Living in Essex, I often pop over to see Adrian Priestley at Chisbon Restorations in Clacton. Seeing seat belts fitted to classic open cars there, I asked Adrian to fit front and rear belts to my VA Tourer. Adrian took some pictures of the fitting, which are shown below.
Figure 1 shows the fitting for the upper loop of the belt (“a1” in the finished picture at the bottom of the page). It is formed from two heavy metal straps “b” welded together and then screwed to the tub timbers by 12 screws and bolted to a new plate (not shown) under the wheel arch with three bolts “c”.
Also shown in Figures 3 and 4 is the thread “f” that is cut in a plate that is welded below to the chassis. This thread is the fitting for the belt near the right hip of the driver at “f1”. A further threaded plate (not shown in the photos) is bolted behind the transmission tunnel to take the female belt buckle “h1”.
Figures 2 and 3 show the original stanchion “e” that is welded to the chassis and bolted to the rear seat pan and the offside timbers behind the door hinge. This stanchion is drilled in six places to take a new plate “d” that is the fitting for the inertia reel “d1”.
Finally a bar is fitted across the chassis behind the rear seats to take the rear lap belts (see “g” in Figure 4).
The finished job is shown here:
The whole car feels more rigid and more fun to drive, so it seems the extra plates have reduced scuttle shake substantially as a bonus. I must stress that these belts have obviously not been crash tested – all I can say is that I would rather have a crash with them than without!
