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I recently read an article about a vintage Ford collection. The owners have added seat belts to all of their vintage cars due to friends of theirs being killed in an accident in their vintage car.

It gets me to thinking that maybe my Model A and Packard should have seat belts. The upside is that they can easily be tucked away and hidden. Yes, there will be a permanent change to the car with the holes that have to be drilled to mount the belts.

Does anyone have any experience with mounting belts? Can holes be drilled and backing plates be bolted in place and not welded??

Do the 50's packards have seat belts? They might look appropriate in the vintage Packards...

Thanks gents!

Here is what i did on a 56 Executive. Mite give u some ideas. Shoulder strap is best and rather ez once seat belts r installed. Start at post #20 on page 2 of the following link:

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... at&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=10&


Biggest problem is finding seat belts/ shoulder strap of appropriate color for interior.

Do the 50's packards have seat belts?

56 had them as option. Don't see a reference to any other year though.

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Biggest problem is finding seat belts/ shoulder strap of appropriate color for interior.

Look what's available from Snake Oyl, a long time advertiser in Hemmings Motor News for seat belts. When considering seat belts for my 56 carib (MES) I thought color might be a problem but they had a huge assortment of colors and had a near perfect match for Roman Copper Metallic.

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I put them in my 41 convert.

For what it is worth: a former medical examiner of Georgia County informed me that seat belts alone were worse than no belts since the passenger and driver in the front would pivot on the belt and smash their faces into the dash or steering wheel.

He refused to wear a seat belt in my 1974 Chevrolet Caprice Convertible.

So, if you can add a shoulder belt, that's the way to go - unfortunately.

Martin K. O'Toole
Marietta, Georgia

Lap belts alone were kind of a mixed bag, certainly saved many lives, but also were responsible for a fair number of internal injuries. On overall balance, I guess the concensus is that they were better than nothing.

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Interesting argument.

So, if a lap belt might cause your face to meet the dashboard... then, assuming the same inertia without a lap belt... your face goes where?

I think we've been down this road at least twice before.

Three point seat belts (shoulder/lap) are excellent but may be difficult to install in pre-war vehicles, look anachronistic and can't be easily hidden (if at all).

Two point seat belts (lap only) are not as good as three point seat belts but can be installed on most vehicles, can usually be hidden, and at least keep the driver/passenger inside the vehicle.

No seat belts... well, I grew up without them, learned to drive without them and I'm still here.

I elected to go with lap belts on my Packards. Just a personal choice made after weighing the pros and cons.

Here is another thread on the same subject.

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Here's what the typical lap belt set comes with. It's usually grade 8 steel (I think) and doesn't require welding. Of course if the existing floor panels are wood or Swiss cheese, then all bets are off.

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I just had them (lap belts, JC Whitney) put in my 56 Patrician.

Two problems:

What size to get (75" front; 60" rear unless you carry the o-line, then up one size).

Who will do it? My normal gas station and two local body shops would not touch them due to liability issues.