IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER!

This is an account of what one owner did to allow fitment of inertia reel seatbelts into the front of a Land-Rover Series 1. It has not been subjected to full engineering design tests, and so can’t be regarded as any form of official ‘Instruction Sheet’. Implementing any similar design is entirely at the owner’s risk, and the writer accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any injury or damage caused to anyone following these suggestions.

When we first acquired SXF870 over 40 years ago, the previous owner had installed simple 3-point Britax seat belts on the two outer seats. These were the type with the lift-up flap to release the belt, and which takes 2 hands to connect. They weren't totally efficient, because they simply came over the top edge of the middle bulkhead, and so didn't do much restraining of the upper body in the event of a frontal crash.


Then, when our son was born, and we needed to fit first a kiddie seat, and then a child's harness to the centre seat, I made up a strong rail above the seat backs so that all the belts could come over it, and raise the pivot point.

     It was this rail that made the reel belt fitting feasible, because the reel could be mounted to the wing box top, and the webbing could come up over the rail at shoulder height. The rail had been fabricated to use the existing bolts on the bulkhead capping — something similar is now offered by one of the LR aftermarket dealers, but mine wasn’t difficult to make.
But why bother to change the Britax belts? Well, unfortunately when some work was being done to replace the back tub, the person involved wasn't entirely conscientious in replicating the mounting points, and the passenger's one (even at the absolute limit of its adjustment) was very tight indeed, and caused quite a bit of discomfort when wearing the amount of thick clothing needed in a Series 1 in a Yorkshire winter.


Many years ago I bought a set of new reel belts at a Land Rover show, and now was perhaps the time to fit them.


I worked out that there was just enough room for the reel in the corner behind the rear bulkhead, with a strengthening angle-iron bracket, which picked up on existing holes for the seat-back brackets. From there it was a straight upwards run for the belt over the shoulder, and the reel was upright to allow it to work properly.


The outer end of the Britax belts had been bolted to the plate that holds the door catch, and as apparently the strongest point in that area, it was decided to use it again. That only left the fitting of the buckles on their stalks to be worked out. The trough between the seat backs and the rear bulkhead (where the starting handle lives) was the obvious place, but again there was only a single thickness of Birmabright to bolt to. Much better if a way could be devised to transmit the load down into the chassis.


Trouble was, I had no intention of drilling holes into my new galvanised chassis, and even less of welding fixings on. The best solution would be a steel bracket that would clamp around the chassis cross-member and reach upwards to the underside of the trough, so passing any seat belt forces down into the chassis itself. The simplest way (although perhaps not the most elegant) would be to make up a long, inverted U-shaped piece that would be held up into position with smaller U-shapes bolted above and below the cross-member to retain it vertically. I bought 2 metres of strip steel, 3mm thick and 40mm wide, and cut cardboard strips to match so I could experiment. A pack of M6 nuts and bolts was found in the cupboard — on reflection, had I been buying new I would probably have used M8, or even M10.


There was no pre-drawn plan — rather the metal was cut and folded in situ by trial and error. These measurements were taken afterwards from the finished pieces. There were 2 each of a long-legged U-shape, and a total of 4 shorter U-shapes to fit inside them. The long Us were offered up against the underside of the trough behind the seats, and held in place at that height by one of the smaller Us. The whole unit was then clamped to the crossmember by the lower U-shape (which was actually more of a W-shape because of the need to clear the deep seam along the underside of the crossmember. When it was all in place, the necessary hole could be drilled in the trough, and through the U bracket — in an emergency, any tension forces on the belt buckle would now go down to the crossmember, rather than just into the Birmabright. A rectangle of motorcycle inner-tube rubber was positioned between the steel and the Birmabright as an insulator.

The Goof

I had planned the basic idea of the project by lifting the lid over the petrol tank and looking through at the chassis. Having decided it was feasible, I removed the centre panel of the seat base, and started work on the cardboard template. It all worked fine on the driver's side, but when I turned to the passenger's side to check, I realised that the chassis cross-member is not the same depth from side to side — there is the offset PTO hole to contend with on the nearside. But my cardboard template showed that it would still work if the bracket were hard up against the chassis side rail — I would just have to angle the lower piece a bit to follow the shape of the PTO hole, and trim the edges off to make it look as though it was planned that way!

However, that effectively moved the position of the buckle stalk some 2 inches nearer the door — and this is something that would have to be considered on the majority of vehicles. But SXF870 was originally a Civil Defence Reconnaissance car, which would have been fitted with a radio in place of the centre seat. Even so, the passenger seat had to be modified to sit 2 inches over, right up against the edge of the seat box. This was part of the vehicle’s history which we recreated when new seats were made, and so it was not a problem that the buckle stalk had to move, as it matched the position of the seat. Unfortunately it did mean that the outboard end of the lap belt wasn’t quite as easy to fit to the lock plate — but apart from that, I got away with it!

Once all this had been proved to work, it was all removed again and sent for galvanising. During this time the MOT expired, and I was concerned at how I was going to present the vehicle with only half its belts in place. Then I realised that, as it wasn’t fitted with belts when new, if all trace of seat belts were removed, then the test station wouldn’t be looking for them. It meant un-necessary unbolting of the reel mechanism and lap belt fitting, but the MOT certificate was granted without them.

It’s now possible to drive, and reach across the car to open the passenger side ventilation flap! Fitting the reel belts was a useful modification that I wish I’d done years ago when I first bought them.

GRAEME ALDOUS.
sxf@teeafit.co.uk

		When we first acquired SXF870 over 40 years ago, the previous owner had installed simple 3-point Britax seat belts on the two outer seats. These were the type with the lift-up flap to release the belt, and which takes 2 hands to connect. They weren't totally efficient, because they simply came over the top edge of the middle bulkhead, and so didn't do much restraining of the upper body in the event of a frontal crash.
		Then, when our son was born, and we needed to fit first a kiddie seat, and then a child's harness to the centre seat, I made up a strong rail above the seat backs so that all the belts could come over it, and raise the pivot point.
		It was this rail that made the reel belt fitting feasible, because the reel could be mounted to the wing box top, and the webbing could come up over the rail at shoulder height. The rail had been fabricated to use the existing bolts on the bulkhead capping — something similar is now offered by one of the LR aftermarket dealers, but mine wasn’t difficult to make. But why bother to change the Britax belts? Well, unfortunately when some work was being done to replace the back tub, the person involved wasn't entirely conscientious in replicating the mounting points, and the passenger's one (even at the absolute limit of its adjustment) was very tight indeed, and caused quite a bit of discomfort when wearing the amount of thick clothing needed in a Series 1 in a Yorkshire winter.
		Many years ago I bought a set of new reel belts at a Land Rover show, and now was perhaps the time to fit them.
		I worked out that there was just enough room for the reel in the corner behind the rear bulkhead, with a strengthening angle-iron bracket, which picked up on existing holes for the seat-back brackets. From there it was a straight upwards run for the belt over the shoulder, and the reel was upright to allow it to work properly.
		The outer end of the Britax belts had been bolted to the plate that holds the door catch, and as apparently the strongest point in that area, it was decided to use it again. That only left the fitting of the buckles on their stalks to be worked out. The trough between the seat backs and the rear bulkhead (where the starting handle lives) was the obvious place, but again there was only a single thickness of Birmabright to bolt to. Much better if a way could be devised to transmit the load down into the chassis.
		Trouble was, I had no intention of drilling holes into my new galvanised chassis, and even less of welding fixings on. The best solution would be a steel bracket that would clamp around the chassis cross-member and reach upwards to the underside of the trough, so passing any seat belt forces down into the chassis itself. The simplest way (although perhaps not the most elegant) would be to make up a long, inverted U-shaped piece that would be held up into position with smaller U-shapes bolted above and below the cross-member to retain it vertically. I bought 2 metres of strip steel, 3mm thick and 40mm wide, and cut cardboard strips to match so I could experiment. A pack of M6 nuts and bolts was found in the cupboard — on reflection, had I been buying new I would probably have used M8, or even M10.
		There was no pre-drawn plan — rather the metal was cut and folded in situ by trial and error. These measurements were taken afterwards from the finished pieces. There were 2 each of a long-legged U-shape, and a total of 4 shorter U-shapes to fit inside them. The long Us were offered up against the underside of the trough behind the seats, and held in place at that height by one of the smaller Us. The whole unit was then clamped to the crossmember by the lower U-shape (which was actually more of a W-shape because of the need to clear the deep seam along the underside of the crossmember. When it was all in place, the necessary hole could be drilled in the trough, and through the U bracket — in an emergency, any tension forces on the belt buckle would now go down to the crossmember, rather than just into the Birmabright. A rectangle of motorcycle inner-tube rubber was positioned between the steel and the Birmabright as an insulator.