Lower Outside Seat Belt Mounts - Ron’s 70 S2 Crossflow

[RonPNW]

Repairing the pop rivets at the lower part of the body, where it meets the floor pan, turned into yet another adventure. Handfulls of rust poured out as I started to clean the area. As it turns out the lower seat belt mounts are nearly completely converted into rust. Check yours. While a seat belt, in a Europa, likely only serves to simplify things for the ambulance crew by keeping all the parts in one place, it does a great job of keeping you in your seat while maneuvering. The S2 uses a 3 point seat belt with no retraction reel. It can be adjusted to nicely secure your body to the seat.

It is easy to fabricate new pieces using aluminum sheet and a seat belt nut plate (summit racing) or a stainless steel nut with large flange fabricated on a lathe.  The flange keeps the bolt from pulling through the aluminum and provides a place for four pop rivets to prevent rotation when installing. I used Rivnuts for the ¼” bolt locations. The seat belt bolts snapped (due to rust) during dis-assembly. I used standard (grade 5) 7/16”-20 bolts with the head height reduced to .15” to match the original. (I know that many folks go for higher grade bolts and thicker materials but a calculation of the breaking forces for even low grade and thin materials is far greater than the human body can withstand. After all we are talking about a fiberglass car built in the 70’s with no roll cage.)

Parts I used:
Aluminum sheet .1” 6061
Fabricated SS 7/16” – 20 large flange nut or seat belt nut plate (summit racing)
RivNuts ¼’ – 18
Seat belt bolt 7/16” -20 with reduced height head (.15” tall)

[Bryan Boyle]

Drawing done in '83 that's part of the documentation stash attached...if you want to pre-build before ripping out the old stuff.

Mine before welding up:
http://www.lotuseuropa.us/0693r/photos/index.php/2008/08-16-08-Seat_Belt_Plates/

Update: cleaned up drawing and consolidated notations.

[fort]

This post is  very appropriate for anyone with a Europa that has suffered the ravages of time. The mounts rust like mad and safety dictates must be checked and new ones made out necessary. I discovered mine almost didn’t exist.

[TurboFource]

Bryan,
Is this for all models?

[Kendo]

No. There are two (at least) different mounting plate types.

[Bryan Boyle]

Bryan,
Is this for all models?

As Kendo pointed out...no.  These are for the S2.  Guess I should have pointed that out.  When this drawing was made (1983), the TCs were still less than 10 years old (some of them, anyway...) and probably still in good nick.

Also why I left at full size rather than re-sizing it to fit on the display size.  Won't loose or fuzz up the measurements.

[ralf]

After I made it new I brought it for zink plating and yellow chromating which make it mor resistant against rust

[jbcollier]

This was noted in all the specialist magazines back in the day.  Does not apply to S1s.  Their bracket is also a jacking point and is made out of at least 1/8" wall steel, as well as the rocker not being open at the front.