RE: '74 Spider seatbelts & clutch

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

>Has anyone upgraded the 2-point seatbelts in a '74 vintage Spider to the
3-point belts from
>a later car?  I haven't ever looked too closely at the later Spiders, so
I'm not sure what
>type of belts were installed, but I'm guessing they've got to have
3-points.  On my car, it
>looks like upper mounting bolt for the inertia reel is in the proper spot
for a shoulder
>harness, and I'm looking for a simple bolt-in swap.  Any ideas?  AlfaBill
has got two >Spider
>parts cars, '85 and '87 I think, should I look at those?

i haven't done it yet, but i have all the parts.  here's what i know..

take the three point belts from one of alfabills parts cars.  while you're
there, take the guides off the seats.  be careful, there are two styles of
the guides, one that fits perfectly with the '74 seats and one that doesn't
(the contour of the seat changed at some point).  if the seatback looks just
like your '74 then the guides will work.  finally, measure where the belt
bolts into the rear firewall.

on your '74 you need to weld in some reinforcements where the belt bolts
into the firewall.  you then need to install the guides on your existing
seats, this is actually pretty easy - just remove the back of your seat and
drill two holes into the frame.  you can hold the guide against the seat to
use it as a template for the holes.  bolt everything in and you're done.

as a side note, i got two sets of guides from ape a couple of years ago and
installed two on each of my spider seats, this works great with my six point
racing harness to hold everything in place.

hope this helps,

bs

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