Lancia Motor Club

Hello

Regarding seat belts in a B20 I missed a few parts of previous discussions.

I have a B40 4th series being restored by a carrozziere in Italy near Como and we have been discussing seat belts.
As a purist the carrozziere said no seatbelts.
However, I have small children and want them to buckle up (also in the rear).

Which way to go?
What about lap belts?

Many thanks for your advice
Josef

There was an overlap between having a B20 and having children...and I had eye bolts between the seat back and cushion.  These were mainly for harnesses for the front seats, but I was able to hook a lap belt between left and right to secure a baby seat.

If I was doing it again I might have a "purist" seat cushion and a second one with cutouts for the eye bolts.  The bolts go in and out in a few seconds.  That would also be a "child friendly cushion" with a washable cover or wipe clean.

It might be a bit of a tangle getting everyone in and out but a line of eyebolts would permit various combinations of rear belts, an anchor for the top strap "conventional" three point belts, three or four point harnesses depending on the trip / event. Front lap belt fixings are fairly obvious.  If having work done then beefing up the areas where the bolts will go from the underside is an idea rather than having reinforcement plates on the top surfaces.

If wanting more than lap belts in the back it gets more tricky.  My car had an aluminium firewall sealed and riveted to the seat back and under the parcel shelf and we pondered beefing up that structure to support seat belt mounts, but didn't.  Another option we considered was bridging between the roll cage legs.   Depends if the shoulder straps are more for show (to reassure granny...) or you're wanting them to hold a 15 stone adult in a big frontender (as racing).

I doubt you're going to have a rear cage, but while on the topic the diagonal of mine was cut and brackets made so it could be bolted in or removed in a couple of mins.  I never quite got round to making special padding for the brackets but would wrap something round and give stern warnings.  I was going to say it was used for a wedding like that, but just remembered the groom had to slither in behind the diagonal as the wedding was before that mod.  I took the passenger seat out for the bride to have leg and dress room.  They really are very versatile cars...I really don't see why these mini MPVs have so caught on ;)

A friend had a massive head on crash on a modern and his son in the middle of the back seat, wearing a lap belt, jack knifed and suffered significant injuries. I have been wary of lap belts ever since. I also used to strap in a child seat using a centre lap belt and on occasions it would tip over sideways. My son and his partner have recently been pondering a similar problem in relation to an old American day van. They speculated about having isofix points fitted which might be worth considering.

Years ago we decided to fit seat belts in our B20. It was fairly simple to fit three point belts. Two short straps fitted to the floor in the middle coming up under the centre armrest. The long strap was fitted to the floor just behind the doors and to the small steel triangle behind the B-post just under the window. It comes up from behind the inner panel. We have now bought a set of belts with reels. Again it is simple in the centre. The long one with the reel, however, needs a few brackets. One bracket fitted to the above mentioned triangle and sticking up from behind the panel and another bracket fitted to the floor against the outer side member. We had the brackets made of stainless steel. Of course the triangle under the side window is not terribly strong, but it is better than nothing.

Hello

many thanks for the suggestions. I think the one solution done by Niels sounds reasonable to me (for the front) and is similar to the solution in the Flaminia.
For the rear I will have to discuss....

Best
Josef

Final thought - and a long shot - depending on the size of the children could you get two in the front?  Am trying to remember how much of a bench the Aurelia seats make if adjusted the same.

I fitted inertia front seat belts and full harness childrens' rear seat belts in my 3rd series.    When a rear shock absorber stripped its splines and we went off at a corner ( managed to go straight through the hedge but the field was not flat) and we rolled over the roof and onto the other side neither wife and myself nor two children were in any way hurt.  We put it back on its feet and drove home...   To hell with purists, I will have all practical safety measures in my cars including belts in the Lambdas.     As far as I remember the inertia reels were bolted to the rear wheel inner arches much like the Fulvia Sport or summat like that.    The childrens' belts wete bolted to the rear wall and the shelf.

That's a great story and I have to ask, is the car still in circulation?

I'm still planning how to fit belts to the B10. A few options under consideration...

Please let me know how you get on, as I feel I should do the same with mine.