Newbie Seatbelt Conversion Question.

[PHBeerman]

I have seen many references to putting rear shoulder belts into an FJ60. I am very interested in this. Can someone please steer me in the right direction? Thank you in advance.

Oh yeah.
1985 FJ60--I have owned it for a few years and I am starting to execute my to do list.

 

[Jman]

You can get non-retractable shoulder belts (for early FJ62s) and bolt them in. However, they won't bolt in if the hole in the C-pillar doesn't have the threaded nut plate inside it (some FJ60s, like mine, have no nut plate--I had to fab something up to accept the bolt).

Some folks use "nut-serts" but I don't think those would hold well in an accident. Others have done some cutting and welding to install retractable belts, but that's quite a bit more work.

 

[Doc]

Heh heh, he said 'nut plate'.... heh heh [/beevis]

 

[60wag]

Yea, check the C pillars first. You should be able to pull the door trim and peel the headliner back to peek under it. You can find the hole location by running a finger along the headliner on the C pillar. If its threaded, you're lucky, if not, putting an adequate nut back there is a bit of a challenge. My 84FJ60 had the threaded inserts in place. I bought the retractable belt units new from Toyota - I've got the part number somewhere. The hardest part is then mounting the retractor unit. You need to carve out a square opening in the body and then bolt it in place. Its not too tough but definitely not a simple bolt in.

 

[NocalFJ60]

I like the idea too. I was thinking about doing the upgrade in the future. Let me know how it goes.

This is a page with all the info.
http://home.comcast.net/~deborahh89/Cruiser/Proj-Belts.htm

Goodluck

 

[Jman]

Oh, you can tell if the nut plate is there by sticking a pin through the headliner into the hole and probing for the threads. No need to pull back the headliner.

[Butthead: heh heh, he said "nut plate" . . . "hole" . . . "probing," heh heh]

 

[jl]

I like the idea too. I was thinking about doing the upgrade in the future. Let me know how it goes.

This is a page with all the info.
http://home.comcast.net/~deborahh89/Cruiser/Proj-Belts.htm

Goodluck

I did this exact modification so I could put a childs 'booster' seat in the backseat. Most need a shoulder strap to be legal. Note, the shoulder strap does not retract. It adjusts like and airline seatbelt.

If you just feel along the pillar you can feel the bolt. I took an exacto knife, cut the fabric and installed the new seatbelts. I had already replaced the carpet in the back of '60 so I didn't need to pull up any of the carpet.

All-in-all the entire process was about 20 minutes. It was pretty easy. It'll take you longer if you need to remove the carpet. The best part is that the lap seatbelts now retract! I lived for years goofing around with the worn out lap seatbelts.

The part numbers on the website are the correct numbers. When I talked to SOR about the seatbelts and the order number, they didn't even know that the seatbelts could be used in a '60 for that purpose. I had to 'convince' them that was what I _really_ wanted to order . But they shipped it out and it showed up in 2 days.