Thread: Seat & Seat Belt Mounts

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Roger,

What you described is pretty much the method I used. While I expect the body to stay attached to the frame in case of an "incident," I did not want to be the "cotter pin" that held 1000 lbs of body to 1800 lbs of engine and frame via the seat belt. If God forbid, the body comes off the frame, the seats will still be attached to the body, as will I, because of the seat belt.

I used 4 plates per seat. Each plate had a hole drilled in it with a grade 8 bolt inserted. The head of the bolt was tacked to the plate. Then, I inserted the bolt through holes in the floor pan and glassed them in place. That way, I had studs sticking through the floor, and didn't have to crawl underneath the car again to install or remove the seats.

Here's something I see missing with the seats/belts anchored together gig. It's called inertial loading. Seat belts are all about being respectful of Newton's first law which states in short 'objects in motion tend to stay in motion'.

My bench seat weighs 50 lbs. I weigh 320 lb. If I anchor myself to the bench seat and expect it not to fail then the seat mounts better be able to handle the sudden forces associated with deccelerating 370 lb. If the seat is anchored by itself then you can see these fundamental forces are reduced a factor of 7.4.

That said I too like the idea of a plate beneath the floor on glass rods to spread the seat load points out, but I'll make mine aluminum. That will more than hold the seat for any minor fender benders that could be survivable in a glass '32. I still like anchoring my big butt to the frame though ..............

Kitz