55.2-59 Three point seatbelts

[8man]

Since I'm waiting on some bolts to come in to finish the frame, I started looking closely at the cab. I am making notes for all the holes I have to weld up.

I found a couple of small rust holes on the rear corners, just above where the two metal factory mud flaps were installed. The mud flaps are still in very good shape, no rust.

While making notes, I started trying to set up the 3-point seatbelt for installation. I was looking for a couple of things.

1. Does anyone have the measurements from the inside of the door frame to the first bracket on the floor?
2. A measurement for the second bracket?
3. Pictures of your installed so I can see where you put them.
4. Has anyone done a 3-point? I've seen 2 YouTubes on that subject, and I'm just not sure about the way it was done.

If you can help, thanks.

[leegreen]

I used 2005ish sierra seats with integral belts. Seats bolted to floor with 4x4 plates sandwiching floor (rounded corners, bent back edges Gr8 bolts)
I'm happy/comfortable but I know these seats are not everyone's cup of tea.

Locations; Do you have your seat and steering wheel installed?
I'd get comfortably located in the driving position and place the belt attachment locations relative to my body using some modern daily drivers as a reference and paying more attention to the angles than the distances.

I'm not familiar enough with the TF cab to give specifics, but for the 3rd point you are going to need to get a large plate with a nut for the belt attachment welded to the back of it up inside the inner skin of cab in the area of the pillar and plug welded into place.
-maybe- glued in place if you have a finished interior, the important thing is that it stays where you need it and has a large enough surface area to stay behind the sheet metal in a crash.

[8man]

Thanks Lee.

[Hcb3200]

A note on buckle type. I went with the all metal buckle. Think airline seats
And it being a three point it beats the crap out of the door. Lots of paint chips and dings. I would go with a plastic covered or softer covered one if doing it again.
This is mainly caused buy it being a three point instead of two and just getting in hurry to get out. And it slings the belt and hits metal to metal.

[leegreen]

2 point belts used to do that too. Driving trucks old enough to have metal inner door panels does not help.

Putting a 3 point retractor in will help with that, at the cost of a 4th mounting point for the retractor https://www.summitracing.com/parts/rtb-369-blk-12

[8man]

Thanks guys. I do like the 3-point seat belt.

[mr48chev]

I'm just not a fan of those seats with the belts built in, to my mind they are just too ugly and too modern looking to go in an AD or TF truck. They just look like they were stuck in as an afterthought or were the only thing with good upholstery the owner of the truck found at pick a part that day.

Julianos has a plate that the upper mount on three point belts mounts to but it isn't going to be easy to install in most trucks and near impossible in finished trucks. I'm thinking about installing them when I have the roof off when I chop mine but that is being able to cheat a bit unless I just go with lap belts. It may be lap belts because I have a battle with my wife trying to get her to wear the seat belt with shoulder strap in ot cars and trucks.

[8man]

Mr48, I agree with you, that's why I have the Juliano's in my 48 and I have the brackets to install in the 55, since I don't have the interior color yet, it's just the steel parts for mounting, and I want to install all of the parts prior to pant.

I am still looking for a measurement from the outside floor mounting bracket to the inside floor mounting bracket. I think it's 22", but maybe 20", I just don't know. A friend had a measurement from the door pillar to the outside floor mounting bracket, but not from that bracket to the inside one.

As I said, I've looked at 2 videos on installing these type of shoulder brackets, and one just cut the pillar, and then welded the bracket up inside, and the other drilled holes and used wire and then string to kind of pull it into place and then install with rivets.

So, I was looking for some help from anyone who has done it.

[unclebrad]

Here's what I did:

From what I have seen, it appears that the B-Pillar on the Big Back Window trucks, is different from that of the Small Back Window trucks and the Julianos instructions don't account for that.

The backing plate needs to be in a different location on the Big Back Window models.

My truck is already painted, and I did not want to mess up the paint by opening up the B-Pillar, as a couple people have done. I think opening it up would be a good way to go otherwise.

Here is my thinking about the problem and the solution:

First, so you know the difference, on the Small Back Window cabs, the B-Pillar has a hidden, overlapping sheet metal layer inside it, which is flat, allowing for easy drilling and easy placement of backing plate. See Illustration “A” below.

Illustration A
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...attach/jpg.gif


The Big Back Window truck cab has an important difference. The B-Pillar for the upper anchor can’t be drilled in the recommended location, and if you could, the plate still wouldn’t work there. The hidden sheet metal layer there, is bent, which, unless you can get in there and cut some metal out, prevents drilling and placement of backing plate. See Illustration “B” below.

Illustration B
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...attach/jpg.gif


Screenshot from the online installation video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKmY8leGOaA
Here, the hole has been drilled on the side of the B-Pillar where I am proposing it should be. You can see the sheet metal behind the hole, which prevents loaction on the side recommended by julianos.
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...attach/jpg.gif


I have seen online, where a couple people have cut out access plates and welded them back in place after making the needed changes inside of the pillars, but it requires cutting, welding, body work, and repainting. As I said before, I din’t want to do that.

On my BBW truck, I placed the plate “around the corner” from the location recommended by Julianos, as in Illustration C below.

Illustration C
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...1&d=1725918110


Drilling
I am probably 5’ – 8”, now that I am getting older and I like where I ended up drilling.
I put the hole slightly more than 6” down from the roof seam. See phot below.
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...1&d=1725918110

In post #26 of this thread (https://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vbo...d.php?t=799565)
Dan in Pasadena adds a note to would-be-installers:

“I'm too late to tell most of you a lesson I learned too late on my installation:
We centered the shoulder belt hole in the pillar logically assuming that would be best - it is not. The hole should be closer to the edge of the pillar toward door opening so the belt hangar will be "level". Otherwise; like mine is, it hangs canted because the window is in the way. This makes the shoulder belt retractor hang up while trying to buckle it. Since I'm final painted I just have to live with it.”


Installing the Backing Plate
The Julianos method for getting the backing plate into position, using a yardstick, worked well for me, but I didn’t want to drill the extra holes for the pop rivets that they recommend.

In the online installation video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKmY8leGOaA
BIGglass fished the backing plate up into the B-pillar from a hole drilled above the mounting location. I didn’t want to do that either.

So, what I did was put some epoxy on the plate before running it up the B-pillar to line it up with the drilled hole, and then pulled it tight with the bolt supplied with the belts, and let it set up before going to the next step.


I think pretty much everything else I did was according to Julianos instruction sheet.



Note:
I originally thought that I would install a bracket to bring the belt hanger location around to the location where Julianos recommends the hole be drilled. The photoshopped images below show what that would look like. Although the belt bracket could be mounted that way, I believe it would just be in the way when entering and exiting the vehicle.



Some reading/viewing:
https://www.julianos.com/Articles.asp?ID=278
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKmY8leGOaA
https://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vbo...d.php?t=799565 (see post #25 for backing plate solution)