3-Point Seatbelt

[Jefe]

Is it possible to make a 3-point seatbelt work in an early 78 Spider?
What would be required?
(I'm pretty handy, and I have a lot of tools.)
Thanks!

[redcars]

Find a 79 or newer parts spider take the rear seat back. Now take the seat belts and the framing they are fasten to. Weld the framing in your car and bolt the seat belts in, add the seat back plus belt holders to your seat backs and off you go.

[Jefe]

Thank you!
I have the seats from the 78 getting reupholstered, although he is going to give me the metal pans so I can de-rust and paint them.
If I can find the seat backs & parts from a 79+, would that affect his upholstery work?

[redcars]

The newer rear seat back has the cut outs for the seat belts. I don't know how that will affect the upholstery work.

[Jefe]

I may have gotten lucky.
Even though this is an 02/78 build date, it looks like the rear seat does have the cut-outs for the shoulder belts.
Also, there are attachment points welded onto the body where it looks like the retractors could live.
Does anyone have a photo showing how the retractors attach on a '79?
(I can't find a way to attach my photos.)
Thank you!

[SanJoseSteve]

It is definitely possible, I've done it to my 72 124. I was going to use an early 80's back seat to take advantage of the seat belt cutouts. In the end I chose not to go in that direction as at the time I had 2 small kids and a dog that liked to ride back there and the seat belts would be in the way.

Instead I purchased a modern 3 point retractable seat belt set. I had the buckles cut off and replaced with the Fiat branded buckles from an X 1/9 by a seat belt restoration company. The retractor is mounted behind the rear 1/4 panel just aft of the leading edge of the rear seat bottom cushion. The shoulder pivot hanger is mounted atop the wheel well arch just below the top edge of the rear 1/4 panel. Both of these use a heavy nut plate on the underside of the car as an anchor.

With considerable time spent testing different mounting positions of the shoulder hanger, I was able to find the sweet spot that allows the belt to pay out and retract with the convertible top retracted and boot cover installed. Works well and I've been using it in this configuration for over 15 years w/o issue. Have had 3 kids secured in the back with 3 lap belts, 2 adults belted in the front seats and the top boot cover installed.

I went the extra mile to replace the modern looking buckles with period correct Fiat branded ones, but other than that, the belts were just purchase off the shelf. It can be done, just takes some time to find the sweet spot.

-Steve (The Fiat driving) Ferrari

[SanJoseSteve]

Oh.... and for the record, I too have never been able to figure out how to attach pictures to posts in this forum. PM me and I can send you a few if you wiant. -Steve

[Jefe]

OK, so I thought the following info may be of interest to someone somewhere...
My Spider's build date is 02/78 and it came with just lap belts.
However, the rear seat was definitely made for the shoulder straps. It has the cut-outs, plastic guides and the back side of the seat has recesses to make room for the retractors.
ALSO, the body has the attachments welded in where the retractors bolt on.
So this early '78 model had everything in place for 3-point belts, except it looks like they kept supplying it with just the lap belts. I think they started supplying the 3-point belts later in '78, but I really don't know for sure.

One other odd thing, I was able to get the 3-point belts from a '79 and I was going to bolt the retractors on, but I was having trouble finding the correct bolt size. (I still struggle a little trying to identify metric bolt sizes.) Today I realized that the factory-installed attachments (which each have two nuts welded on) are NOT metric!!! They take a 7/16 bolt!

Is that unusual? I assumed that all the fasteners would be metric. Should I be watching out for other non-metric nuts & bolts?

[redcars]

In the USA at one time, maybe even now all seat belt fasteners were required to be 7/16 fine thread on all cars.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Should I be watching out for other non-metric nuts & bolts?

The only other ones that I can think of are the shock absorbers: Both the bottom bolt/nut as well as the nuts on the top shaft. Usually SAE sizes, although maybe the originals were metric. And some inconsequential stuff like the nuts for the radio faceplate, power antenna mounting bolts, etc.

-Bryan

[Zoofly]

Here's a photo of the seat belt retractors on my 1978 spider. Not the best photo but if you zoom in you get the idea.

[/url]IMG_1486 by David Bergeson, on Flickr[/img]