My boyfriend has a 1983 delta 88 and his son's car seat wont work in it...
I'm way out of touch with car seats and am trying to help him out and figure out if car seats have just changed that much and/or how we can get it to work or if there is a seat that will work with older cars. His son is two and sits front facing.
If anyone could give me some info It would be much appreciated!
Thanks

 

All new carseats come with these straps to be used in newer cars (2006+) called the "latch system"
However the car seats should still come with the means to use 3point and the old 2point belt systems as well.
Car seats and the old 2 point belts are the easiest.

There should be an opening in the back w/ some kind of reinforcing that the belt passes through- simply pass the belt through and cinch it down as far as it can go.

The only thing i can see that might make that not work is if your belts don't have a way manuaully be tightend and they use the belt retractor to self tension- that wouldn't work.

for 3 point belts, the seat must have some sort of lock for the upper strap. Some have it on the seat itself & some have a clip that holds the upper belt to the lower so they cannot loosen up.

My son is 3 1/2" and we've got 3 cars + grandparents who won't buy their own seats, so I've gotten real good at moving our car seats in & out of cars.

 

I use a modern child seat for my two year old in my 68 442 convertible. The seat belt simply hooks through the underside of the seat the same way the shoulder/seat belt hook in a non-latch system. All the current car seats I have seen are designed for non-latch systems.

The only down side is the buckle actually ends up under the padding of the seat instead of next to it the way modern seat buckles work (remember in the old days you seat belt buckled in your lap).

I don't know if 83 delta's have ratcheting straps or buckle in the middle but in modern cars the way to get the strap to ratchet is to pull it out all the way. My 02 Envoy does not have the Latch system and that's the way I do it

 

You can get a "mighty tite" at Babies R Us - the belt slips through it and you can ratchet it as tight as you want ~$20. My kids go in all my cars - whether factory belts or retrofitted.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=2267437

 

Hey Olds Dad, thanks for the link. The mighty tite may just come in handy one day.

As I just became an Olds dad myself, I've only installed the (rear facing) newborn seat base in one of my '76 Ninety Eight's so far. It worked very well as the rear belts are lap only and the center one has the manual adjustment.

Since my son is only a few weeks old, I don't know much about older kid car seats but don't they require anchors at the top of the seat as well as with the seatbelt? I'm wondering if I'll still be able to take our little guy out as he gets bigger?

John

 

First - congrats on your new guy - best thing in the world if you ask me!

With regards to the forward facing, if you start going through these "moms and carseats" forums, you'll go mad in approximately 0.93 seconds. So many opinions, so many 'studies', etc..

In the end, yes, forward facing seats require a tether / anchor point. I first wanted to try to buy one (any new car has this little piece - either in the ceiling or on the package shelf) - but you can't buy it it seems - aftermarket anyway. So there are two options (well, arguably three)

Option 1: What I do, is - in my convertible, I found a piece of the framework behind the seat that I can attach the hook to - even with the top down I can get to it. On my '55's that I've retrofitted - I have rear shoulder belts and I hook the tether strap to the anchor point for the shoulder belt. These are my kids, and I'm obviously vested in their safety - if I was to post this to one of these mom-**** sites I'd be crucified on the spot - but, also, I'm an engineer - and these anchor points are just as 'sound' as anything else - we're talking a 25 pound kid - not a 400 pound adult - even under impact with inertial forces, if any of these anchor points are 'ripping' out of the car, well I'm afraid we'll have bigger problems.

Option 2: Junkyard scavange for a tether point anchor - the challenge then, as in any classic car retrofit, is to find somewhere to mount it. I'm pretty confident a '76 98 has enough meat somewhere in the back to set a tether.

Option 3: In a pinch, cinch it down the back of the seat, and using your best boyscout skills, knot it around the lap belt. They're still anchored, and the seat itself has a 5-pt harness - and it's better than the plastic laundry basket and pillow that I came home from the hospital in!

 

thank you for the info so far it is helping!!
I don't know for sure how his seatbelts in the back work or if he has a place for the tether but I'm going to find out lol
I knew there had to be a way to do this not everyone has new/er cars, and I'm determined to figure it out so he can take his son to visit his family .... any more advise out there? the more the better please lol

 

This is what I used to create a shoulder mounting point in my '55.

http://www.wescoperformance.com/retr...r-mt-door.html

I secured it to the steel frame work behind the seat (where the package shelf is) - on the '55 that whole area is pretty beefy and with the area of this plate, when installed it would take a lot to pull it out of the car. So, with my package shelf removed, this is installed (underneath the sheet metal), and the bolt penetrates the package shelf, and the seatbelt hdwe bolts to that -

In most cases, that area can be reinforced from the underside (i.e. inside the trunk).

Hope it helps.

 

to get around the buckle in the center I tied one side of my seatbelt in a knot this put the buckle off to one side of the car seat instead of centering it

 

Olds Dad - Great information Thanks. My 6 year old Grandson will be able to go along after I do this install on my 56 . Should be the same as your 55.

Rick

 

As you can see from the pictures...totally worth it!

 

How's this for a car seat?
I guess this is how they did it in the old days

DSC00925.jpg

 

Great Pictures ! The back shelf picture was a great help also!

Thanks
Rick

 

This has all been a huge big help thank you all I cant wait to get him all set up soon!!

 

OldsDad -

Finally got the shoulder harness mounted in my 56. Thanks for your advise. My Grandson is now happy he can go along.
Rick

 

I have no problems putting the car seat in my 1985 Delta. Actually I do. It's a lot easier to fit thru the doorway on the Alero than the Delta, due to the Alero's easy side up seat.

The LATCH system started in 2002 model year cars, in both my cars, my son rides in the middle, not the sides for two reasons.

One: I don't feel I can get the 3 point belt tight enough for the car seat, because it retracts (same thing with the side seats in the Delta

Two: Side Impact accidents

The question I'm starting to debate is my son riding in the Delta when it comes time to use the booser seat. That is designed to work with a 3 point belt, the Delta only has those in the front seat