Morris Minor Owners Club

Looking for some advice 'her' indoors has requested that I fit seat belts to make the car safe ?

I am toying with the idea of fitting harnesses instead as the door pillar seems to be very narrow to be trying to fit the top fixing.

I had some like these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PAIR-OF-GREEN ... 5647621861
in my old mini so that I could clip them in and out.

I know there are loads of posts but they all seem to deal with either rear belts or fitting standard belts?

Anyone any suggestions, would not want to be un-safe !
Peter

Hi there,

tbh, I dont know what others on here think, but having front seat belts on a minor is a bit of a waste of time, especially on the drivers side. I mean, the idea of the seat belt is to prevent the occupent(s) from going through the windscreen and hitting the dashboard.
If you have the huge, original steering wheel, that is enough to stop you going through the windscreen and hitting the dash.

The windscreen on minors are very close to you as opposed to modern cars, and are quite high, so i dont think its possible to actually go through them, as there is no way past the huge steering wheel!

personally, i dont see the point in a minor, but im sure others on here will disagree.

Is your car a 2 or 4 door? Seat belt anchor points on the 2 door are under the rear side windows and on the 4 door are on the B post[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Yes - that large wheel will stop you right enough - and crush your rib cage into your lungs in the process.... Wear the belt - you know it makes sense.

.

The series 11 two door is easy,the upper belt fits way back where there is enough body to support it. But the 4 door is not so easy,the central pilar is not very strong,and to fit the upper you need to get some support from the joint of the pillar and the roof. However this is exactly where the trafficators are fited,and even weaker.If you are not bothered about the trafficators,then I did mine by removing them, filling the outer slot and sliding a steel bar inside the pillar bolted top and way down the bottom, then mounted the seat belt in the centre of the bar.
If you want to keep the trafficators then the only other way would be a full harness type with all the mountings on the sills and transmission tunnel.Like a full racing harness.Not very comfortable but better then hitting the steering wheel at 50mph, bearing in mind that there is no crumple zone on a minor steering column,like modern cars.
I did mine like this so that I can,if need be ,remove it all to refit the trafficators and put it back to original.I looked at other ways to site the upper mount. But even if you mount it just below the trafficator slot,you are fitting it where there is very little metal and virtually no support. Better than no belts but not very strong.

I've fitted front seat belts to our 4 dr series II and kept the trafficators. granted it was a bit a faf and involved a bit of cutting drilling and welding on the B piller. But with the upper B post trim panel in place they look factory fitted and work well.