My partly renovated S3 FHC arrived without any seatbelts. To get it back on the road I clearly need to get some fitted. I appear to have two existing fixing locations each side, one at the rear of the tunnel, and one down low in the sill. I note there is also a threaded fixing location in each side of the rear bulkhead, but this would appear to sit immediately behind the driver’s/passenger’s neck.
Was the S3 FHC designed to take only a fixed lap belt, or a fixed three point belt using the bulkhead fixing locations? Has anybody used an alternative approach to mount a fixed or inertia three point belt. I am concerned that the bulkhead fixing locations won’t be very comfortable, and that a lap belt won’t provide the necessary safety levels.
I appreciate that there have been quite a few historical posts on this subject, but I was struggling to find a clear answer to this question for my car.
Also, can anybody point me in the direction of potential suppliers of belts.
Hi Robert, my 66 S3 FHC came with an after market three way shoulder belts system. I removed it for new lap belts, attached as you described. The reason, I was told by racing guys, without a roll bar I would be locked in and could not duck and would have to use my head as a skid plate. With our Elans we give up safety for agility With a roll bar go for the three way belts.
Robert, three point inertia reel seatbelts were an option (I might be wrong, but I believe they were standard on Special Equipment cars). My '67 S/E FHC came with its original reel belts, which were unfortunately seized and rusted. I’ve been told by a specialist that they aren’t a restorable item (for safety reasons) so I decided to fit static three-point items using the existing mounting points.
You are quite right about the mounting, it is indeed a poor location, hence it being moved on the S4 more outward behind the shoulder.
Anyhow, I’ve never seen serviceable original type belts, but I have seen quite a few Elans with Kangol “period” belts fitted. I had a completely new set made by Quickfit (www.quickfitsbs.com) because I prefer the look to the Kangol, and I went with the static kind because I never liked the ugly reel being fitted so prominently behind the seats, as well as “pebble weave” belts only being available as static.
That really is helpful. Based on Quckfit’s website, under UK law, I wouldn’t get away with a lap belt in my car because it is post '63. So I will talk to them in the morning about a 3 point static.
These are probably for the bolts that attach the body to the rear uprights. (There had better be bolts in them if that is the case.) When three-point belts were fitted, brackets were added to the uprights to provide a better (but still not great) location more outboard of these bolts.
On my car, I had the roll bar hoop drilled for the shoulder belt guides, and also put in attachment points on the braces for the inertia reels. I purchased aftermarket belts with retro airplane-style buckles from a US vendor. Very pleased with them.
I am not sure about attaching the body, but my car had definitely, from new, had the seatbelt reels attached there. As mentioned, the fixing point is basically right between the shoulders making it quite awkward, so for S4 it was moved outboard with brackets.
Unfortunately I don’t have a better photo, but if you look inside the car, the white plastic box behind the driver’s seat is in fact the original inertia reel (now removed). As the photo shows, this really does mean that the belt wraps around your neck…
I also have a 1966 S3 FHC to which I fitted Securon inertia reel belts. To avoid almost strangling myself (which I did for a short while), I had the strong metal bar that spans and attaches to the chassis turrets extended by 5 inches on either side, but with a very small angle (<5 degrees) and a mounting hole backed by a welded on captive nut. A local welder charged me ?40 for the privilege-probably took him not more than an hour so he did very well-I was happy with the result though. I also made up a couple of simple extension bars for the stalks and it all works fine now.
I don’t believe domestic Elan’s had retract belts until maybe the Sprint. My 69 S4 SE came without.
Does anyone in NA preferably in Canada know who will replace the webbing on my original Kangol belts?
Adi is absolutely correct. The S3 had inertia reel belts as an optional extra, and the SE had them as standard.
You have to remember Keith that the S3 was a quality machine…the S4 came with a lot of things missing from the S3 specification as a cost cutting exercise. Your faith system based around your S4 is, I’m afraid, ill-founded.
Not in Canada but in US is ssnake-oyl.com/
Very pricey but the best there is. Concours guys from all makes go here for seat belt restoration. I had a set restored for my Cortina some years ago.
Mark, Those cost cutting measures are also weight reduction (including one less layer of mat in the whole body) so an S4 is obviously the faster more nimble car than an S3! True to the Lotus philosophy “Design in Lightness”.
A good comeback, Keith! I was surprised when I bought a S4 just how thin the panels are compared to the S3…it really is noticable. For a while at Lotus meetings, I had to go and poke other S4 cars to see if they were the same, and they are. I don’t notice any difference in performance though, but that could be due to my size and bulk.
I’m still suprised that the S3 had retracts & the S4 didn’t. I wonder if they were installed in the S3 in anticipation of the Federal requirements like the switches etc. It would be interesting to know if federal S4’s had retracts as standard.
I don’t think so Keith. In fact, I can’t find any reference to these belts in the later S3, the S4 or the early Sprint brochures. The brochure shown above is from 1966, when the type 45 first came out.
My S3 is a mid-67 S/E Coupe, and that doesn’t have them either, and does have it’s original belts…I bought the car from the first owner a long, long time ago. I’m guessing that the cost cutting started during the S3 production, and / or there was a problem with the retractable belts. Certainly the original fitting place must be a bit uncomfortable!
The key word here is “standard”. My S4 Federal Sprint came with retractors but as the third owner, I don’t know if they were standard or optional at the time.
My car was built in May '67, and had the exact specification listed in the brochure, belts and the 3.55 diff included.
I was very sad to take out the original belts and ruin the originality, but aside from them being unusable, they are actually quite nasty items. I’ll still attempt to restore them at some point, but they won’t be going back into the car any time soon.
As for differences between the S3 and S4, the one that baffles me the most is fitting that tiny radiator to the S4, when even the big one on the S3 can be defeated. Could it have really saved them that much money?
