how to:3pt Shoulder Harnesses in a 1970 Mustang

Juliano's - 800-300-1932

Juliano's
Mustang: 3pt Shoulder Harness How-to
1970

This installation is going to be different. The main differance is that the retractor is getting mounted in a different location. This move will make the retractor completely hidden. However in doing so we make a little extra work for our selves. In the long run, we find it is worth it though. Hiding the retractor makes it look a lot cleaner yes, but it also gets it out of the way. Passangers geting into the back seat, won't have to step over it. This DOES NOT make the belt any less effective. This custom installation of the three point seat belts is very similar to the installation on the Nifty One wagon. The mustang has a rear panel with an arm rest built in that when installed completely covers the retractor. Not all cars will have a panel like this, but it can still be done. The retractor can get hidden in the rear kick panel which is what we did on the fifty one wagon.

You may find as we did that you need to clean out the threads. The seat belt mounting points have become cruded up over the years. The tap is a 7/16" fine thread.

The shoulder mount and the fixed side are getting mounted the same way as the regular install. Just unbolt the old belt, and clean the threads if need be.

The shoulder part of the Juliano's seat belt gets bolted into place. We are using the same exact location as the stock belt without any modifacation. The special shoulder bolt that comes in the hardware kit allows this point to pivot even with the bolt extremely tight.

With that tight, the plastic piece snaps into place. This seat belt install is taking place in the middle of a full restoration, that is why the interior is completly removed. This custom install requires to remove some of the interior. When you are mounting to stock locations, you would not have to remove any interior pieces. We will have to remove some interior components when we mount the retractor and end bracket.

The mounting location we used to mount the retractor and end bracket on the basic install will not get used in this installation. We usually say to use the stock mounting location if you can, but in this case we want to open up acess to the rear seat and keep the retractor out of eye sight.

Here is the special bracket that we are using for this custom install. Toby is using a marker to mark where he needs to drill. The small holes are used to bolt the bracket to the car. The large holes are going to be the new mounting locations for the retractor and ending bracket. The retractor will get bolted to the top one and the ending bracket will get bolted to the bottom. If you are going to install your belts like this in a 70 Mustang, you will need to order the custom installation hardware kit.

With all the holes marked its time to drill.

The bracket is bolted in place and ready to go. We choose to bolt it as opposed to welding, we have welded them before, and it works great. We recomend that you either weld or bolt the bracket into place.

The retractor is mounted and the ending bracket is being snuged up also. With these two tight, you can figure our where were going to cut the interior panel for the belt to exit out of it.

We put the interior panel into place so we can line up about where its going to come out. We want to make the hole in the right place so the belt doesnt rub on it as it goes in and out.

We put tape down and draw the opening we want. The tape helps reduce chipping and also gives us a guide to cut on.

With that cut out, we use a file to do the finishing touches.

As you can see it came out great. The opening has to be large enough to fit the buckle out of. When you put it together for the first time you have to run the buckle and shoulder mounting point through this hole. The hole we have here was more then enough to do the trick.

Once your done with that, unbolt the shoulder part of the belt. Feed the buckle and shoulder bracket through the hole and bolt it back into place. This is a very slick way to get the job done and it looks better then having the retractor right in the middle of everything.

Here is our bracket being bolted to the stock seat belt location. This is located on the drive shaft tunnel. This bracket is going to allow us to have the stiff arm part of the belt exactly where it needs to be.

We are showing you this part with the carpet in so you can see how clean it looks once its all together.

Here is the stiff arm bolted in. With all of the trim pieces and interior panels installed the custom installation looks great. Its a very clean look these belts look great and are made of very strong materials. All of the boltes in our hardware kit are grade 8. Make sure to tighten all bolts very tight.

The installation we just performed is not any differant then the basic install in terms of safety. Looks and accesibility to the back seat is the only reason we wanted to install it differantly. If you don't want to make these modifacations for what ever reason, the basic install is just as good.
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The Basic Installation