ggolds5
Samba Member
Joined: April 12, 2022
Posts: 97
Location: Farmington, CT
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 Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2023 12:00 am Post subject: Re: 1968~79 VW Type 2, seatbelts, head restraints & airbags |
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| NASkeet wrote: |
FRONT & REAR, SEATBELT MOUNTING POINTS AND SEATBELT INSTALLATION, IN THE 1968~79 VW TYPE 2
Although provision of front-cab seatbelts is mandatory, for the 1968~79 VW Type 2, relatively few of the British specification campervans or minibuses, were equipped with rear seatbelts. However, in all but a few cases, dependent upon seat and/or furniture location, it is relatively straight forward, to retro-fit rear seatbelts to Microbus, Kombi & Deluxe Microbus based vehicles (VIN or chassis numbers, commencing with 22, 23 & 24 respectively), as shown on page 82-20 of the official 1968~79 VW Type 2 Replacement Parts Catalogue & Microfiche. To the best of my knowledge, the Kombi only has rear seatbelt mounting points, for seats immediately forward of the engine deck, whilst the Microbus & Deluxe Microbus, have an additional set, to cater for an intermediate row of seats, opposite the sliding door.
Sadly, the Delivery Van (VIN or chassis number, commencing with 21), upon which some campervans are based, makes no standard provision for rear seatbelts, but it would be possible to fabricate and fit, suitably reinforced mountings, similar to those found on the other models. The rearmost, outboard mountings, comprise curved-section, rectangular reinforcing plates with a captive threaded nut, positioned beneath the rear wheel-arches. It should be noted, that the rearmost, inboard, seatbelt mountings (as standard on the Microbus, Kombi & Deluxe Microbus ), beneath the seats, are reinforced by shaped plates, positioned within the fuel-tank compartment, but held by bolts (rather than spot welds) and metal securing-straps, beneath the body.
Recognising the vulnerability of rear-seat passengers, in our British specification, 1973 VW 1600 Type 2, Westfalia Continental campervan (based upon the Kombi), we bought and retro-fitted, a pair of Kangol, lap & diagonal, three-point, static seatbelts, not long after my father purchased the vehicle second-hand, in January 1975. Unfortunately, we discovered that the upper mounting, immediately below the rear, side window, was too low, causing the diagonal belt to slip off the shoulder.
Consequently, we remounted the seatbelts, to act purely as lap belts (two seatbelt mounting brackets, mounted to the same point, using a single bolt), which have proved to be satisfactory, but not as good as proper, well-fitting lap & diagonal seatbelts, would have been! A similar lap belt arrangement, was also later fitted for the middle seat position. Purpose-made lap belts, are made by companies such as Securon (part No. SEC210 - available by mail order, from Just Kampers).
However, having seen some photographs of Andreas Frahm's, modified and restored, German specification, 1972 VW "1600" Type 2 Microbus (see Neil Birkitt, "Moose On The Loose", VW Motoring, January 1998, pages 52 & 54), showing supplementary, raised upper seatbelt mountings, for the rearmost seats, it might be practical to revert to lap & diagonal, three-point, rear seatbelts, at sometime in the future.
In February 2000, I inspected a Swedish specification, 1978 VW 2000 Type 2 Microbus, belonging to Paul Butterworth, of Billericay, Essex, England, which was fitted with lap & diagonal, three-point, inertia-reel, retractable, rear seatbelts (compulsory in Sweden, even in those days!), whose configuration appeared similar to those of Andreas Frahm's and was consistent with that illustrated on page 82-20 of the official 1968~79 VW Type 2 Replacement Parts Catalogue & Microfiche.
In the case of campervans, such as the Westfalia Continental, the engine-deck cushion, which forms part of the full-width, main double bed, would need to be modified, to accommodate the seatbelt inertia reels, if the system as fitted to Andreas Frahm's & Paul Butterworth's VW type 2s, were to be used. If one wished to avoid modifying the cushion, it would be possible to adapt the standard, raised upper mounting, or fabricate some custom mountings, using the originals as a partial pattern. This would allow the inertia reels, to be positioned just below the window and hence above the level of the engine-deck cushion.
If practical to use in conjunction with supplementary, raised upper mountings, I would prefer to retro-fit, the more recent, Securon "All Ages" (part No. SEC274, is specifically for the VW Type 2 - available by mail order, from Just Kampers) or Kangol "Generation", lap & diagonal, three-point, inertia-reel, retractable, rear seatbelts, for which the upper position of the diagonal belt, may be adjusted to better suit children and adults of short stature.
These are after-market, 3-point, lap & diagonal seat belts, retro-fitted by Quickfit Safety Belt Service, in Middlesex, England, to Jeremy Gristwood's, 1968~79 VW Type 2 campervan, featured in a recent magazine as follows:
Safety First!, News & Products, Volkswagen Camper & Commercial, Issue 12, Autumn 2003, Page 20.
To learn more about this magazine, try the following link:
http://www.volkswagencamper.co.uk
The "All Ages" and "Generation" seat belts, probably do much to alleviate the problems of neck chafe, caused by conventional seatbelts, whose diagonal-strap's upper mounting, is higher than optimum, for occupants of short stature. However, they probably do little to combat the problems of discomfort, experienced by large-breasted women, whereby the diagonal-strap, cuts into their breasts, prompting a large proportion of women to risk injury, by either wearing the seatbelts incorrectly or omitting to wear them at all.
Sheila's Wheels, in Great Britain, who specialise in motoring insurance for women, commissioned consulting engineers to develop an accessory device, to resolve this problem. The result, was a simple S-shaped device, which clips to the seatbelt's straps, shifting its position; reviewed recently, in the British national press, as follows:
Liz Hull (e-mail: [email protected]), "For curvy drivers, a no-squeeze seatbelt", Daily Mail, 2nd February 2006, page 35.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sho...ge_id=1773
Sheila's Wheels press releases:
http://www.sheilaswheels.com/news_item.jsp?nId=18372
For several years, my father had complained, that when unfastened, the front seatbelts got twisted and/or caught in the cab door (mainly because he seldom hung them up properly!) and the seatbelt buckles fell onto the floor of the central aisle, between the seats, from where they were difficult to retrieve, especially if we were carrying the supplementary aisle seat cum storage box.
We also found that the buckles of the VW dealer-fitted, Britax lap & diagonal, three-point, static seatbelts, gradually slipped and periodically needed to be repositioned across the pelvis and retightened, to avoid abdominal injury and minimise the risk of "submarining", in the event of a collision. Additionally, we found that when wearing static seatbelts, it was awkward for the driver and front-seat passenger (i.e. navigator), to reach some of the dashboard controls, radio, glovebox and parcel shelves beneath the dashboard.
The simplest way to overcome all of these problems, was to substitute inertia-reel seatbelts, having extended buckles on long, stiff-wire stalks or shaped brackets, which would not fall down when unfastened. During the early-1990s, suitable extended buckles, did not seem to be available, with readily obtainable after-market, inertia-reel seatbelts, so I resorted to the local car breakers' yards, taking care to avoid seatbelts, whose webbing was frayed or sun bleached, plus vehicles with serious crash damage, whose seatbelt webbing, might already be stretched.
Ultimately, I used Kangol inertia-reel seatbelts (identical to those on my 1974 Triumph Toledo) from one car and obtained compatible extended buckles, on long wire stalks, from a Ford Transit van (the stalks on those fitted to cars, are usually too short), which had static seatbelts, of the one-handed fastening type, which had become obligatory in later years. These days, it is possible to buy new inertia-reel seatbelts, suitable for use in the 1968~79 VW Type 2 cab, such as those made by Securon (part No. SEC50045 - available by mail order, from Just Kampers).
It is 300 mm, from the mounting eye on the wire stalk, to the end of the buckle, but ideally 400 mm or 450 mm (dependent upon which mounting point is used, in our VW Type 2 cab aisle), would be the optimum length, with our higher than standard front cab-seats (ex Volvo 244GL). Having earlier noted that other owners' 1968~79 VW Type 2, front-cab, inertia-reel seatbelt installations, using adapter brackets, were not as tidy as I would wish, I bolted the inertia-reel units, in conjunction with home-made, 3 mm thick, shaped spacers, to the supplementary mounting points, on the forward facing, vertical bulkheads, behind the seats, which I had provided for this purpose.
Before deciding on this mounting position, I removed part of the Kangol inertia-reel unit's casing, to determine under what conditions it would function. Provided my Kangol inertia-reel units are mounted vertically (on either a side, forward facing or rearward facing surface; including the the vertical leg, of an L-shaped adapter bracket), the pendulum mechanism inside the units, will lock the ratchet on the spring-loaded, self-retracting, seatbelt reel, under conditions of high acceleration or deceleration.
It is the motion of the vehicle itself and hence the inertia of the pendulum, which is primarily responsible for causing the reel to lock, rather than the unspooling of the seatbelt webbing off the reel! Thus, an inertia-reel setbelt, may be used for either forward or rearward facing seats. If rearward facing seats are to be used whilst travelling, they must incorporate head restraints, properly fitted and adjusted, otherwise severe neck injuries (probably leading to quadraplegia, if not fatal) is likely to occur, even in the event of a moderately serious collision. If the vehicle is on a slope (facing either uphill, downhill, acrosswise or otherwise), the pendulum has less height through which to swing, so the reel will lock prematurely.
Note that other inertia-reel units from Kangol, Britax, Securon or other manufacturers, may be of a different design (e.g. ball-in-a-saucer design; as illustrated in: Heinz Heisler, "Vehicle & Engine Technology", Arnold, 2nd Edition, 1999, ISBN 0-340-69186-7), which might restrict the ways in which they may be mounted.
During refurbishment work on the campervan, it was found that the front wheel-arches, in the region of the seatbelt mounting points, were corroding, owing to ingress of moisture between the wheel-arches and the spot-welded reinforcement plates. It was Volkswagen's misguided use of spotwelds, to locate the reinforcement-plates beneath the wheel-arches (both front & rear), which renders the seatbelt mountings, particularly susceptible to corrosion damage!
The reinforcement plates were removed, by drilling out the spot-welds from inside the cab, using a special spot-weld cutter. After removing the rusted metal from the wheel-arches, home-made, replacement, 4 mm thick, steel reinforcement-plates, with captive threaded nuts, were seam-welded in place. The old spot-weld holes and corrosion-damaged areas of the wheel-arches, were then repaired by puddle-welding; resulting in seatbelt mountings, which are stronger and more durable than the originals. At sometime in the future, it will probably be necessary, to repeat these repair procedures, with the reinforcement-plates beneath the rear wheel-arches.
Whilst the front wheel-arch, seatbelt mounting points were being repaired, I opted to fit supplementary mounting points, to the vertical bulkheads, behind the front cab seats, for my previously acquired Kangol inertia-reel units, as mentioned earlier. For this task, I used the reclaimed reinforcement-plates, with captive threaded nuts, from the underside of the front wheel-arches, seam-welded to the rear faces of the vertical bulkheads and wheel-arches. |
WOW!!!!!. All I can say is thanks, I installed lab belts, worked out ok. |
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Would someone be able to confirm whether the bottom hole is there for late P22/P27 Westfalias? Or alternatively, would someone know what determines its presence (model year, bus type...)?
