Seat belts in Old Trucks?? Pic Request

Has anyone added seat belts to an old truck with the underseat gas tank?? I know I probably ought to move the tank, but until then.....

I am right in the middle of adding seat belts to my '47 Ford truck - while I Think I am coming up with something relative simple and easy I just bet there's a few of you who have been down this path already. If you could share pics or even a description - I would very much apreciate it!

In my case the tank is in the way PLUS I don't want to just start drilling holes everythwere so presently I am cobbling up a "crossmember" to span from side to side that will serve as my anchor points - this will bolt into exsting holes.

Just curious......thanks

 

Wow!!! I'm gettin' the goose egg here!!! Hasn't anyone adapted seat belts to a truck with a gas tank under the seat????

 

can't wait to see this.....are you using lap belts, or going to try lap/shoulder harness?

 

I've done it in a '42 GMC. It was fairly simple, but I'm not familar with your set-up.

I put in a 3 point set from Juliano's. I used all their brackets and mounting plates. The only mod I had to make was an extension for the center buckles. The mount provided was too short to allow the buckles to be between the seat and backrest. All I did for that was to take a flat piece of metal and put a 90 degree bend on one end, weld in a triangular gusset for strength and bolt it to the floor using the mounting plates from the kit. At the other end I drilled a hole to bolt the buckles to.

Then I sat in the truck to figure where to put the shoulder mount, marked and welded the shoulder mount directly to the door frame of the cab. That was that - seat belts.

Sorry I don't have any pictures to show you. Use common sense about where your mounting points are.

DO NOT MOUNT ANYTHING DIRECTLY TO THE FRAME. In an accident you want the sheet metal where your belts are mounted to distort to absorb the energy of the impact. If the belts are mounted to the frame you can/will become pinched or crushed severly as the body of the truck move off the frame and the belts hold fast.

Hope this helps.

 

Mikeboy, For now it's simply lap belts - my truck is a survivor of sorts and I don't want to make any changes that appear modern. I suppose one would find it difficult to come up with anything more complicated, but it was all I could think of given my needs. My needs were these: I want to be able to put the 2 kids in here and as a result need to have multiple locations for seat belts for them as well as being "normal" for when the passenger is a single adult. So basically I will have 3 sets of belts - the two sets on the passenger side will be for the kids and a set for me - so I wouldn't impact them either. Lastly I was trying to minimize the changes to the truck I don't want to weld anything in there and tried to use existing holes if possible.

If this looks like overkill - then well that's what I was shooting for. Keep in mind I don't have ALL the hardware installed in these pics just yet and a piece or two aren't visible - for instance the "crossmember" is mounted with two 1/2" bolts on each side - one on top and one behind. The bottom plate (sitting on the floor) is bolted through the floor with a 1/2" bolt and also bolted into a side support with a 3/8 bolt on each side. The crossmember also bolts to the vertical supports with 3/8" bolts as well. BTW the location in the floor where the 1/2" bolts are is reinforced from teh factory with a "C" channel that is below the floor. I will still put a large-ish plate into the channel to spread the load even more.

Kinda bizzare I know, but it's pretty tight in there and that "C" channel runs UNDER the tank so getting to it easily wasn't gonna happen.

Oldcarmike - lots of good points you made - as you can see the crossmember I was talking about is not the truck's frame, but the one I added in there.

I also added a couple close ups showing the welds - theplates were beveled where needed to insure full penetration.

 

I don't have a tank under my seat, but I could have... The seats (buckets) in my 50 is mounted on a bracket made from 3/4" black pipe and some bracing. The seat bracket sits 6" off the floor and the seats and tracks bolt to the bracket. I also have my lap belts bolted to the bracket. The bracket has a plate that sits flat on the floor (1/8" x 3" steel about 10" long) and is bolted to the floor in 4 places with 1/2" grade 8 bolts. Under the floor is a 1" x 2" channel that is over a foot long. I don't have any pictures of my seat frame or the seat belts, but I will try to get some taken over the weekend.
Gene