Do you where your seats belts in your 68 CS/HCS?

[tworings]

Hi Lisa, are you bringing "Buttercup" to the Knott's Berry show?

I was planning on installing the 3-point seat belts that they advertise in the Mustang mag's. If this is what you have, and if you are bringing your car, it will give me an opportunity to see a set installed.

Thank you, Dave

Hi Dave - yes, we're planning on going to Knotts. I'm not sure which 3-point belts my husband bought, but check ours out before you commit to see how you like them. ~ Lisa

 

[luisa2552]

When, in Jan 1968, it was mandatory to include the shoulder harness belts, you can tell that they weren't designed to be user-friendly. Theading that belt across that hook thing, then stuffing in into that rubber boot thingy, at the same time meshing the Velcro, is quite a feat! Whew!! Geesch!

.

So all our cars should have both lap and shoulder belts? Mine just has lap...

 

[PNewitt]

There are a few very early cars that do not have the Shoulder harnesses. Ford waited until actually Jan 1st to include them. As a side note--for the standard Mustang (not CS), they dropped the louvered hood as a standard item for '68 (and back to the regular hood) to offset the cost of adding the Federally Required Shoulder harnesses; as per the bean counters.

So, you may see a '68 built before Jan 1st, 1968, with a louvered hood, and no shoulder harnesses. But! the begin build date for the CS was later than Jan 1st, (to be revealed at a later time) so there is a production time lag for the shoulder harnesses.

Which leads me to ask: who else has a January '68 GT/CS with NO shoulder harnesses? We just might nail the exact date again for a "production jump" through the Registry. Cars bucked on Dec. 28th, '67 might have not have included the shoulder belts, and were finished and out of the factory on say, Feb 15th (I can already see Jeff Speegle reading this one...).

In any case, look for the bolt holes up in the headliner--somewhat close to the coat hooks. A previous owner may have eliminated the shoulder harnesses, and covered the holes over with a new headliner. It's happened before (however, Dec '67 and earlier cars probably don't have the threaded bolt hole plates welded in the roof).

Paul N.

 

[luisa2552]

Mine is an April car so I guess it should have them. It had a new headliner when I got it so I bet the last owner just never put them back in.

 

[miller511]

Mine is an early April CS and has/had the bolts for the shoulder harness, but no shoulder harness belts. I'm sure they got disgarded somewhere along the way.

 

[miller511]

I remember reading somewhere that the reason belts weren't used early on was that conventional wisdom of the time was that it was better to be "thrown clear" in an automobile accident. I KNOW!!! Kind of like the "duck and cover" concept that they taught (maybe if you'r over 40 or so?) in grade school that was going to save us from a nuclear blast.

 

[BroadwayBlue]

Great replies everyone ... thanks!!
Took me awhile to get back to this. (The site isn't behaving with my new Vista, Internet Explorer 7.0 - I'll post that quesiton in the appropriate section)

I'm going to start rethinking not wearing my shoulder belt. It would set the right example especially that I make passengers wear their belts.

Sorry for my spelling there on the thread title. "where" vs "wear" too fast sometimes and you just type what you "hear" in your mind ... bad habit of doing that with "they're' and "there" too :smile: