Lap/shoulder belts installed in Giulia spider

[Pat Garrett]

Has anyone on the BB installed lap/shoulder belts, not racing type ,in a Giulia spider ? If so, could you give me parts numbers or brand and just how you attached the shoulder portion of the belts ? Glenna wants modern safety items, if possible.
Regards

[Subtle]

Good question.

[velocedoc]

Pat, if you were to check behind the 1/4 panels (one with the pocket) behind the seats you might find a mounting hole for a seat belt. There was a Klippan belt that was connected from that hole to a Ubolt affair in the center hump that the other half attached to. It was an over the shoulder arrangement. It came on my Euro 65, but I am not sure if there was a belt in the US version. Have you checked with the 750 group? There is a place in San Diego that makes after market seat belts for cars of early vintage. I thought I saw that on the 750 group.

[GTD]

Pat
Anchor points on a Giulia should be found in the sill area as pictured. Attachment of a three point belt should be do-able by reinforcing an area on the wheelwell area above the softop securing straps.
http://wescoperformance.stores.yahoo.net/seatbelts.html sells different designs of belts at reasonable prices. They are not much help when it comes to "what fits my" or "how do you" questions.

[Lo Fo SI]

I have fitted 3 point, non retractable belts in my (late 1960) spider, I got them from Quickfit SBS in the UK (don't try and order through their website but email or call them) I got them in grey with "period" stainless / chrome buckles.

I could not figure out how to attach the top anchor to the wheel arch:
a) so as not to foul the top (mine is attached to the rear deck so YMMV)
b) get them sufficiently high so as the belt would not crush your shoulder in the event that they are used in anger - ideally shoulder belt attachment points should be above the shoulder, which is not possible in a spider.

I ended up attaching them to the box section just to the rear of the top of the trim cards and just in front of the soft top brackets. The belts came with stainless reinforcing plates, which just fitted into the box section.

My camera batteries died when I went to take some pictures, so I'll post some images tomorrow.

Simon

[ecdysiast]

The site

http://wescoperformance.stores.yahoo.net/seatbelts.html

as mentioned before, is a great resource for seat belt installations. They have a generic approach to "roadsters" (instructions on the site) that looks pretty much like what Lo Fo SI described.

Jeffrey

[Subtle]

I guess one would use the non-retractable.

[Randal Harris]

Are you sure you want to be forcibly held upright in the event of a roll over accident? AROC competition rules used to forbid Spiders from autocross (and other speed events) if they had a shoulder belt without a roll bar.

Remember, you may not cause the accident that results in the roll over. Parts fail at the least predictable and most inopertune times. Plus, there is no accounting for the other people on the road, especially if there distracted (cell phones, eating, etc.)

Randy Harris
'62 & '67 Spiders
'78 Sport Sedan

[Pat Garrett]

Of course you are quite correct. Without a roll bar, you and the windshield become the point of contact. We used to place a handgrip in the passenger foot well to be able to grab.

[madis]

This is a subject near and dear to my heart right now as I'm in the middle of trying to install lap belts in my newly acquired '59 750 Spider. I've been going back & forth between mounting to the sill (like in GTD's photo) vs. on the floor behind the seat rails. I'm generally leaning towards the floor mounting, but my location of choice interferes with the suspension hanger since I'm trying to pick up at least a little of the chassis crossmember.

Regardless of location, my plan is to through-bolt the seatbelt end fittings with a fender washer on the backside for better load distribution.

I've been rummaging through the archives looking for photos of other peoples' seatbelt installations, but I haven't found much. It would be extremely helpful to see photos of other peoples' solutions to this problem.

Thanks,
Morgan

[Lo Fo SI]

Morgan

The sill mount (as in GTD's photo) is correct. I have a pdf of the Alfa bulletin that gives the correct locations for the mounting points. PM me with an email address and I'll send it to you.

Simon

[madis]

Thanks Simon!
I've just PM'd you my e-mail address.
--Morgan

[Subtle]

One of the problems with an inertia belt system is that it is impossible to tighten the lap part of the belt down tightly.

Look at www.cg-lock.com

[redcars]

Hi guys,
I have attached four photos showing the seatbelt attachment points on my Giulia Spider Veloce 101.18, VIN AR391066. This was one of the last USA Veloces. The top two photos are the left, driver's side, from the top. The bottom two photos are the right, passenger's side, from the bottom. Alfa provided these attachment points, but not the actual seat belts. The "hub" that is welded thru the floor is threaded for a M-10 fastener. I hope this is helpful to someone.

Don

[velocedoc]

Don, Thank you for making the effort to show us this mounting arrangement. I have never seen this before. Most Veloce Spiders didn't have any kind of a mounting arrangement for seat belts. My Veloce of May '65 had Klippan belts that were a single over/under the shoulder depending on how you wore it. The top mounting point was behind the attaching point for the convertible top and a lower connecting point on the tunnel for the other half. A bolt arrangement from a Giulia Super/GTV might fit in those holes and look stock.

I have seen personally the arrangement where an earlier post suggested using a bolt through the drain hole with steel plates on both sides to spread out the load.