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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Frogeye Sprite seat belt cill mounts

Hi

How have owners of Frogeyes/Bugeyes and early MkII Sprites installed seat belts please, particularly the side mount into the cill (or is that 'sill' - I am never sure on the spelling). Such cars were made before mounts were factory installed to meet later UK regulations.

Looking at Gerard's Garage website, there is info on how dealers did this with an accessory kit: http://www.gerardsgarage.com/Garage/Tech/SeatBeltWS.htm Funnily enough now can't find a part number or kit that includes all the mounts for drilling and bolting, not welding in.

I am tempted to try to follow the same for the sill mounts, using a Mini part (24A2186) but tapping it for the required additional bolts: http://minispares.com/product/Classic/Body/24A2186.aspx?03&ReturnUrl=/product/Classic/BMP1496.aspx%7CBack%20to

I do realise replacing the sills and welding such a plate in is the easiest! My 1961 car does have the upper twin tandem stud mounts fitted but never any seatbelts as far as I can tell.

Cheers
Mike
M Wood

It depends on what belts you are using. I originally had static ones that were like the factory after market belts. But I imagine you will want inertia reels, which I have now (from late midget). The inner one is mounted to the rear of the tunnel. I welded a nut to a thick steel plate and riveted that to the thin steel of the tunnel on the inside, so the bolt clamps the plate to the tunnel. The outer belt came with 90º brackets on the end so obviously was for floor mounting not the sill. I already had mountings welded in from the static belts. See photos. But if yours have flat steel on the end then you will have to mount to the sill, and you could only do that by welding a plate and a nut on the inner sill, which would not be very neat.

The inertia reel went on top of the wheel arch, with mountings welded on underneath. Again these were from the static belts.

Les






L B Rose

I fitted belt anchor points to my frog, using some that I got from Rimmer Bros, sold for Triumphs. They consist of a thick, 50mm square plate with the correct threaded nut welded to it. I think its a 1.5mm pitch thread.

The plates are fitted inside each panel, with the nut at the inner side so even if a weld were to give way it wouldnt pull through. The plate is then plug welded in place through holes drilled from the cockpit side but again these are more to locate it than take any direct load. It would take a lot to rip the 2" plates through a body panel and I just hope I never ever exert that much force on them anyway!

For the tunnel mounted one I could simply position it inside the tunnel. Similarly for the wheel arch one. But for the sill I had already repaired these with new inner and outer sills. After some thought I cut out a slot in the rear sill closing panel and slid the 50 x 50 plate inside from the back, manoeuvring it into position with a magnet on a stick. Fortunately this was during the bodywork stage, and before any paint had been sprayed.
GuyW

This thread was discussed between 29/08/2020 and 01/09/2020

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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