[T3] notch seat belt anchor points
Jim Adney
jadney at vwtype3.org
Wed Aug 1 13:28:54 PDT 2018
On 1 Aug 2018 at 6:51, Jeff C wrote:
> Seat belts were required in the US as of Jan 1, 1968, so model year 1967
> is the first year. My dad added seat belts and anchors in our '64 F100. My
> '67 sqbk came with lap belts only, I upgraded to three point belts.
Jan 1, 1968 was in the middle of the '68 model year, long after the end of the
'67 model year.
That's what I find on Wikipedia, too, but that doesn't align well with my
memory. IIRC, the first car my parents bought that came with seat belts was
a '64 Pontiac Catalina. That was lap belts only. It's possible that GM added
the belts several years before they were required, but that would have been
very unlike GM in that era.
I know my '68 Squareback came new with 3-point belts. Is it possible that the
Wiki reference is for 3-point belts? The article doesn't actually say and we
know that the 2 versions were phased in separately. And the Jan '68 date
coordinates nicely with the appearance of 3-point belts in the fall of '67, as
well as, possibly, late '67s.
I know a lot of '67s came with lap belts only, using a sort of chrome steel
"hoop" at the tunnel for the connection, but a lot got an additional shoulder
belt attachment added at the dealership, or later.
Who's got a '66? Did it come with lap belts?
For what it's worth, the parts book doesn't show any lap belts before '67 and
no 3-point belts before '68, but it shows both of those as from the beginning
of the VIN series for that year. But dealers could have installed aftermarket
belts. VWoA might have had a hand in this, and it wouldn't appear in the
official VW parts book.
Digging a little deeper, I found that by 1963, 23 states had passed state laws
requiring seat belts, so US automakers decided, on their own, to put seat
belts in all their cars from '64 - on. The federal law passed for Jan '68
required lap belts in all front facing seats and 3-point belts in all front outer
seats.
So I think this clarifies what happened. I was right about when lap belts
appeared, but wrong about why.
Fun Fact: The 1959 Volvo was the first car to come with 3-point belts as
standard equipment.
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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