Morris Minor Owners Club

Has anyone ordered seatbelts for their 2 door from the many Minor specialists and received the correct Securon 514/30 instead of the 500/45 - which I believe is only suitable for the 4 door.?
I've written to a couple asking what they supply but haven't had replys
Paul Humphries.

Yes a few years ago from Bull Motif.
What doesnt help is that on the Securon site it only lists the 500/45 for the Morris Minor and it will fit in the 2 door but its shorter so can cause problems, you often find the same thing with the static belts that on max adjustment they are a bit tight because they are really for the 4 door & Traveller.

I've taken the risk and bought, off eBay for £35, a pair of new seat belts for a Triumph Spitfire.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=008
Seller wanted a "Buy Now" price of £55 but I made a "Best Offer"of £35.
Seems they have quite a few sets of seatbelts, and based on previous sales, £35 (or even less) is what they are willing to accept
I don't know who manufactured them as not yet received but, per the Securon web site, they are one of the most common car fitments.
The buckle will be too short by 15cm but I don't like the current Minor attachment to floor anyway so will use a proper spreader plate and attach to sides of transmission tunnel which should allow it to fit better.

I'll "report" quality and easy of fitment idc ;-)

Paul Humphries.

But they are 500/30 and may not have suitable mountings, and those ones are not securon as the packaging is wrong, I hope you dont have too many problems.

Here are some pictures of one of the brackets I made to attach my seat belt stalks to the floor. I'm not sure how the seatbelt manufacturer intended us to attach the stalks - it doesn't go into details of specific cars in the instructions, none of the brackets in the kit were IMHO remotely suitable, there wasn't a captive nut already fitted in that area of the car, and I wasn't prepared to bolt the stalk straight to the side of the transmission tunnel (not only would it be prone to tearing out in a crash, but it would put the end of the bolt very close to the prop shaft).





The other side is a mirror image. The top part is made from some fairly heavy section angle iron and the bottom part is a thick steel plate. The screws are M6 countersunk (just what I happened to have in stock).

I see the fact the seat belts aren't Securon as a plus point !
So many people seem to have problems with them locking up and thus difficult to pull out that I doubt any other manufactuer can be worse.
Someone I know just the other week has said he was taking the new Securon ones out of his MGB and fitting the original static belts as they were better. He'd bought them at a show otherwise he'd be asking for his money back
I bought new set for the back of a Cortina estate years ago - from "day one" they were trouble and I ended up replacing with a secondhand set of genuine items.
I suspect these I've bought are probably ex Rover or similar stock.
To be fair a lot of dealers want as much as I've paid for a pair just for one so I'm prepared to have to adapt brackets to fit.
I've several cars without seat belts so they won't be wasted as they will be fitted to one of them is not suitable for the Minor.

Paul Humphries.

Never had a problem with mine and securon still make the etatic and lap belts as well.
I wonder what ones JLH fit to their modified cars.

On a slightly different note - I've had the occasional pointed suggestion from the mother of my other half's son that she would like to see rear seatbelts fitted in my Traveller. Now, before you ask, the young 'un always sits in the front passenger seat when travelling with us, and as he's nearly ten years old and average height for his age, he doesn't need any special seats. Luckily, his mum's boyfriend is a mechanic and has expressed how difficult it is to fit rear seatbelts in a Traveller, but can someone please arm me with facts to back this up? I've no intention of fitting rear seatbelts as I rarely carry passengers, and when I do I always make it clear to them that there aren't any seatbelts in the back and that I won't be offended if they don't want to travel in the back. Or in the car at all. So far, no-one has refused and many of my friends are old enough to remember when back seats never had seatbelts.

Kevin wrote:Never had a problem with mine and securon still make the etatic and lap belts as well.
I wonder what ones JLH fit to their modified cars.

Please don't be offended - I wasn't insinuating that there was anything wrong with Securon seat belts.
In fact I haven't come arcoss any other aftermarket manaufacturer that sells seat belts in the UK any more.
I was just trying (clumsily) that I'd prefer belts that were the type as used as original fitment rather that aftermarket.
At the end of the day the ones I've bought might be rubbish but they are cheap enough for me to take a risk.

Paul Humphries.

I should have thought static lap belts would be fairly easy to fit in the back of a Traveller, and much better than nothing. Anybody in the back who isn't strapped in will be thrown forwards in a front-end collision and crush whoever is in front of them.

3-point inertia-reels would be rather more of a challenge to fit in the back.

Kevin, we use Securon belts.
Alex dead easy fitting 3 point belts in the trav, if you use the ones which can have the angle of pull changed.
Securon went through a phase of producing transparent cages for their belts but now seem to have reverted to blik, these seem to fit well in all cars, but I agree with Alex that the brackets could be improved.

Paul, the three words you have stated worry me a great deal. 'rubbish, cheap, risk. None of these should be associated with a safety product.

jonathon wrote:Paul, the three words you have stated worry me a great deal. 'rubbish, cheap, risk. None of these should be associated with a safety product.

True but what I mean is -

(a) Rubbish - made in China, Tawain etc and not UK approved.
(b) Cheap - bargain eBay price compared to buying from a specialst who seem to want almost as much for one Securon seat belt as I'm paying for a pair.
(c) Risk - the amount paid and not that they might be suspect quality.

Like I've said before I'll report on quality etc when I receive them but I very much doubt they can be any worse than buying a secondhand set from a scrap yard.
Same applies to the seatbelts in ANY secondhand car - do you know their history ?
If you buy a car how do you know the owner fitted new belts ?
In my opinion everybody who buys a secondhand car takes a risk that the seabelts will work in an accident .

Paul Humphries.

Quite agree Paul, must say though that I replace all seatbelts in Minors I buy as a matter of course, for the very same reasons.

many of my friends are old enough to remember when back seats never had seatbelts

Some of us are old enough to remember when the front seats didn't have them either...

Some of us are old enough to remember when the front seats didn't have them either...

My 1st few cars were all in that category...............

Axolotl wrote:

many of my friends are old enough to remember when back seats never had seatbelts

Some of us are old enough to remember when the front seats didn't have them either...

I've got three cars without front seatbelts -
Austin A35,
Microcar RJ125,
CJ-5 Jeep.

Paul Humphries

My "cheap but new" eBay seatbelts arrived this morning.
They are Kangol make so I'm more than happy for £35 the pair.

Paul Humphries.

There are a good make Paul so all should be OK.