Good afternoon. My name is Dave and I am looking for some help with the instalation of seat belts in my 56 Olds 2dr sedan. The location of the holes is the first problem. Anyone have a suggestion?

 

To my knowledge there are no measurements and templates. Just take careful measurements. Be very careful not to drill you holes in the floor and then find out the frame is right under the hole.

One other thing, Welcome to the site. Post some pictures of your car when you can.

 

Welcome. You're going to have to use engineering judgement here. I'm sure you realize that while belts are better than no belts, don't expect your retrofitted belts to be as safe as those in a newer car where the installation was factory engineered and crash-tested.

It's helpful to note how the factory did this in later years. Typically the seat belt anchor points were located in the floor pan areas where there was a stiffening crossmember on the floor pan. Obviously this helps with strength and tear-out resistance. Try to locate your holes in a similar location, keeping in mind the need to maintain the proper angle on the belts. Aftermarket vendors sell large reinforcing plates for belts that are similar to those used by the factory. Be sure to use them.

Shoulder belts are a bigger problem, if you plan to install them. You'll need to select a properly reinforced area on the B-pillar. If you have a hardtop, this is problematic. You'll also need to cut a much larger slot into which to slide the reinforcing plate, then weld it up later. Obviously this means repainting parts of the interior. I've also seen an installation where the slot was cut at the very bottom of the B-pillar, allowing the plate to be pulled up through the pillar using a string dropped down from the anchor hole. This makes it easier to hide the slot, sometimes without welding, but obviously the slot compromises the strength of the pillar. I'll be using the cut and weld method to anchor shoulder belts on my 62 and 64, but I also need to repaint the interiors anyway.

 

X2 to what has been said above, in fact in the front seat area I didn't use the supplied large washers but laid a new piece of metal from one hole to the other to help reinforce the area of the belt mounts.May or may not help in a catastrophic wreck as my car is a convertible but it made me feel better at the time....Tedd

 

I know all of us tend to over engineer most everything we build. I am curious how much force it would take to rip one of those big fender washers through a floorpan. I think if that much force was put on your body it would crush every bone in your mid section. I think it would have to be a crash with such force that you would not survive the crash anyway.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions and advise. I think I will try the plates and fender washers since there isn't any reinforcing near the locations I want to use. Also, I will post some pictures when I find out how to do it.

 

They are not fender washers, but disks about 2 1/2" or 3" in diameter, and are at least 1/8" or even possibly 3/16" thick steel with a hole drilled in the middle. They are robust enough that they reinforce the sheet metal floor pan enough that the seat belt anchors are not going to pull out. As a retired EMT, I had seen many accidents in 1960's cars that had seat belts retrofitted to them, and I never saw a seat belt pull through the floor when they were properly installed. I did see sometimes where the floor pan was distorted by the G forces exerted as a result of the vehicle coming to a sudden halt.... i.e. hitting a immovable object, such as a tree. Needless to say, the person suffered injuries in the hip and abdomen area, but it was still better than going through the windshield or being thrown from the car.