Seat Belt Mountings

[wobblyweb]

I am about to lift the body back onto my new Lotus chassis.The old chassis was a Spyder and had seat belt mounting plates welded to the top of the rear turrets.
The Lotus chassis does not seem to have any way to connect the belts, am I missing something??
thanks
Rae

[BillGavin]

The earliest cars didn't have shoulder belts.

The first cars with shoulder belts attached them to the bolts on the rear bulkhead that attach to the frame. These are directly behind each seat, not the best place for single diagonal straps.

Later cars had a bracket that attached to the top of the rear suspension tower and provided a mounting point on the side of the cockpit behind the driver, a better spot for a single diagonal strap. I don't know of any sources for this hardware, I'd like to find some rather than have to fabricate them myself.

[richboyd]

My S4 has (had) bolt-on brackets that extend outward from the top of the tower and provide a belt mounting point, just like Bill said. My new Spyder frame replicates this same belt mounting position, but ... instead of a separate bolt on bracket, the Spyder tower is simply wider and incorporates the belt mount - all part of the frame proper.

So, what you need are the original-style lotus brackets. Or perhaps you can cut up that section off your old Spyder frame and weld them to the new Lotus-brand frame, or fabricate brackets based on your old Spyder frame. In any event, the dimensions on the Spyder frame are the same as what you want for your new frame, i.e., the seat belt mount placement is the same in both set-ups.

[wobblyweb]

Thanks for the help.
They are indeed separate items fixed between the spring mounting plate and the turret top and held in place by the Lotocone bolts. I now have 2 on order with Paul Matty

Cheers
Rae