vintage seat belts

dougson

Has anyone seen what sort of seat belt was used in stepdown racers. Were they the aircraft style? Manufacturer?

hudsontech

Don't really know what NASCAR required back in the day - but on the bull ring tracks down here in the south (those 1/3, and !/4 mile tracks - maybe; who measured) mostly lap belts from a local parts store. I've even seen one or two cases where a driver used a piece of rope to tie himself in. Safety wasn't the issue - it's hard to drive from the right side of the car which is where you'd end up without something to hold you in place.

In the Dodge and Plymouth coupes I drove we had aircraft type restraints - but only because I was in the Navy at the time and there was always a plane on it's way to a scrap heap.

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

SuperDave

Yes I can echo what Alex said. Growing up in North Carolina during the 50's and being a race fan I know all cars I ever saw had military surplus belts. After WWll there was a lot of that stuff on the market.Actually I doubt there was any other source for belts.. unless you used a rope! LOL After that?? I worked on a 54 Hornet from the West coast that had lap belts with AMC tags sewn in. this was a late 54 and had the more common "Hash" twin "H" type air cleaners as well.:silly:

Huddy42

Alex, when you drive on the right side of the car ( as you said the RIGHT side) you have the steering wheel to hang onto.LOL

hudsontech

Huddy42 wrote:

Alex, when you drive on the right side of the car ( as you said the RIGHT side) you have the steering wheel to hang onto.LOL

Only down under - you blokes have got it all wrong!!! :silly:

Hudsonly,
Alex B
Memphis, TN

37 CTS

I had a conversation with a man who claimed to be on Marshall Teague's team.
He stated that they did not have seat belts in 1951, and put them in 1952 cars.
In one of the correctly restored NASCAR HUDSONs that car has a racing, or Aircraft style seat belt, not a passenger car seat belt.

schillaz

Can someone post a picture of what style they used back then?

thanks

[Deleted User]

Mid-Fifties up to Mid-Sixties, My Dad owned several Sportsman stock cars in the Ohio Valley and He always used the old military web type belts, anchored to the roll cage. No shoulder belts until the early sixties. I believe they even experimented with a 5 belt design which had a strap between the legs. All belts went into a quick release which was twisted to release the belts. I don't know any of the suppliers but there must have been a war surplus store somewhere that made a lot of money.
BOB HICKSON