C1 Seat Belts

[Roy B.]

Re: C1 Seat Belts

I meant to say up to EARLY 58 not 59, any early Corvette has a lag time for the new design, while using many previous late year corvette parts on it. So that a early 58 may not have had seats belts. Hope I cleared that up?

[Richard F.]

Re: C1 Seat Belts

Thanks Roy, that helps a lot as it takes the possibility of a 'no seat belts' factory run out of play, which then still begs the question... What's going on here?
Back to the drawing board ...
Thanks again
Richard

[Joe L.]

Re: C1 Seat Belts

Richard-----

It's a real mystery, that's for sure. Even earlier C1s had the mounting brackets for the seat belts, although the belts were not factory installed.

I don't think that there were any laws requiring the installation of seat belts as early as 1960. My father bought a brand new 1962 Ford Galaxie 500 and I don't recall it having seat belts, at all. My recollection could be mistaken, though. I have a friend with a 1962 Ford Custom Cab pick-up truck that his father bought new. I know that it has no seat belts and never had any, although even if there were laws regarding seatbelts it could have been different for trucks.

As long as they were not required by law (and, as I say, I don't think they were), I could see where a car might be ordered through the COPO or similar process and have them deleted. But, it's hard to imagine that someone would go through all of this just to have the seat belts deleted. If you didn't want them, you could just cut them out. No big deal, at all. I could see it if there were other non-standard items ordered through this process.

[Rob M.]

Re: C1 Seat Belts

Hi Richard,

I carefully follow the discussion of you likely exception. I'm always highly interrested in these strange exceptions!

If the car was used for racing I can imagine leaving out as much parts as possible could be a reason. I still think it is a lot of extra effort leaving the assembly bits out. What you could try is carefully sand away the dirt on the buttom side of the car where the central hamebones are attached to the car to see if the original holes have been filled or were never there... This would add more prove to the case if they were originally fitted or not.

It would be worthwhile to document your car carefully in the C1 Registry and inquire other '58 owners with a near VIN number to ask them if they had the seatbelts fitted originally (if this is known).

greetings,
Rob.

[Ted S.]

Re: C1 Seat Belts

Richard, I have '58 serial number 9128 which was built next to the last day of production for '58. It also is a power window/top car. It still had what appears to be the original RH seat belt in it but the LH was gone. There is paint under where the hambones were bolted to the inner mounts also. One of the keys will be does it have the inner mounting plates/studs? From the inside the only part you can see is the stud. The rivets are hard to detect also from the inside on my car. Since mine is diassembled, if you need pics or I can help let me know. Hope this helps, Ted

[Richard F.]

'59 C! Seat Belts

Ted, tahnks for the reply.
There seems to be some confusion over the year of this car. It's a '59. Serial# 2817 which should put it's build date around Jan. 6th, 1959.
There are no hambones or plates nor holes where they would have been attached. There is no stud/bolt or hole on the right side of the drive shaft tunnel.
There is a stud on the left/passenger side of the tunnel that has uncracked paint. This one stud is the only evidence that seat belts could have been installed but with the unbroken paint I doubt it has been touched after leaving the factory.
A pic or two would be very much appreciated.
I'm thinking it may be wise for me to photo document this anomoly.
As mentioned previously there are a few other things that don't fit the normal picture on this car albeit small differences, ie. the 2 correct style large hose clamps used on the heater air intake hose are painted black. My understanding is that the norm for these is bright unpainted cadium.
My biggest problem is that C1s are 'new' to me and I'm reading Nolan Adam's RTG, AIM and several other publications as fast as I can absorb the information.. this would not be a problem with my long time owned C3 ..sheesh! AT the same time I am somewhat hesitant to disassemble anything on the car until I know what I have.
Richard

[Richard F.]

Re: '59 C1 Seat Belts

Thanks Rob, I'm overwhelmed by this board. A tremendously helpfull and knowlegable group.
You're thinking is similar to mine regarding a car designated to race. This however is not the case from my limited understanding of it's owner history and the fact that it has weighty power windows and power top.
I like your idea of documenting the whole (hole) episode and will do so.
I guess the only way I'm going to find out exactly what there is, or isn't, is to get in there and scrape away the paint. Damn I hate to do that.
Richard

[Rob M.]

Re: '59 C1 Seat Belts

Hi Richard,

On the underside there should be no paint anyway ;-)

greetings,
Rob.