And he was the lucky one to have a steering column to slow down his impact. His friends back was broken, and he spent a year in a locked brace....
So unfortunately I've personally dealt withheld bad side of seatbelts and thief use. I wouldn't wish these experiences on anyone.
Take care.
Byron
