I have 2 floors here that I thought were the same and 2 '70 Buicks (one buckets, one bench). I almost positive one of the floors came out of a '69 & the other out of a '71-2 but can't confirm the latter & not 100% sure either came out a Buick but I thought both did (bought this way). My '71 GS had a crappy floor job done so I can't use it as a reference (previous owner's mess). On the two '70 cars and one of the floors (I believe the '69), the nut for the seatbelt retractor is ~4" farther forward than on the other floor. The bench seat mounts are in the same place on both floors. The mounts for the buckle side on the hump are in the same place. The '70 bench seat car has virtually no floor left (& parts inside so I can't really see) but the rear front seat mounting hole on the bucket seat car, which I assume is used for both bench & buckets, is in the same place on both floors and the bucket seat car so I assume same on the bench seat car. I have a pair of late '69 retractors & the retractors for my '71 and they appear to be the same. I was hoping they'd be different & that would answer the question but... The only other explanations I can think of are: 1) Buick/Fisher Body moved the retractors back 4" in '71 (or maybe '72?)? 2) The one floor isn't out of a Buick and Pontiac, Olds, &/or Chev. had their retractors farther back but this would seemingly be a nightmare for Fisher Body & assuming the carpeting came w/a pre-punched hole for the retractor bolt, a PIA there too. 3) Different tooling between the Fisher Body plants (e.g. a Freemont or Leeds car would have the retractors in a diff. location - This is seemingly the most unlikely scenario)? Anyone have any knowledge/insight/ideas on this? This is the stupid stuff when buying basket cases, lol. I thought I'd sworn them off. I actually bought one of the pass floors to use in the '71 & one for my '70 so if it was a MY change between '70 & '71 (if my '71 wasn't a botched floor job I could tell) that'd be great. If it was a '72 change or difference between makes, I can relocate the nut if comes down to it. Unrelated but interesting (maybe? & there may be other differences I haven't yet discovered) is that the '69 floor has one less floor brace and the '69 & '70 floors do not have a couple extra reinforcing formations in the floor under the back seat at the ends (see pic) that the later ('71-'72) floor has.
Dano on my flint built 72 convertible the holes for the seat belt retractors are in the aft position, pic attached while body was on rotisserie shows them pretty well.
Joe Vega (azchevs) might be able to explain this more fully. The floor pan differences. He has a lot of cars '68 to '72 cut up. Do know there was some sort of mandate to install seat belt "buzzers" into cars for middle of '72 Model year. The late '72 outer retractor is larger, and had a yellow wire with black stripe going to it. They then fiddled around with interlocks were the belts had be fastened in order for the car to start - that might have been late '73 or '74. There was also a switch from hex headed seat belt bolts to T-50 Torx pan headed bolts, but am not an expert to say when that happened, or in what order for the plants or car lines.
Thx. The floors came from Joe originally so I'll message him. IIRC, Tim's car doesn't have the "fasten seat belt" buzzer but hopefully not a mid-year '72 change.
My 72 convertible is a very early 72, built 5th week of Aug 1971. The seat belt change started Jan 1, 1972. There was a warning system built into the seats (for passenger weight) and a light in the dash too, if you ordered the rally pack there was no room for the light (they didn't want to change the design so late most likely) so you got the little pod on top of the dash panel for the seatbelt warning light. I have more info on the 72 seatbelt stuff, scroll to near bottom of the page : http://fixjet.ca/final.html Anyway, just checked my Flint built 71 stage 1, it is also very early (fifth week of August 1970) and it has the seatbelt mounting system in the more forward position. Go figure.
Thanks Tim! I was pretty sure your '72 was early. Not exactly the answer I was hoping for on your '71 since the one floor is for my '71 sonI'll have to relocate the mounts if I use it. I'll check out your website (again, lol). For anyone who hasn't, take some (a lot) time and read.
