'62 was the first year for DOT mandatory seat belt mounting provisions for
the front seat (driver and passenger). On 4 door Imperials, you can
see the reinforced mounting holes for each side from under the car -- one has a
bolt at the B pillar, the other a rubber plug thru the
floorpan.
On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 23:21:58 -0700 (PDT) W Bell <cbody67tx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
writes:
I might be wrong, but I suspect seat belts were optional until they
became standard in the early '60s. After the big safety buzz that Ford
started in '56, a manufacturer would have had to be a little dense to not have
padded dashes and seat belts as optional equipment.
Key thing would be to determine if there were seat belt anchors in the
floorpan. Basically, that might be a reinforced area or segment of an
area behind the seats, near the outer rocker panel area and on each side of
the driveshaft tunnel. Otherwise, you'd need someone to make a
reinforcment piece with an appropriate size nut welded in the middle of it,
for the seat belt bolt to screw into from the top side and get that tack
welded to the underside of the floorpan.
I kind of suspect that many of the earlier seat belts would be similar to
what the add-on units or "replacement" lap belts of today might be. The
thicker webbing came in more toward the 1964 or 1965 time frame, again, if I
remember correctly.
Enjoy!
W Bell
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