Restoring Rusty

[rusty76]

Wheel looks good.

[flashed]

Looks great ,bout time too .LOL

[Man With A Gun]

Originally Posted by Gregski

feels wheelie nice!

You wouldn't steer us wrong, now, wouldja?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Wheel looks good.

thanks, feels good too, we will see how it handles soon...

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks great ,bout time too .LOL

thanks, sorry it took so long

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by man with a gun

you wouldn't steer us wrong, now, wouldja?

well played!

[Gregski]

alright it's almost been 24 hours since we bolted up something to the truck, so what you got for us today Mr. Postman

Buckle Up!

[flashed]

Those look nice .

[Gregski]

Alright Greg we know there's no Thursday Night Football tonight, so how's the seat belt installation goink?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Alright Greg we know there's no Thursday Night Football tonight, so how's the seat belt installation goink?

Glad you asked handsum!

First we start by uninstalling the old passendger side seat belt. Always do the passenger side first. (no just kidding it don't matter, I'm just checking if anyone is actually reading these here words)

One bolt holds the retractor thingie to the floor by the B pillar

[Gregski]

WARNING

NEVER attach, anchor, or secure more than one mounting end of a seatbelt with a single mounting bolt or eyebolt... [ahem] unless you are GM, than go right ahead!

[Gregski]

old (two point) and new (three point) passenger side seat belts comparacised...

[Gregski]

man these belts are nice, the LMC Truck catalog said you would need to use your old hardware, but dang they came with grade 8 hardware, even the shoulder bracket came with a bolt in case your 1973-74 truck did not have three point seat belts, like mine... nice... (or is it)...

[Gregski]

things were going well till my wife came home (from work) ~ LOL ~ you know like when the guy blames his wife for walking in the living room for his favorite football
team missing the extra point (in the dome for crying out loud)

anyway, it was time for some problems

first you would think that if we buy our seat belt set from LMC Truck that said seat belt set would bolt right up / fit our truck!!!

but no, the shoulder bracket bolt is too small and the threads are fine instead of coarse (not exactly sure what threads it has, but it don't matter, we had to toss it) luckily being forward thinking we got two stock bolts off of a 1975+ truck the last time we freaquented our favorite junk yard

worth mentioning is that my 1974 truck came with the holes for the shoulder belts, just didn't have the factory shoulder belts installed yet, did I mention I love this truck!

[Gregski]

ok, yipee skippy Greg, so the shoulder bracket bolts were the wrong kind, big deal, so what, move on man, how did the rest of the install go

well, more problems, first the specific exactly precise truck belt set which LMC Truck claims is for our trucks, had problems with the bottom brackets too, the stock bolts they insist we use are too large for the holes in the brackets, and I did not want to weaken the brackets by enlarging the holes, these are safety seat belts for crying out loud, I think you will agree

pic is upside down for demonstration purposes only, see how the stock bolt won't go all the way through that hole

[Gregski]

so I turned on the other half of my brain and decided to figure out this dilemma

I would utilize the 90* brackets they provided me and bolt them to the floor using the stock bolt and then mount the seat belt to this bracket using one of the new grade 8 bolts

problem = solution

I believe that could work, the seat belt don't bind, it retracts real well

[franken]

None of my business, but I wouldn't do it that way. We/I try not to buy from LMC but that's another story.
The longer bolts in my small mind add leverage at the pivot point, which increases the likelihood the bolt will break in a wreck.
More clever people will chime in, but I'd get SAE washers from napa in the meantime.
The bolt in the pic looks like a floor bolt. Not sure ir they're the same.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by franken

None of my business, but I wouldn't do it that way. We/I try not to buy from LMC but that's another story.
The longer bolts in my small mind add leverage at the pivot point, which increases the likelihood the bolt will break in a wreck.
More clever people will chime in, but I'd get SAE washers from napa in the meantime.
The bolt in the pic looks like a floor bolt. Not sure ir they're the same.

which part are you referring to?

[Gregski]

with the passenger aka "wife" side done it was time to move on to the middle aka the "girlfriend" seat belt

here they are old and new for comparison, both are simple two point lap belts only

[Gregski]

of note are the differences in length between the side belts and the middle belt, here they are for comparison, the middle belt female buckle section is longer than the side ones

[Gregski]

since No One asked I decided to share pics of the factory bolt holes on my 1974 for the shoulder belt brackets, not sure how my green truck turned out yellow in these pics, ha ha. I just used a small flat screw driver to pry these little round plastic blanks out to expose the rusty holes which are threaded and ready to go

[Gregski]

and a bad pic of the final product, it was late, it was dark, it was cold... sorry best I could do for now

it's done, I like it, I'm happy, scratch another item off the list!

[Matt Man]

I got the same seat belts, had the same problem with the bolt. I like the quality, only negative about them is you have to pull them really slowly or else they will lock up.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Matt Man

I got the same seat belts, had the same problem with the bolt. I like the quality, only negative about them is you have to pull them really slowly or else they will lock up.

Thanks for the feedback Matt, do you think Brothers and or Classic Parts sell the exact same type? And did you get the middle one too? If so how did you mount it?

[Matt Man]

I think I mounted it under where the passenger belt bolts in. Not a huge deal for me since I rarely have more than 2 people in my truck.

Heres a picture: