Shoulder harness belts Auto Custom Carpets (ACC) now advertised a 3 point seat belth that they show in their ads for convertibles. They claim they are available for Chevelle (A body) cars. This will put a more modern 3 point system in your old car if you are looking for more safety. I have not personally seen this product, just the ad. May be worth a call if you are interested in a 3 point belt for safety.
in 1971 rear shoulder belts were also optional in addition to the front belts, option J5. If anyone has the daily reports for 71 A body convertibles, I'd like to know how rare they were.
You know, just looking at that picture of where they have the seatbelts attached (to the top of the quarter window area) I think its pretty much useless. There really is no structure there at all, an accident has incredible forces, and that is probably why GM used the ragtop attach bracket, it s big beefy part solidly bolted down. I would think in an accident, you would just rip the sheetmetal out with this other style. You have to wonder though why they didn't design somehting that picked up on the floor bolts....could have run up behind the seat cover and out the top fo the seat shoulder area... The factory shoulder harnesses are very rare, and I can't say I'll ever wear mine, guess we'll see...just appears it wuld be very annoying overall. Might have to come up with something else. later Tim
Retractable From an early 90's Saab, before I installed the new foams and covers I welded in anchors to the frame.
On the belt styles... I think the law that started in 68 or so said that the coupes/sedans had to have shoulder belts ...but they could have separate buckles. In Jan. 1972, the law changed again...now all shoulder belts had to be 3-point belts. But instead of supplying one 3-point belt like cars have today..the General came up with the neat scheme where the separate shoulder belt only had a tab that inserted into the clasp of the lap seat belt. Thus the shoulder belt really still stayed separate and was rarely (I think..) ever actually used. My original '72 Skylark in Feb of '72 had the belts come through like this..and there was about a $35 up-charge in the base price because of it (not sure why..it was a simpler shoulder belt than before) I just this weekend saw a an 04B (April build) '72 Skylark convertible..and it had the seat belt option. And the shoulder belt came out from behind the rear quarter interior trim panel and had an 'at rest' clip in the same place as the pics above...but it was a clip made to accept the tab on the metal tongue of the belt..it looked just like the male seat belt tongue on the lap belts. Anyway, I was surprised..as I had never seen a shoulder belt setup in a convertible.. Hope this helps.. Stanley
