Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL) Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 I'm not done with my restoration, yet, but intend to include seat belts. I have to admit, I want to install them where they can be pushed behind the seat so they don't show when the car is on display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1937hd45 Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 I don't think I want to be belted in if my 1912 T rolls over. Everyone used belts in the new daily drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dave Mills Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 No belts in the old cars. I refuse to use them in the modern cars. Not because of safety concerns, just because I don't like being told I have to use them. My statement on civil disobedience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 I can understand not liking being mandated how we live our lives, I too do not like being told what to do! It should be your choice as an adult(even though i firmly believe in wearing them), but kids should always be buckled up! They don't have the reasoning powers to make an objective choice for themselves. Being partially ejected from a rolling vehicle, as a teenager, cause I didn't buckle up opened my eyes quickly! 2 Crushed vertabra, broken sternam, and mutiple lost teeth. 3 months out of work. won't leave home without them!! <p>[ 03-15-2002: Message edited by: 54 OLDSMAN ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronbarn Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 A friend of mine was driving his Orient Buckboard (1908 I believe), hit a rut in the road and was thrown out breaking both of his arms. Speed was not a factor since those cars rarely get more than about 10-15 mph. When his arms healed the first thing he did was install belts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ply33 Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 "...just because I don't like being told I have to use them. My statement on civil disobedience."<P>I hope you stop on red lights, keep on the correct side of the road, etc. Or do you not like being told to do that too? <P>There is a tremendous increase in your chances of surviving an accident if you are belted in. Any rational person looking at the test results and statistics accumulated over the last 40 years knows that wearing seat belts is a good thing. It seems dumb to select this area of your life to make your "statement on civil disobedience."<P>Make your statement on civil disobedience in some area where rational consideration shows what the government requires of you is bad. Lord knows there are plenty of opportunities even if you limit yourself to this one consideration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Bollman Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 I have belts in my 58 Willys FC 170 and use them. I don't have them in my 51 Crosley FarmOroad. Those that know what a FOR looks like will understand when I say I would rather be thrown clear. After seeing the note on falling out at low speed I may have to re-think that choice. I always figured the FOR was about as safe as a motorcycle, accept I drive it fewer miles and slower than I would a motorcycle. My 49 Crosley Wagon will have belts when it is done.<P>I starting using belts years before they were the law. My Father had a 56 Ford with them when I was a kid and most every car since has had them and I used them.<P>Jim... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 Thanx ply33, I was trying to hold back. Well put! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1937hd45 Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 Jim, Do you know that a Crosley bodied racer has gone over 300MPH at Bonneville? It wecked last year at about 250MPH, driver walked away with a broken wrist. Yes, he did have seatbelts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxnard Montalvo Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 In a wreck, without belts the vehicle stops/changes direction and you don't until you slam into something. Hard. F=ma. No thank you. Common sense dictates their use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 My wife suggests that an alternative to seat-belts would be a first aid kit consisting of a gallon ziploc bag and a spatula along with a signed will and testament!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave@Moon Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 For my civil disobediance this week I'm refusing to use toilets of any kind. It's not that I don't think toilets serve a purpose, it's just I don't like being told I have to use them. <P>I remember a similar attitude in PA when I was quite young. There was a push to have PA's helmet law for motorcycles repealed. There are still efforts to do this, but they've lost considerable steam. I was probably 11 or 12, but I remember the item was coming to a vote (either in the legislature or a referendum). On almost the eve of the vote, the insurance companies weighed in with the actuary costs for lifting the ban. In 1970 dollars, if the post helmet riders in PA had exactly an average rate of accidents, <I>car</I> insurance rates would have to be raised $20/car on average. Suddenly the freedom to be stupid was costing Joe Boring money. You can guess how far that flew.<P>I think about that a lot now that I live in lawless Ohio. I cna't wait to pick off that high school idiot who's dad bought him a Ninja when he was 16. <P>Come to think of it, I haven't seen him lately..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave@Moon Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 Oh yeah, seat belts!<P>I had a set put in my 1960 within a week of buying it, and within hours of their arrival. The family wasn't allowed in the car until they were there.<P>The stock belts in my TR6 are not known for their reliability. I'm upgrading those to a more modern set that appears stock but is more substantial. <P>Did I mention my mother was in a rollover at 65 mph on I-376 in a '66 Mustang with belts in Pittsburgh when I was 8? And no, she's not dead. You figure it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 How many of you have seat-belts in your antique vehicles and how many do not? How many use them? How many don't wear them cause it's an old vehicle and you really don't go "that" fast anyway?? Does it affect the originality if you install them in a vehicle that never had them?? Thought this post might start some activity. An impact at anything over 10mph while not wearing them can be very painful if not worse. Not trying to preach, just curious!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 I never worried about seat belts until I had kids. Now I wear them and my kids wear them. I was able to have them installed inconspicuosly on my '62 Lincoln so that they can be hidden for show purposes, but my kids can ride safely when we're driving for fun. I purchased belts for my '63 Sunbeam Alpine for $20 each from Victoria British, Lenexa, KS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 Seatbelts? totally necessary devices in my opinion. What erks me is the fact that they don't put a good set of six point harnesses in. Instead they put an exploding steering wheel and dash to blow up in my face. Where did the common sense go. You know what happens in a side impact? All the seats get shoved together and nobody can undo the belts. With a quality six point you punch the button in the center and the whole mess comes apart ready for escape. Leave it to the automotive industry to try to reinvent a perfectly good wheel and then put an explosive device in my transportation so that it cost me thousands to fix after a minor fender bender sets off the exploding cigar in the dash. <P>At the hospital when a person comes in that was just cut out of a wreck they point to the seat belt burns, powder burns on the patients face and broken thumbs and say "those injuries saved his/her life". I say if he was in a properly designed seat and wearing six point belts he/she could probably have walked away. It happens on a race track every day of the week at much higher speeds. Someone at the NHSTA needs a good slap. Or maybe needs to hit the wall at 200MPH in their family sedan and see if they survive. I don't call this progress, I call it job creation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1937hd45 Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 Chuck, This is going to be a hard sell to the ladies out there. Think about it. WonderBelts? I don't think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 1937HD, strapping them in nice and snug would at least prevent the "applying make up in the mirror" syndrome. Maybe if they were pink and we called them fashion belts for the girls and made them bright red with black "racing" stripes and called them extreme belts for the boys.<P>Maybe we should just wear velcro hook shirts and have the seats made of loop fabric. I hear that once in the seat you can't get out again without help. Remember on David Letterman years ago people would jump on a trampoline wearing velcro hook outfits and then bounce onto a velcro loop wall to see how high they could get, apparently the contestants had to be pried off by 4 people, they didn't do that stunt again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skyking Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 4JAWCHUCK, one way to get everyone to use their seatbelts would be having them hooked to their cell phones. If there not hooked in, the cell phone doesn't work...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 Thinning the heard, if you don't want to wear a seat belt all I ask is that when you become a vegetable due to the fact that you have too much testosterone in your system you don't take any of my tax dollars for your welfare payments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critterpainter Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 I just put cast iron brake drums on my model A to help stop it.....Took my brother-in-law for a ride to demonstrate the brakes.....bounced him out of the seat and into the windsheild.....now he knows why I have seat belts in my A...and he now uses them <BR>Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave@Moon Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 Chuck,<P>We've got "civil disobedience" being advocated here on this forum by supposedly experienced car experts under a system with Volvo's lazy belts. Can you imagine the John Wayne wannabes' reaction to a harness? <P><BR>George,<P>What's your auto medical premium and deductable? Now how does that compare to the tiny sliver of your income tax money that goes to welfare (which, by the way, is less than half of what it was 8 years ago)? <P>Blaming the government when anything is wrong is as bad as expecting the government to fix everything. Actually it's probably worse.<P>I think at times people rant about the "government" when they really mean anybody who owns more land than they do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dave Mills Posted March 17, 2002 Share Posted March 17, 2002 I have been out of town and just got back. I see that my response to the poll has opened a lively debate. Thanks for the input on seat belts, but it doesn't change my mind. My kids are adults and gone, so that is no concern. If I am riding with someone and they ask me to wear a seat belt, I do. It is their car. But, in my own cars I will continue just as I have been....<p>[ 03-16-2002: Message edited by: mopardave ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2002 Share Posted March 18, 2002 I have and use seat belts in my '30 Model A Ford and my '59 Studebaker.<BR>I can't believe that some folks won't use seat belts simply because they're mandated. I can't think of a worse reason.<BR>I've known many people whose lives were saved because they had the common sense to use the belts.<BR>My wife wouldn't ride in my old cars unless they had the belts.<BR>Just my 2 cents.<BR>Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter J.Heizmann Posted March 18, 2002 Share Posted March 18, 2002 Dave, God speed. It is, of course, your choice.<P>My choice is to wear them constantly. Drive an average of 48-52,000 per year on business and my odds of getting zapped are a lot more than the normal driver.<P>What prompts me to wear them are reading every day of accidents involving death and 90% of the time the text includes: "...the victim was thrown from the vehicle." Man, if that isn't enough to make one a believer. However, "you are on your own, son!!"<P>My father always told me "you can lead them, guide them, but, you cannot live their life for them."<P>Regards, Peter J.<P> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2002 Share Posted March 18, 2002 As alot of you have mentioned wearing and installing belts in vehicles that didn't come with them, do you have just lap-belts or lap and shoulder-belts???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave@Moon Posted March 18, 2002 Share Posted March 18, 2002 I have a hardtop coupe that simply doesn't have the ability to support a shoulder belt. As a result, of course, I'm limited to lap belts. I would not reccommend that anyone install any saftey device into the roof of a car not originally designed to support the device. If that roof were to buckle the wrong way in an accident, it could be a disaster.<P>My TR6 is from 1970, so of course it came with shoulder belts. These were required beginning 1/1/69.<P>I remember reading that beginning in 1972 manufacturers were required to supply optional shoulder harnesses for outer rear seat passengers. I no longer have that reference handy. If true, this would mean any post-1971 car or newer can be retrofitted to rear shoulder belts. I can only imagine what the original installation rate of those belts was.<p>[ 03-17-2002: Message edited by: Dave@Moon ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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