Sunday, June 29, 2008

Seat Belt Buckles and Belts - Mission: Make a '62 Chryler Seat-belt Safe

I have an old car and low and behold I've made it to June 2008 with having seat belts in it. The funny thing is that I sell seat belt buckle belts like the ones shown here. Many of them are actual vintage recycled buckles from the old cars like GM and Cadillac, but some are new novelty type buckles that are exact models of the real seat belts. Over the years I've even accidentally sold a few of these to people who wanted seat-belt buckles or belts for their car and they've been surprised to find out that they are for wearing, not just to save your life. I've even gotten a couple of seat belt tickets in the past for violating seatbelt laws and I've since paid my debt for those crimes to society.

So after years of storage and a variety of mechanical work, my '62 Chryler 300 is ready to be back on the road, just in time for the gas crisis, and made street legal. Currently there are no seat belts in this car and it's never had them. I joke that wearing a belt while driving this car may get me out of a ticket, but it definitely won't save my life, so that won't be my solution. Also, unless I put seat belts in this car I won't be able to drive around with my kids and show them how much fun it is to have people point at your car and yell things like, "cool car".

I'm starting this blog to chronicle the trials and tribulations of finding and installing seat belts into this vintage car myself. I've been hesistant to try and do it in the past worrying about how and where I would need to drill into the car to install seatbelts, but there's no more time left to be uncertain about this. I'll post links and information, as well as, do some research on seat belt history and legsilation, which is relevant to the fact that I have to do this, so stay tuned to learn all you'll ever need to know about seat belts as you follow my steps at making this car safe for the next century.

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