Seat belts

[Psycho pops]

Yes they are Securon with the turn dial, good piece of kit.

[peterux]

Originally Posted by davecymru

As i mentioned, i tried to adhere to the IVA specs even thought i strictly didn't have to, as I'd never built a car before and i was quite enjoying learning news things and new skills. Or in the words of my wife, "playing about!"

As i've gone for retractable belts my setup is a bit different to Pauls, but you could easily chop-n-choose bits of both depending on how you want to do things. i.e. the top plates that Paul has done, i could have used also if i'd thought of doing it that way at the time!

I used the existing seat belt mount point on the chassis for the bottom of my belts (shown hanging loose in the below photo) and then welded a threaded tube onto each side of the body frame to mount the release stalk on to.
The release stalks are shown bolted in place in the below pic using the original seat belt bolts from the MR2 donor.



Those were seam welded in place all along both sides and are very strong and i believe have passed IVA on some 7 replicas. Although others have added an extra plate over the top in a similar vein to Pauls corner pieces for extra peace of mind if they are doing more racing.

I then welded the top mounts onto the top of the frame (again, seam welded all around) for the belt guides to bolt in to and then two more threaded tubes were welded onto an additional sub-frame i added between the cockpit and the fuel tank to hold the bottom of the retractor mechanisms with some brackets i made up.

On the below photo you can also see that the space between the Sammio frame and my additional seat belt frame has a plate welded across it for the handbrake bracket to bolt to.



And yes... I did get a bit carried away playing with my welder!

Nice work, Dave

[MoriniMan]

Originally Posted by Mister Towed

I'd also think twice about using belts from a scrap yard. Chances are they'd have been involved in a shunt and may not work as advertised a second time.

Most people don't appreciate how much belts are designed to stretch in an impact. A friend of mine was racing a Westfield and ran into the tyre wall at the start of Gerrards (Mallory Park) due to a chassis failure. He broke the chin piece of his helmet on the steering wheel, which means the belts extended about 18 inches!

That's how they're designed. The aim is to decelerate you as gently as possible, the same as a crumple zone. If your heart hits the inside of your ribcage at more than about 60G it will stop! That happened to amateur race car designer Dick Harvey when he ran into the end of the pit wall at Mallory in a Formula 750 race. Only the prompt actions of the medical officer and that of the ambulance crew who together restarted his heart a total of five times saved his life. On the road he'd have been dead, but on the track he survived and was back racing the same season once a broken leg and new chassis were dealt with.

I examine belts quite carefully when I buy a used car (never owned a new one I didn't build). An old trick is to run a lighter down the edge of a frayed belt to get it through an MOT and you can often see friction damage where a belt has run through a buckle fast due to an impact. If they've done their job once, they're not really up to doing it again.

[cbjroms]

Any idea of the Securon model number that you guys have used. The choice seems pretty bewildering!

Thanks

Chris

[Mister Towed]

Originally Posted by cbjroms

Any idea of the Securon model number that you guys have used. The choice seems pretty bewildering!

Thanks

Chris

I used a pair of Securon 514's -

http://www.securon.co.uk/fitting/extras/514fitting.htm

http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/product/S...t_Stalk_SECM5S

I was lucky enough to get a pair brand new and boxed for about £60 on ebay from someone with an abandoned classic car project.

[Nike55]

Thanks MoriniMan for posting the fitting instructions - I was wondering about the placement of the inertia reel and the min /max angle 'of attack' of the belt into/out of the reel.

[oxford1360]

Being an idiot, I thought "I wonder if there is anything stopping me from making my own harnesses." Of course there is: it's called common sense. However, I did look around for period components and webbing and came across this company that makes bespoke period static and inertia belts for a reasonable price. You can even choose the colour of your straps.

http://www.quickfitsbs.com/auto_lap_...ls_classic.php

[Nike55]

Bookmarked!