Has anyone added Eckler's "Corvette 3-Point Shoulder Harness & Seat Belt Kit, Retractable, Retrofit, Black, 1968-1974" to a vert that has never had a shoulder belt, or any other shoulder belt?

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...3&dept_id=1707

 

Some of these guys did. i was recently talking to 682XLR8 just did the swap. Ecklers just got there stuff together on the kit, and this one looks like it will fit. This thread has good info and pics on the swap. C.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1707559

 

The mounting "hardware" should already be there in your '68, but Ecklers kit and their installation instructions won't help you at all.

If you look at their pic, they show the retractor mounted on top of the wheelwell. That's a good spot for it, but that's not the factory spot for '68-9. They had the belt mounted to the vertical inner wall of the weelwell and not the flat top surface. Mount a horizontal retractor to a vertical wall and things won't work that well.

So you have the hardware for a factory belt, but that kit uses the later mounting point.

What to do? There are a few options.
You can bolt a hefty L-shaped bracket to the vertical wall and then mount the retractor to the horizontal part of the bracket (if that makes sense)
*or*
You can replace the seat belt reinforcement with a new one with the hole & nut on the upper horizontal surface
*or*
You can drill a new hole in the top wall, put a nut on the bottom side and mount the retractor on the top flat surface. If originality matters, drilling holes and installing incorrect brackets to the body probably don't fit well into your plan, so the adapter-bracket that I mentioned first is the way to go.

As for belts, there are some options there as well.
The Eckler belts
REAR seat belts from a '93+ Camaro/Firebird (search for Camaro Belt in the archives and you'll find a lot of threads)
Original equipment or repro original belts ($$$!!!!!!)

*Edit*
Looks like Paul67 used an Ecklers kit for his car. If that kit contains a retractor that's designed for vertical installation, it would be a good fit for a '68.

 

My car did not come with shoulder belts, so are you saying all cars had the shoulder belt mounting plate regardless if they came with shoulders belts or not? That would be good. I looked in the AIM to try to determine exactly where the shoulder belt mounts, you're right about vertical mounting, but unfortunately the page "Seat Belt & Shoulder Harness" does show exactly where it goes (I’m paging through the rest of the AIM in a hope to find the mounting plate placement). I looked in my car and notice that the frame is on the other side of the vertical portion of the wheel well about where the shoulder belt should mount, so I can't tell if there is a plate there or not. The AIM shows a bolt going in a hole, is the mounting plate pre-drilled and tapped?

 

The shoulder belt bracket should be there.
If you remove either rear wheel you can see the bracket riveted to the body just above the frame rail roughly in the center of the wheel opening. The bracket itself is L-shaped, about 4" front to back and around 3" tall & wide. There is a nut welded to the bracket that the bolt would screw into.

If you pull back the carpet from the wheelwells, you can see the inside of the bracket and the rivets that hold it to the fiberlass and maybe the hole that the belt bolt goes through.

 

My '69 vert had the mounting plates in place, even though it was not factory equipped with shoulder belts.

A batch of parts had some nice shoulder belts, same color and date as my interior, bolted right on.

 

Good news! I plan on bleeding my brakes tomorrow so I'll have the wheels any how, so I'll look for the mounting plate. I tried pulling back the carpet to see if I could see anything but it was gluded pretty well so I didn't want to pull too hard. Thanks guys for the good info

 

There is something to be said for shoulder belts. Of course it's only in advanced age we worry about such things....

 

Mike-ddecart is exactly right about the shoulder belt mounting brackets. You should be able to see them once the rear wheels are off.
My brackets were rusted beyond use, and I didn't have the stock belts anyway, so I had the bracket holes glassed over and bought a set of generic belts to use.
With the Eckler's belts, I had to redrill the mounting hole for the retractor bolt, and used the supplied mounting plate, but you shouldn't have that problem.
Here's a few pics of the system mounted.
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]
This pic shows the top of the Eckler's mounting bracket peeking up above the frame.
I'm happy with the belts. didn't have any problems installing them. If you decide to buy a set, feel free to PM with any questions

 

Oh yeah. I've been waiting for a thread like this. I'm putting C5 seats in my '68 vert and want to install shoulder belts. Not sure if I'll be able to use the C5 seat belt receptacles though.

 

This is a 1967 but there may be a few tips here in using the Eckler's product. This is the bracket and it is threaded.



Retractor.



Retractor and seat belt guide.



I replaced the generic chrome buckles with GM.



Full setup.

 

682XLR8 - thanks for the pictures, the belts look good. Did your seats already have the bracket at holds the belt to the seat top or did you use Eckler's?

paul67 - also looks good, I assume the bracket that holds the belt to the seat top was already on the seat.

I've got allot of work to do to get my car as clean looking as you guy's cars.

After I got the wheels off I could see the bracket and I was able to feel the threaded hole on the bracket behind the frame .

I'm ordering the belts tonight before the sale ends. Maybe after I get them installed I'll stop getting that funny feeling in my front teeth every time I hope in for a ride .

 

Seats didn't come stock with the holders, and I opted to try the belts first before I go punching holes in my new seat covers
Found that I didn't need them

 

The seat belt guide came with the Eckler's kit in a cadmium finish. I had it chromed. It is held to the seat frame by two sheet metal screws.

 

Good pic Paul. Beats the pic I was going to take of the rusty bracket that I removed from my car.

When I did my belts, I hammered a new (thicker) bracket out of sheet steel and drilled a hole in the top side of the bracket for the Camaro belts.

 

Dave,
The kit comes with the body mounting brackets but given the presence of the factory version (first appeared mid-1966) I did not have to use them.

 

I was going to say that they should just include the factory reinforcements (looks like a better design), but after seeing that they're $50 each from Paragon I can see why they don't

 

Hey, thanks everyone. The brackets were there and after a little WD40 and a tap and die set it was ready to go (I also had to buy two 1 inch 7/16-20 bolts to fit the shoulder hardness bracket, which was not included in the Eckler’s kit). After a healthy dose of anti-seize everything went back together well.

 

Mike-Glad to hear your install went well. Did you use the brackets that mount to the top of the seat also? I found that the belt will slip off my shoulder when I am looking behind me to back up. That bracket would prevent this, but otherwise I didn't need them

 

I'm going to try it without the bracket since I don't want to cut into the seats, hopefuly the angles will work out for me.