Seat belts, the lessons learned

How many here have seat belts in their early rides? Less than 100% is not enough. A belt for every driver and passenger should be a requirement for any rod, early or late.
Seat belts keep you behind the wheel at the controls where you need to be in case of an accident or a potential accident. If you're not behind the wheel with hands and feet at the controls you have no hope of driving out of a bad situation and ONLY a seat belt will keep you there when the time comes. And when the worst happens , those belts keep you and yours in the car where the chance of survival is the highest.
Your passengers(friends, wives, girlfriends, children, yours and/or others) deserve a chance too, don't they? Anyone who doesn't provide the safety minimum available to their family has no respect for their loved ones, that's for sure.

Please don't jabber endlessly about the exceptions, they are exceptions, lucky goddamn exceptions. The safety records of seat belts is a proven fact over decades and decades of records, don't dispute it, help your friends understand it and save a life.

Seat belts are available at any auto parts store in basic old-style black with a pushbutton buckles and mounting hardware, even instructions for installation and use. They are less than $20 a set so most rods can be fully outfitted for less than $100 or so and a couple hours time.

 

amen
got a full set getting ready to go in the 53

 

First car I ever bought back in 1966 was a little 1953 English Ford Prefect. I had $6 cash left over after buying it, and I bought a lap-sash seat belt for it. Three weeks later I was hit head on by a much larger car turning across in front of me in the rain and at night.

I had bruises on my chest and hip for weeks, but if I hadn't installed that belt I'd have gone straight through the windscreen.

Cheers, Glen.

 

Great thread, got them in all my cars. As stated, it's been proven over and over, you have a much better chance of survival if you stay in the car. Gary

 

Sorry, this likely won't go over well. Should I eat all my veggies also?

My point being is that this topic has been beat to death. Everyone knows the pro's and cons and I while I fully support belts I would rather go through the windshiled than listen to people who feel they have to be everyones keeper.

Everytime I see one of these threads anywhere I just get the feeling that someone just knocked at my door and upon peeking out the curtains, I see it's the Jehovah Witnesses again.

Yeah, just like I don't have to open the door, I don't have to click.

 

Ditto! I wear mine all the time in all my cars, and my helmet on my motorcycle..... but it's my choice!

 

Kinda funny.I have lap belts in my 65 Fairlane. When driving it seems weird not to have the shoulder belt like my daily driver car. I guess you get used to it ( shoulder belt ).They save lives !!

 

"Im so bad ass, no one tells me what to do!" Look, no one asked you to open the thread....

Pasadena, despite that the topic has come up before, thanks for the reminder.

 

Not bad at all. Far from it. I just no longer need anyone to hold my hand.

 

i dont like seat belts, i dont have any on my motorbike and i dont have any in my truck, of the 6 cars and trucks i have written off two i would of died in if seat belts would of held me up straight when the roof came down to the top of the seats, if i`m in a car with seat belts i put them on no biggy, if we want to saves lives then stop speeding, stop running stop signs, stop drinking and driving, obey all trafic laws and there wont be a need for seat belts.

 

My priorities are:
1. Make it stop
2. Put seat belts in it
3. Make it Go
4. Make it look Cool

3 and 4 can be reversed but never put 3 before 1 or 2

 

budd, yer dreaming. Who obeys the laws anyway? You can't make anyone act safely. They have to do it on their own.

This is fate though, Last night I was throwin pictures away and came across a B&W of me sittin in my first 57 Chevy at the strip. I was wearing surplus OD WWII belts and shoulder harness. Didn't even remember having them. I remembered that I had just watched a Nomad flip in the traps cause his front U-joint broke and he pole-vaulted on to his roof, sort of. It was kind of scarry to watch.

The guy crawled out of one of the side windows. He was fine except for a bump on his dome. He did act kind of like a punch-drunk chicken for the rest of his short life... no seatbelt for him. I snugged mine up just the same thanks.

I recently got a set of the same WWII belts for my project.

 

Just put a set in the roadster. Helps ya keep your seat on some of our roads for sure.

 

air bags are the best way to go, if your cars doesnt have air bags then its just not as safe as it could be. you need at least 6.

 

Safety is very improtant. In my 51' Ford I have driver and passenger SRS air bags and side curtains. I'm trying to retrofit run flat wheels and tires but cant get sombreros to fit em! I cant believe ours parents and grandparents ever survived such horrid conditions back then.

 

I have lap/shoulder belts in my 50 Chevy and will put them in my 53 Hudson before it’s out on the road. Here is my reason….How fast can you punch? Go a head and take a swing at that metal dash like the one that is in all of our vehicles. Probably won’t even dent, but I’ll bet you break some bones in your hand. Now picture your wife/girlfriend/son/daughter sitting in the passenger seat and their face hitting that dash at even 15-20 mph. Since the laws of inertia can’t be changed and I have no control over the other drivers on the road, I put the three point belts in. Yes, they look a little goofy hangen’ there in the old iron. But I want to be able to protect my passengers as best I can…and I want to be able to buy/fix up/drive another old ride if this one gets wrecked, not eating meals thru a tube the rest of my life.

I’m not preaching here, that’s just my thoughts for what they are worth. It’s a semi-free country and you all are free to do as you please.

Pasadenahotrod, good topic to bring up once and a while as a reminder. Lots of new folks on here all the time.

Oh and to this..." I cant believe ours parents and grandparents ever survived such horrid conditions back then."...a lot of people didn't.

 

Yeah, this has been beat to death but facts are facts. The first time you hit the brakes hard after armour-alling a vinyl seat will concur the need for seat belts (although I guess there's something to be said for amour-alling the seats to begin with). I'm not your daddy though, so I'm not telling anyone what to do with their rides. You want to keep that non-collapsable steering column, run your brakes on a single reservoir master cylinder, use plate glass instead of tempered or weld structural components with coat hangers like some people - go right ahead.

 

all grown up huh?

Pasedena's- just looking out and very kind enough to remind people that seat belts have a purpose and can help if we or maybe another driver makes a mistake (while in the drivers set) and causes an accident.

I've been thinking about getting some seat belts for my '35 ( which didn't come with any). I'm so used to wearing them in all my other rides that when i hop in my coupe, i feel like something's missing and have an unsafe feeling driving sometimes ...especially when my 9 year old daughter comes for a ride with me!

and yes ...veggies are good for you if you haven't been informed from your doctor yet.

when are people gonna realize the difference when someone is just giving out some plain 'ol advise and good wisdom without the threat of being told what to do and how to live their lives?

yes, we all have a free will (the right to choose) ...but people take advantage of that God given gift and make wrong choices their entire lives until they finally wake up and smell the concrete!

being safe is being smart and being smart is being wise and being wise gives us the freedom to enjoy our lives to the fullest.

 

I agree it is your choice to not wear a seatbelt or helmet,
BUT...if you make a foolish choice you should have to accept the consiquences. If you are injured in an accident, no matter who is at fault, tuff shit. You should no be allowed to sue anyone. And if you carry anyone under 18 in your vehicle you are negligent and responsible if seatbelts are not available to them.

 

Of course if you have a closed car, you should have seat belts.

But in a pre-'35 roadster? I think I'd rather have an ejector seat. It's kind of like the reason that motorcycles don't come with seatbelts.

Anybody here been in a serious wreck in an early roadster, and had a seatbelt on (or didn't)? Thoughts on the matter, if so?

 

belts, no belts, your call...but karma has a funny way of sayin' I told you so.

the coupes' got 'em...

 

I have been. Likely 20,000 times the last 45 years, which is the point.

I don't disagree. Just like I haven't the other 500 posts.

 

This thread is almost as bad as one titled "Smoking - Lessons Learned". I think 99% of the people on here know the negatives to no seatbelts. It's cool that your thinking about our safety, its appreciated.

This brings me to another issue. Ya ever notice that the safer automobiles become the worse the drivers are. Maybe if we had kept the cars basic (not unlike the cars we love) we would be safer DRIVERS.

 

My coupes got em too....here in Oz the land of the "Safety" Police, no seatbelts, = no registration when bulding a car. Even in normal cars u get caught without wearign a seat belt you receive on the spot fins and demerit points.

Cars registered prior to 1960 technically dont need them, but even then a lot of dudes fit em coz they put their kinds into their cars si it aint worth the risk anyway.

I set mine up so that unless youre wearing em, you can't see them. Everytime we get into a car here, the belt goes on automaticall, its just how it is and what were used to.

I cant afford the fines anyway (assholes)

Still, they DO SAVE LIVES, never forget that. Its just that o hate the Feds for profiteering from it.

Like I said....

Assholes.....

Rat

 

I don't have seatbelts in my truck and never have. That metal dash looks pretty hard and I do think about that sometimes. The stupid thing is that I have a set of seatbelts for it in the garage and just haven't installed them.

Even dumber, my next door neighbor just came out of a three month coma from a car accident where his best friend was driving. The guys in the front had on seatbelts but my friend in the back chose not to wear his. When he became a 265 pound projectile he killed his best friend in the front seat by crushing the back of his head.

I don't let my kids ride without seat belts and my daughter won't let me drive without wearing mine. I drive the truck alone except for Larry the Eyebrow but I have seen comfortable seatbelts for a Rottweiler yet.

But I get the point of this post. You SHOULD have them. It's easy. It IS your choice. Everyone has examples for both sides of the argument just like politics, religion, abortion, or marriage. The cool thing about not wearing seatbelts is that 80MPH doesn't seem fast in some cars but it does when the car stops moving and you are still going 80. If you really like the sensation of speed, that's one way to get it.

 

I have a habit of wearing my belts. My '47 has belts in the front only.
I want my 3 yr old son to ride with me, but not until I install a set in the back for his booster seat.

 

I don't know why ya'll are jumping on pasadena for bring this up. Seems to me he is just concerned about safety and the well being of others. I didn't see him demanding that you use your seatbelt, just a safety reminder. If you don't want to wear any safety equipment, that's your right, go for it, we won't lose any sleep over it. I can tell you about a guy I saw laying in the street yesterday unconcious from being hit by a car on his motorcycle. The first thing I noticed was his ball cap laying in the street next to some smashed sunglasses. If he lived, I bet he wishes he had that stupid ole helmut on. "We don't need no stinking helmuts".....right tough guys?

 

Seems that way. I even catch myself doing it. I'll sort of notice I'm riding too close to the car in front of me when I'm driving in the mini-van and note to myself that I would never get that close in the 54.

 

I'm so used to driving old crap with lousy drum brakes that I don't even tailgate when I'm driving the late model abs 4 wheel disk job.

 

Put on your Nikes and just do it- this weekend.

Thanks,
Kurt