Hi all,
Not to hijack this thread, but it's just too timely. I've been looking to get rid of the factory lap belts in my 71 for years so my son can come along from time to time, but never could pull the trigger on an aftermarket set since all the ones I'd seen in other applications looked nice but had super cheap-feeling webbing. Also, I've been thinking harder and harder about selling for something with 4 doors (or at least 3!) for the family.
Last week, I stumbled across a set of matching tan belts out of (I believe) a 1978 suburban. These have much larger retractor assemblies than our trucks and have an angled base mount that does not match the floor near our mount point. However, the set is complete out of an un-wrecked truck, has no apparent damage to any of the components (other than the brittle plastic trim), and the guy only wanted 50 bucks for the set. So I bit, and they cleaned up pretty well.
I have also been wary of punching new holes in the floor and also was not happy using a piece of flat steel or an angle bracket to move the retractor forward, as I have seen others do.
My solution for now, which took me about a half day to conceive and install, was to use a piece of 1/4" angle iron sandwiched between the floor and the rear bench seat mount. I drilled holes in the angle iron so the seat bolts go straight through under the truck. All the original bolts were replaced with new Grade 8 bolts and washers. I actually got longer bolts than stock, threaded the all the way in, and added another flat washer and hex nut under the truck just to cover the up and make sure I could crank everything down super-tight. The shoulder harnesses are mounted in the stock locations with Grade 8 bolts as well.
Here is where I ask all of you to tell me just how poorly-engineered this is and why I should just buckle down (pun fully intended) and spend the cash on an aftermarket set that mounts where they're supposed to. I've attached a gang of pictures so you can see how I set this up. The first 3 pics show the passenger side installed and complete, the 4th pic shows the driver side bracket mounted without the belt retractor (exposed hole in the angle iron will mount the retractor). It's obviously not the cleanest-looking install and I'm still not really convinced this is a safe or appropriate way to go, but it seemed sturdier than the flat steel/angle bracket extension off the factory mount that I've seen before. If someone with more know-how or experience than me thinks this is a decent solution, I'll roll with it for now.
Thanks in advance from a longtime reader who is greatly indebted to this forum as a fantastic resource since I bought my truck.
-Mike
