old GT seat belts

[Mark W]

My 73 GT's seat belts are no good anymore. Does anyone know what other car whose belts will work? I can't find any GT replacements.

Mark

[newman27]

Originally Posted by Mark Weisman My 73 GT's seat belts are no good anymore. Does anyone know what other car whose belts will work? I can't find any GT replacements. Mark

I would buy the new ones available from OGTS. I have them in my car and they work great and are a much needed safety upgrade.

Matt

[BQS4]

Originally Posted by Mark Weisman My 73 GT's seat belts are no good anymore. Does anyone know what other car whose belts will work? I can't find any GT replacements. Mark

There's a Hundai Pony that is/was available in Canada, that works great, or you could go here:


eBay Motors: SEAT BELT opel 69-73 72 71 70 1969 1973 1972 1971 1970 (item 230323618320 end time Mar-06-09 04:54:24 PST)
Or just go to Opel GT Source and get them.

[Mark W]

Thanks Matt

[ungermm]

Not all GT's have the mounting holes in the same area. I think the Ebay belt is a good price, but you might need to weld in a mounting plate behind the rear side panels for the retracting part of the seat belt system. I guess an alternate method would be to cut out the shoulder mount and hang the retracting part were the shoulder mount usually goes. Here is one that I almost bought this week except the price is per seat and not for both seats.

AMSAFE Retractable Lap & Shoulder 105" No Shoulder Mount

[opeletti75]

1974 -1975 manta belts will will work

[markandson]

If your car is truly a '73 then it is already setup perfectly for the OGTS belt upgrade and will take less than a half hour to install, as long as you don't have to deal with any rusted bolts.

[KN6VV]

Mine is a 1969 GT and the belts were completely removed by the PO! I need new ones and the only mount I have found is behind the seats on the side wall about mid seat height. Any recommended newer belts for a early 69 without having to weld in new mounts? Thanks.

[traytodd]

I have the OGTS belts in my '71 GT. The '71 has the lower belt mount in the rocker panel behind the seats. The retractor prevents the seats from being fully moved to the rear. If the retractor is not nearly vertical, the belt locks and you cannot pull the belt out. This has not been a problem for me since I am short, but my son Quentin at 6' 2" has his knees in the wheel. Q's '73 has the retractor mounted below the rear window in the side panel. A much better location. When I strip the car for painting, I intend to weld in mounts to move the belts.

Terry

[jtb]

I just bought a set of these:

eBay Motors: RETRACTABLE 3 POINT SEAT BELT SET BLACK HOT ROD (item 350161231220 end time Mar-03-09 20:04:50 PST)
yes, a set, for both passenger and driver seat, for $60. The brand name is Auto-loc, and they are FMVSS approved.
BUT, I haven't installed them yet, hoping to do that this weekend. I will say the end that bolt to the tranny tunnel seems a little long, but no worse than the other 3 point belts I've seen in pictures on this site.
I live in Canada, and was going to use the Hyundai Pony belts, but Ponys are from the 70's and 80's, so I thought perhaps new would be better.
If you search around, you'll find people have used belts from a Toyota pickup, Ford probe, and other vehicles.

HTH,

jtb

[ungermm]

I looked at those last week and may end up going with them. What is the length of the buckle strap? I'd be interested in how your installation goes.
Jerry

[pecje]

Originally Posted by KN6VV Mine is a 1969 GT and the belts were completely removed by the PO! I need new ones and the only mount I have found is behind the seats on the side wall about mid seat height. Any recommended newer belts for a early 69 without having to weld in new mounts? Thanks.

As Traytodd already explaned: if the retractor is not nearly vertical it doesn't work. Since the seatbelts in an early 69'er are mounted in such a way that a retractor has to make an angle when using the original mounts, I think it's impossible to use a retractor belt without welding in new mounts in an early 69'er.
You can weld a mount in the B-style or even better weld in a mount right beneath the quarter window just above the backseat plate near the wheelarch so the retractor can operate almost vertical.
I also own an early 69 GT, I tried to install retractorbelts (same as the OGTS ones) but that didn't work. Since I didn't want to change the originality of the car I searched and finally found original seatbelts in a good shape (see two pictures in my members photo-album). They work perfect for me and I'm not bothered with the fact that they don't retract.

[jtb]

Originally Posted by ungermm I looked at those last week and may end up going with them. What is the length of the buckle strap? I'd be interested in how your installation goes. Jerry

Buckle strap 12" from centre of mounting bolt to end of buckle.

[ungermm]

12 inches is what I expected. I have 10 inch buckle straps on now that make it a little difficult to buckle up.

I'm not clear on the comments that the retractor will not operate unless in a vertical position. Mine works in any position. I have my retractor mounted on the rear 1/4 window pillar (behind my shoulder) and pulls out at nearly a 45 degree angle. After pulling out 16 inches, the retractor will lock if you stop and let the belt slack off a bit. If you pull the belt in one continuous motion all the way, you buckle in and go.
Jerry

[jtb]

Hi,

Finally got the belts installed. They fit fine, with a couple of quirks:

The buckle strap is encased in plastic, which kinks a bit when installed in the Opel (see pic). I was going to eliminate the plastic, but the webbing inside it is grey, even though the webbing on the other half of the seatbelt is black. Functionally it is fine.
The recoil unit works great, even though it is not dead vertical. Because of the rollbar, I had to mount it further back. The vinyl is a bit wrinkled underneath the mounting point, but I doubt you'd ever see that once the plywood rear floor thing is back in. Yes, there's a big beefy backing plate in behind the sheet metal (which is why the vinyl wrinkled when I tightened it up)
I flipped the buckle around on the recoil side, I seem to recall someone else mentioning having to do this. The mounting point on the end of the recoil side was bent, but I straightened it out to fit better.
It'll be nice to have a shoulder belt after just having the lap belts last summer!

cheers,

jtb

[Phoenix]

I love it! There's always someone doing exactly what your doing at the same time that your doing it or thinking about doing it. Always so many options and you just pick what suits you best.

[ungermm]

Originally Posted by jtb eBay Motors: RETRACTABLE 3 POINT SEAT BELT SET BLACK HOT ROD (item 350161231220 end time Mar-03-09 20:04:50 PST)jtb

More questions about these belts.

Are these an inertia lock-up belts? This means that it should work in any position. It should lock up with any sudden movement. The angle at which it is mounted should have nothing to do with it's function. So, they should work at a 45 degree angle too, right?

The photo in the ad looks like the brand name is PROTNC or something. You say that they are Autoloc belts. So, are the belts and/or box you got appear to be the same or just similar?

One of the buyers of these belts gave negative feedback because they state "The seat belts are NOT STREET LEGAL!!". You say they are FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) approved and I have seen on the internet that they are DOT approved. Is there a label on the belt with specific approval?

Thanks, Jerry

[kwilford]

Originally Posted by ungermm Are these an inertia lock-up belts? This means that it should work in any position. It should lock up with any sudden movement. The angle at which it is mounted should have nothing to do with it's function. So, they should work at a 45 degree angle too, right?

Perhaps some inertia belt reels work at angles other than vertical, but I know for certain that the Hyundai Pony inertia belts made by Akai in Japan that I was vending a few years ago would ONLY work if very close to vertical. If you mounted them more than about 10 degrees off they were locked all the time. I believe that there is an internal pendulum that locks the reel when forward momentum is slowed rapidly. Mounting them off the vertical causes the pendulum to swing by its own weight, locking the reel.
JM2CW

[badmaxdog]

So will these belts bolt directly up to a 1972/73 Gt using the old bolts?

[kwilford]

Originally Posted by badmaxdog So will these belts bolt directly up to a 1972/73 GT using the old bolts?

As this and the highly recommended related thread
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/2b-seat...pgrade-gt.html
have said, different years of GT had different seat belt mounting.

The early models (up to late 1969 or early 1970 I believe) have a low mounted shoulder belt attachment, and no mount for the reel.

The 1972 (and later 1970 and all 1971) had the requisite upper shoulder belt mount, but doesn't have a mount for the reel.

These models need to have a new mount installed for a reel, which is a bit of work to do correctly.

The 1973 has all the required mounting points, so virtually any similar inertia belt systems should work.

If you are asking if the bolts work, I know that the OEM Opel bolts are virtually identical to the Hyundai bolts. I can't speak for other seat belt systems.

HTH

[jtb]

Originally Posted by ungermm More questions about these belts. Are these an inertia lock-up belts? This means that it should work in any position. It should lock up with any sudden movement. The angle at which it is mounted should have nothing to do with it's function. So, they should work at a 45 degree angle too, right? The photo in the ad looks like the brand name is PROTNC or something. You say that they are Autoloc belts. So, are the belts and/or box you got appear to be the same or just similar? One of the buyers of these belts gave negative feedback because they state "The seat belts are NOT STREET LEGAL!!". You say they are FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) approved and I have seen on the internet that they are DOT approved. Is there a label on the belt with specific approval? Thanks, Jerry

Hi,

Yes, they are inertia reel lock up, I think they would be fine at 45 degrees.

The photo in the ad does show some purple and white box, but mine came in Autoloc packaging from this ebay vendor. The belts themselves look like what is in the picture, except the retractor is more square. You can see them on the autoloc web site Seatbelts

There is a label on each belt that states they are FMVSS approved, which is the same approval as a factory belt. The old GM lap belts I took out also had a FMVSS label. It is my understanding that FMVSS is the governing body in this case, not DOT. Perhaps that's where the guy got confused and thinks they are not street legal, but I'm sure they are.

BTW, they do come with bolts and washers, which are the 7/16 NF that Keith mentions. In other words, the bolts fit the Opel threaded mounting holes.

HTH,

jtb

[hrcollinsjr]

Originally Posted by ungermm Are these an inertia lock-up belts? This means that it should work in any position. It should lock up with any sudden movement. The angle at which it is mounted should have nothing to do with it's function. So, they should work at a 45 degree angle too, right?

I'm not so sure about working at almost any angle. Back in the '80's I modified the inertia belts in my then new truck. It had a device that allowed slack to stay in the shoulder blelt portion when you leaned forward and the belt how to be tugged on slightly and released to get rid of the slack. When I opened the case up to disable this device I spotted a pendulum type device that was used to lock up the belt upon impact. The device looked to me like it would need to be near vertical to work properly. They may use a different design now that's just what I observed years ago.

Harold

[ungermm]

Originally Posted by ungermm Are these an inertia lock-up belts? This means that it should work in any position.

I read this when trying to learn about seat belts. However, I now know some inertia locking belts only work when nearly vertical while others work in any position.

I went to several wreckers a few days ago and didn't find anything that looked to directly bolt onto a GT. Just about every car I saw had a retracting real that was hidden behind a panel. I could customize them to fit, but just about all of them were dirty and not worth the $8/pair even on 1/2 price days. I don't think I saw anything in black.

I did find the AutoLoc belts for less, $55/pair plus $11.35 shipping. They come in different colors too. But, if you want black, for some reason they are $75.
eBay Store - CUSTOM PARTS 4 LESS: Seatbelts: 2 Orange DOT APPROVED 3 Point Retractable Seatbelts
Jerry

[KN6VV]

Originally Posted by ungermm I read this when trying to learn about seat belts. However, I now know some inertia locking belts only work when nearly vertical while others work in any position. Jerry

Since there are some that work in any position, does anyone know of some new ones that DO work at an angle? Those of us with 1969 models are in a bind unless we weld new mounts and I would prefer to keep the car as close to stock as possible. Thanks!

Tom

[ungermm]

A representative of AutoLoc told me that their 3 point belts only work when mounted vertical or else an inertial switch will be tripped. So, jtb....I would guess that if you loosen your mounting bolt and turn the unit 45 degrees, the belt will not be able to be pulled out.
Jerry