Speedster Kit

[BangerMatt]

I have a pair of 4" military seatbelts in mine. Heavy duty and look vintage.

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by BangerMatt

I have a pair of 4" military seatbelts in mine. Heavy duty and look vintage.

I acquired a couple of those but haven't come up with a good way to attach them to my wood floor. How did you do it?

[aboneskd]

Thanx for the replies. I intend to use belts out of a old style bulldozer, nice and wide and adjustable to keep the buckle in the middle of your lap no matter what your 'size'.

Did you cut slots in the wooden base of the seat and bolts them thru the floor? The seats aren't mounted yet--trying to make a plan.

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by aboneskd

Thanx for the replies. I intend to use belts out of a old style bulldozer, nice and wide and adjustable to keep the buckle in the middle of your lap no matter what your 'size'.

Did you cut slots in the wooden base of the seat and bolts them thru the floor? The seats aren't mounted yet--trying to make a plan.

Yep

[Brian LI]

Originally Posted by Sparky

I acquired a couple of those but haven't come up with a good way to attach them to my wood floor. How did you do it?

We (BangerMatt and I) used 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 1/4" steel angle bolted with 2 bolts per bracket through the floor of the speedster using VERY large fender washers on the bottom of the wood floow to spread the stress out over a larger area. This then gives a vertical plane to which you can bolt the belts.

I wouldn't advise attaching the belts to the frame. Our thoughts are that if an accident were to occur if the body separated from the frame the occupants would become trapped in between the frame and bodywork. Not a very nice scenario.

We left the bolts holding the belts to the steel angle so they can pivot on the bolts. All hardware is grade 8 with nylon locking nuts. Yeah, I know grade 8 bolts.... Other things will structurally fail before the bolts do.

By the way the wood floor of the speedster is 2 pieces of 3/4 inch plywood sandwiched together using screws and a liberal amount of glue. It is held onto the frame using 8 7/16 elevator bolts.

As someone else pointed out, tipping over is not the conceren, these speedsters have a fairly wide track and are very stable in turns. It's much more of a concern driving in an open vehicle and not wanting to get thrown out.

THAT would be a bad thing............

Oh, and the lean action in the turns is more to avoid mud than it is anything else.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

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Originally Posted by Brian LI

As someone else pointed out, tipping over is not the conceren, these speedsters have a fairly wide track and are very stable in turns. It's much more of a concern driving in an open vehicle and not wanting to get thrown out.

THAT would be a bad thing............

Oh, and the lean action in the turns is more to avoid mud than it is anything else.

Ohh please Do NOT kid yourself!! This is the very reason why myself, James Rogers, and several others here gave up Model-A Speedster racing several years ago because our friends were going upside down in their cars. We decided we wanted a more dignified way to die!! Maybe y'all are just puttin' around but we were serious about 'haulin the mail'. Speedy Ed Johnson who used to be a Fordbarn regular decided he had seen enough and so he put a roll bar in his speedster. I installed a roll bar in my track roadster. I always intended to install one on both my speedsters too if I had continued. I personally have been up on two wheels on more than one occasion and seen it right in front of me. I also was following Dan Price at Marietta, OH when he caught a rut coming out of turn 4 and it looped the car and he shot out through the infield just missing a light pole and his car went airborne. If it had landed at an angle, he would have rolled then.

One other thought, the bodies on these do not have enough mass to worry about shearing off so it is probably a moot point in these cars to worry about a seat belt bolted to the frame vs. not. If the car has taken a hard enough hit to shear the body bolts from the frame, chances are the Coroner is the one who will be checkin' you out next.

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