Technical Hotrod Safety Equipment Thread

Hey Fellow Hoodlums,
Had a synapse fire causing me to have an idea.
What do you HAMBERS generally see as Safety musts for your rides?
Brake system upgrades, steering upgrades, roll cages, suspension changes and of course seat belts?
Driving environments vary, some of you no doubt deal with major freeways and congested high speed traffic roadways.
Some like me in my district are dealing with much lighter traffic and much slower highway speeds.
However a bad crash can happen on a lonely 2 lane road or a busy Interstate.
A disclaimer is most of us do not desire, build or drive old cars and trucks with modern safety features of a modern designed vehicle.
Lets here your thoughts and ideas in this topic.
A short video of my latest drive in my old heap.

 

An expired set of RJS lap belts, Duel reservoir master cylinder and disc brakes. Although the car stopped fine with the drums I made the swap anyways. Other than that I'm good to go.

 

one safety feature I do is to not use my phone when I drive.

 

I keep a fire extinguisher handy, never had to use one. I put seat belts (or harnesses if require for racing) in most of them, I used that feature once, in my truck, when I ran into someone.

The thing I really need is to pay attention when driving, most of my scary incidents are caused by my mind wandering

 

Yes I fully agree. I am super vigilant when driving and do not take anyone else for granted.
Fire Extinguishers are a good friend...

 

As pointed out, seat belts & fire extinguishers are a good start.

Replacing cracked windshields is also recommended. HRP

 

The cars we drive are nowhere near as safe as new cars, and given their basic design there's not much you can do. Seat belts should be a given, and brakes that work very well should be high on the list too. Beyond those, it really depends on the car. One thing I think more guys should think about is bear-claw door latches as some of the early latches do a poor job of keeping the doors closed in an accident.

 

On the Bucket List 4 sure. Curved gl*** for C series truck aint cheap Im afraid though.

 

Out of date tires. Easy and tempting to overlook with these not being used on a daily basis.
Red fuel line. The original type stuff is a fire waiting to happen.
Shock absorber replacement. Same here. Not used regularly and easy to overlook. They we eat your tires in one season.
Battery shutoff. A simple bad solenoid or ignition short setting in a garage will ruin your life.
Headlights. Constantly keep them on.
Tests show cars without lights are more apt to get involved in head on collisions.

 

Not traditional, but a dual master cylinder is a must for me. Battery shutoff switch, roll bar, harnesses, driveshaft loop, catch can, long wheel studs, steel firewall between trunk & p***enger compartment and a blowproof bellhousing.

 

I was in a wreck years ago as a p***enger and it was ugly. When I built the judge I stuck an S10 front clip in it and kept the collapsible steering column. I selected a steering wheel that had a flat face on it. I kept the disc brakes on the S10 frame and installed a Jaguar xjs rear end with inboard disc brakes. Battery and fuse box is in the trunk so I used a Ford solenoid so the starter cable is dead except while starting. Small fire extinguisher under the seat and a big one mounted securely in the trunk. 3 point seat belts in the front and two point in the backs. I ignore my phone unless I'm sitting still or off the road. Electric vacuum pump and storage tank on the power brakes. Bear claw latches on the doors with solenoid openers. 1980's Cadillac Eldorado four tone horns at about a hundred and thirty decibels . No roll bar though.

 

A good set of lap belts, a working horn and good brakes and steering are about all I worry about.

 

Yes to decent tires. Check your DOT date codes.
Because of my location north of Fargo ND the shelf life on radials is a little longer than in Arizona for example.
Pie crust Bias ply tires may last longer some claim.
I have Chrysler type neutral safety switch for my A904 318 combo.
Battery cut off switch is something I like to include in my old cars and trucks too.

 

Don't get me started on this one!!!
Hard to understand why so many people can't seem to see how dangerous this is.
Just last month I had a young girl with a toddler in the back coming towards me half over the center line around a bend, all the while looking down at her phone. Still unsure whether she actually saw me at all. She made no attempt to correct. That was left all up tp me. Talk about **** myself.

In short, good safety equipment, keep your eyes open and be ready.....................

 

130 decibel horn at the minimum and louder if possible. Use that horn as your first line of defense.

 

Was a blind bend and she just appeared around it half on my side. I was a bit busy creating the few inches I missed her by to multi-task and use the horn. I did swear very loudly though.

 

Many of us as have a bit of age/life behind us. When I was in drivers Ed, it was always about being a defensive driver.

My dad bought his 57 Chevy PU new, maintained it well...as well as he knew..I joined a truck club in the late 70’s and we had inspections, the two guy that started the club were older than most of us, but before every run we’d go on, we’d have to meet at the guys dads shop for an inspection.

Everybody had to be there at 7am on the Saturday a week before the run. Everybody had to stay until the last truck was inspected

So the club President found one of my Kingpins a bit sloppy. Told me I couldn’t go on the run next weekend unless fixed.
Kinda ingrained safety into me at 16 years old, just not driving, but vehicle full maintenance and checking things.
As I’ve aged, I see that 4 wheel drum brakes and a single pot MC is not the best choice to compete in today’s traffic. So upgrades are needed

My dad and I did put lap belts in it way back when, but if you can do a shoulder strap as well, much safer as well as easier on your body


One of the main things I think all of us must do is look way ahead, look side to side, look in the mirrors.

Basically stay in the eye of the storm, so to speak


Bottom line, **** will still happen

 

Loud exhaust saves lives.
No fenders cut down on tailgaters too.

 

I bought bucket seats from Princess Auto. They came with headrests. Most car guys remove them because they don't look "era correct". I'm leaving them on in case of a new era crash.

 

Seat belts or lap belts are better than nothing, but not as good as a shoulder harness system.
T-boned a SUV that made an illegal left turn in front of me in 2012 while driving a "57 T-Bird.
Had seat belts, kept me in the car, ate a lot of steering wheel, results not good. Will not drive a car
without a shoulder belt system.
Ernie

 

Pretty well covered about.
So just do a "Way Back Story" Safety being all a big deal.
Me having a few racers in p***ed family.
When building my first hot rod in the late 1950s,it seemed a roll bar would be a good idea!
"Best laid plans of mice and men" don't always work out.
So I put in what I thought was a nice roll bar!
Real life turned out the most dangerous in my hot rod was my clutch n gas pedal foot!
So most times I'd take off hard= My head banged into the roll bar. Yes ,I knew it is a very hard head ! BUT.
So the fix was simple,even though it took too many bumps on head to come up with a way to stop this DANGER!
I remove the roll bar in the name of safety!!! All other ways would cut the fun out of hot rodding !!!
I still drive the hotrod,head lumps have mostly gone away!!!

 

Your story reminds me of a commercial years ago about a guy who quit a high paying job because the company wanted him to work on a night his favorite TV show was on. As he tells this other homeless man the story guy replies “why didn’t you just record it?”

So, question is why didn’t you just put padding on the roll at?

 

Nice stories and comments, keep em coming..

 

So, question is why didn’t you just put padding on the roll at? [/QUOTE]

Two things stand out*;One would of been any padding*,an the other is I hated the roll bar look after I got it in.
Other things are that it was in the way of moving bench seat back more,I needed more room.
An last but not least is,I try to write to both inform n have fun.
It's like seeing some fools put in bucket seats,who didn't think it through,pretty girls can't snuggle up with buckets.!

 

I was just ribbing you, Dana

 

Not always. Fire Extinguishers can brake lose in an accident becoming a projectile bouncing around inside the car. This can cause serious injury or death!

Many oval track no longer mandate or flat out ban hand held fire extinguishers inside cars.
I helped do tech inspection in a vintage oval series for one race this year. Myself and the other inspectors made several drives remove fire extinguishers at the last race of the year.
In one case we could move the bottom of the fire extinguisher about 3" inside the mount and it was with in 4" of the driver's head!!!
In every case the chance of bodily injury from the fire extinguisher far out weighed the chance of using it to extinguish a fire.

 

Roll cage , SFI harness , fire extinguisher, drive shaft safety loops, long wheel studs, catch can, some safety wired bolts, lots of grade 8 hardware, battery - power shut off switch, dual master cylinders . All of this on my little monster .

 

Now cmon, you’re playing in a different world than most of us

 

The clamps on this style mount been known to have come open from the vibration of the car going around the track!