3 point seat belt mount locations

[Scottcorvette]

My '64 had no belts at all in it, although did have the factory/dealer installed points on the floor behind the seat. These had bungs in and looked like they had never been used but who knows.

I want to mount a 3 point retractable seat belt set up. I have already put the captive retainer plate in behind the chassis section (photo 1) so that the retractor is under the rear floor boards. I am in the process of repairing the crossmember above the rear axle and am thinking of putting the other mount there or in the rocker.

Looking for someone in the know here to point me in the right direction. Out of the two options in photo 2 and 3, which one is going to give me the nicest routing? From what I can see from looking in the tech manual and around the forum the manufacturers mount point was in the rear member as per photo 2, but I have also seen pictures of cars with it in the rocker as per photo 3. My seats are fully disassembled so I can't try them in to see which gives the nicest route around the seat so am hoping one of you guys can point me in the right direction.

I'm wondering if the way in photo 3 might make the belt too obtrusive when the door is open?

I also need to decide where to mount the receiver, I am using webbing receivers rather than a solid stalk, there is currently no mount in the transmission tunnel, and I figured if I put one in it would be reasonably low down. From what I have seen in pictures it looks like there may be a depression in the tunnel to take the receiver, if that is the case I don't have that. I do have the two threaded holes in the rear crosmember as can be seen in the bottom of photo 4 but wonder if they may make the seat belt sit a little high?

Whatever I do I'm at the point now where I need to fit the retainer plates. What does the group think?

[Tyler S]

Keep the reel under the parcel shelf as you have it set up. Installing the end eyelet in the rocker as you have in picture 3 is in my opinion the best setup. It keeps the belt from tearing up the back lower corner of the seat. The only drawback is it gets in the way a bit when accessing things from the rear. The original hole would have been about where you have the single circle in the lower piece of masking tape. The receivers would have been bolted to the 2 center holes in the cross member. Since you have everything apart you may want to add retainers to the tunnel instead. Just make sure they are back far enough. Let me know if you need a measurment of where they are in a later car.

You may also want to do the modification to the B pillar to raise the middle guide loop up as far as possible.
Tyler

[Scottcorvette]

Thanks for that.

I have already put them in the crossmember now! I wondered if the belt might rub on the seat with them in the crossmember but figured it would also be in the way if mounted on the rocker. I have put the mounts as far over to the side as I could get them because of the retainer plates. I wondered about having the belts made with right angled mounts to see if that helps.

The bottom hole in the masking tape is a drain hole. I put the mount between those two points in the end.

I will make sure that I have the seats reupholstered before I close the rockers up fully so I can try them out and if it really isn't going to work I can put a retainer in the rocker. I guess there is nothing to stop me doing that anyway so that I had both available, and I was planning on putting a couple of small access holes in there so I could inject the rockers with wax after it is painted for a bit of added protection.

What is the B post mod you were talking about? I was thinking of having the shoulder loops mounted the other way up to bring the belt away from the B post a bit.

[Tyler S]

Have a look at this page. It explains the modification to the B pillar in the "Mercedes service information" release dated May 1989.
http://www.sl113.org/wiki/Interior/Seatbelts

[Scottcorvette]

Ok I'd seen that, I have already had my B post caps chromed and don't want to trim them. I'll see how i get on with the shoulder loop mounted the other way up.

[Tyler S]

Others have done it that way and it seems to work. You will need to take the spool apart to be able to "flip" the guide around on the webbing.
Maybe Alfred can chime in here (66andBlue)

Tyler

[66andBlue]

Sorry, don't know what to chime.
I would need to see a photo of Scott's shoulder belt guide do understand what the problem is.