Steve and Larry:
Nice seatbelt article. This is a much needed safety improvement that
everyone should do. Concours folks should ignore them.
I put 2 point belts into my Tiger before I had it on the road. Three
point belts were added a few years later. The source of the belts?
Well, I searched all through Hemmings and finally found a Mercedes
stripper yard that had a set of three point Kangol (Made in England!)
belts out of a 250 sedan from the late '60's. What's so special about
these? Here's a picture of what I bought:
http://www.sltechw113.com/parts/seatbelts.jpg
This is not the company, but it was the only picture I could find. Nor
did I pay anything like their price. These were used in Mercedes and
others of that era, and were THE THING to have in my circle of friends
after graduation. We had a friend whose Dad had a 280SEL, so that's how
we met them. They replaced the Klippans in my friend's 2002, and the
stupid Ford belts in my German Capri V-6. So I just HAD to have them
for the Tiger
What's so special? For one thing, it's great fun to watch novice
passengers try to figure out how to use them. They don't have the
conventional type latching buckle. Instead, there's this large chromed
hook into which the other part of the buckle fits, if you do it just
right. It's held together by magnets.
Anyway, they fit perfectly, with the Mercedes bolts fitting into the
Tiger threads. There must have been a law about that. The plain chrome
shoulder belt anchor and chrome head bolt look just right and sort of
period correct, since they weren't so much into plastic housings back
then. They aren't inertial reel or even retracting, but they work
fine. I will probably have them rewebbed at some point.
Someone once said that this type of Kangol belt did appear in some
Sunbeams, but I've never had any confirmation. One local fellow has 2
point Kangols in an Alpine, but their origins are unknown. Perhaps a
previous owner did it.
Stu Brennan
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