Making my 68f-bird safer

[Firewolf]

Finally after 6 years of not having either time or money i am going to be fixing up my 1968 Firebird. Since i have a family one of my first thoughts is how to make the car safe since it only has lap belts and the thought of taking a face full of dash or steering wheel didnt sound to good i looked around for seat belts.
I found this http://wescoperformance.stores.yahoo.net/am4point.html. So i was pretty happy and went out looking for seats. Since i have factory original seats are really low, flop forward, and dont recline.
I looked at racing seats and found a million different brands and prices. Ranging from 150$ a pair to over 2000$ for one. since the seat belts i found are FMVSS approved i tried to find some seats that had some kind of FMVSS DOT approval, bust so far havent found any. I even tried looking at DOt and FMVSS home pages to see if they had a listing but found nothing.



I read the safety sticky and am now really not sure what i should do with my car. I dont want to eat a face full of steering wheel but the compressed spine doesnt sound to pleasent either.

So i guess what i really want to know is what should i do for seatbelts and seats?

[Young Gun]

read through this thread...specifically the part saying no to a 4 point harness

specifically post 9

https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=40023

[Firewolf]

I read thorugh it and thats why i was wondering what i should do. Theres gotta be something better than a lap belt which is all I have in my car. I forgot to add a roll bar is not an option i dont have the money time or ability to do it myself. Also i want to have a usable rear seat

[CarlC]

There are retractable 3-point bolt-in belts available (Morris) for the front seats. For the rear passengers you either stick with just a lap belt or modify the package tray area to accept a retractable 3-point.

[expensivehobby22]

There are a number of cars on the market, mostly convertibles, that have shoulder belts integrated into the front seats. You can probably find one that fits and looks good in your car with minor modification.

Let me know what you find. This is a concern I have as well for my 68 Firebird.

[67BlackBird]

I tried some BMW convert seats, too wide and not weldable- magnesium. Have not found anything else that works, but would like to keep from testing my "Energy absorbing" steering wheel. I'll follow this thread for any good ideas.

[mpozzi]

I have the Morris three-point harness on my '68 Camaro and they work well. Attach to the factory points so no modifications are needed.

Glad to hear you're getting your car back up and running.

Cheers,
Mary Pozzi

[67BlackBird]

Looked up Morris seatbelts, but I do not se how they could work with a convertable first gen. Has anybody put 3-points into the front, or should I just give up?

[Chevy]

Blackbird,
there are a number of seats out there with integrated belts that will go into your convertible, you just need to keep looking. Check out the Octber issue of Camaro Performers for a second gen with seats from a '99 Sebring. My boss has the sebring and i was eying his seats for awhile but since i have the coupe i went with the morris three points. I know that there are some GM SUVs with integrated seat belts as well. Appreciate your continued posts as you search.
Good Luck!
Paul