One of the many smaller jobs listed on the TO DO sheet once the van was back together was working out how to fit seat belts. There is a good thread on the SSVC forum about bus safety that I keep an eye on and this is where I've got most of my ideas from on how to fit seat belt mounting points to my van
I picked this lot up from EuropaSpares.com - £1 for the plates and £1.29 for the bolts, a fair price considering the price some VW websites charge.
I started at the back, positioned the plate, marked it out then realised I need to fit my interior panels here somewhere as well.
So draging out my 1990 velour covered interior panel I started again
Here's the hole position from the inside. There will be one each side.
And where it is positioned from inside the wheel arch
I put a slight bend on the edge of the plates to fit the curve of the wheel arch
I had to drag out another 1990's relic- a piece of 1"x2" pine I used to repair the rear seat support long ago so I could get a fix on the best position for the two centre positions (making 4 points for 3 peoples belts).
Positioning the hole a holes' pitch up from the top of the rear seat should allow enough room for the belt mounts to sit behind the cushions. I hope I'll be able to piggy back two mounts to one hole, if not I'll have to fit another plate next to each other.
I'll still need to work out the shoulder mounts for the back seats.
Fitting front mounts is a lot harder than the back, the original seat belts at the front bench seat (apart from the middle lap belt) came over your shoulder and down your back on to a two bolted bracket on the top of the bulkhead, these non retractable belts would slide off your shoulder and weren't worth wearing.
So triming down two of the plates to the thickness of the box section of the B post. I sat in the front of the van with springs digging up my arse and judged the best place for the top hole (is what I'm telling my fiance).
My original intention was to slide the plate up the box section from the outer part of the B pillar sill I needed to repair, but when I slid some wire down the top hole it came out of a big square hole in my new wheel arch, realy not sure why thats there? Eager to see if the hole was wide enough I slid the plate in and then dropped it. Then spent 1/2 an hour trying to dig it out again.
With two weld holes and a bolt hole drilled in the pillar I attached one piece of wire to the top of the plate and one to the bottom so I could pull it from both directions.
Then a lot of gentle then frustrated then gentle tugging, then taking the cargo door bolts out then more tugging. finaly after an hour I got the plate to the hole only to realise I could not hold it in place using the bolt because I had put the wire through the threaded hole in the plate.
I needed a break and had a suger fix, came back with the idea to use a magnet to hold the plate in position while I cut the wire and fitted the bolt, the wire was a bit of a pain to cut in a small hole but I managed it in the end.
I held the plate in place with the bolt and washers and welded the plate through the two holes, I remembered to grind away the galvenising on the plate before I installed it so that I got a good weld. A touch of oxide paint and I have one front sholder belt fitting finished. I'll tell you all the story of my mum bad brakes and the windscreen one day too...
To fit the right hand side I stared by finding the best place to cut a hole big enough for the mount plate to fit. Decided on the back face of the B pillar half way down in a position that would be hidden by the side panels.
I should of cut the hole a little higher or lower because of the cab door strike plate attachment nut plate on the forward face of the pillar got in the way.
Pulling the wire up through the top hole I drilled earlier. I then fiddled to get the plate flat and held in place with a magnet so I could fit the bolt to hold the platefirm for welding.
The plate was cleaned of galvanised plating where the weld hole were, then mig welded and once ground down flat the anchor point is installed. easy..........
Still not sure what to do about the hole in the bottom of the pillar yet though
