Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 22:55:31 -0400
Reply-To: ed <edevinney@ANENT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: ed <edevinney@ANENT.COM>
Organization: Pismo Beach Institute for Advanced Leisure Studies
Subject: Re: Westy Rear Shoulder Belts
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Having recently done this on both sides of a non-camper, I will appoint
myself an expert and pontificate.
There is a LH side note for non-campers, the process is simply the
mirror of the RH. The notes describe templates for cutting the interior
panels. Since my interior is a Carat (retrofitted to the Syncro GL),
the instructions weren't spot-on, but some careful Dremel handling made
short work of the job, helped if you enjoy the taste of plastic
shavings. 1.5 hours of shop time would be appropriate, IMO. Parts
aren't too bad, the belt is about $130.
The belt reels are affixed to factory holes in the bodywork. I wouldn't
put them amywhere else without engineering a good bracket and using
appropriate bolts and washers. I ran up to the dealer a second time to
get all the stock hardware. Even if you were able to mount the reel so
that the belt was outisde the closet, the strap goes through a loop
attached to the D-pillar. I'm pretty sure that this could be safely
extended through the closet.
If the inside of the closet allows you access to the bodywork, you could
run the belt inside the closet and across, exiting appropriately. This
would kill the closet space, of course, and as the opening need to be
pretty large, it wouldn't be attractive. The D-pillar cover gets opened
up almost 2", and that's just 2-3" from the apex of the belt. Do the
similar-triangles thing from Geometry class and you can see that you'd
need to open the wall up rather a lot to allow the belt to move and fit
a variety of people.
Still, I like the overall effect, and feel better about the kids back
there. It makes for just the kind of all-weather school bus we were
looking for.
Cheers -
ed
Houston wrote:
> Just got an estimate from my mechanic to retrofit a
> shoulder harness for the right side of the rear seat
> in my 84 westfalia, and it seems reasonable.
>
> My question is: The VW service bulletins don't cover
> a left-side conversion, presumably because the belt
> needs to be bolted to the body, and the closet is in
> the way. Has anybody figured out a way to retrofit on
> the left side, either going through the closet or
> bolting to the top of the engine housing? Doable?
>
> My concern is that it just doesn't seem quite far for
> the adults in front to be safe and for the kids to
> just have lap belts. Kids are growing out of car
> seats.
>
> Houston
> 84 Westfalia, "Morrison"
> PDX OR
>
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