retractable seat belts

[cool57]

Have any of you installed retractable lap belts? I don't mean 3-point. Just the ones that mount to next to the seat and retract the belt when not in use.

[Ford Blue blood]

Yes, put them in my 36 Chevy, 61 F 100 Unibody and 66 Ranchero (mounts already in the car, just never had the belts in them.  Later converted the 36 to 3 point.  Make sure you put the mounting point just a little behind the center of the seat back (drawing a line from side to side) and use the re-enforcement plates that come with the belt kit.  I like to drill two holes in the floor board directly in line with the "pull line" and fill weld the plate to the floors.  After all the idea is to distrubute the force over a larger area.

[cool57]

I was wondering if there is clearance between seat and door on a 57, as well as accessibility from beneath since the frame rail runs in that area.

[Zapato]

I'm not anywhere near that on my 57, on my 51 coupe room was an issue so i mounted the retractor side under the seat and fed the belt between the seat skirt and cushion. I used belts out of a volkswagen rabbit. works great.

Zap-