California Seat belt law

[///mChris]

I recently had to take traffic school.. I noticed this because it was a topic recently...

Your odds of surviving a collision are 2 times greater when you have a lap belt, 3-4 times greater when you

have a lap belt with a shoulder harness. However, if your car was made before 1968, and factory seat belts

were not installed, you do not have to install or wear seat belts.

So if my car was born on october 2, 1967.. I don't have to wear seat belts?

[HBChris]

You have a 1968 model BMW, in the U.S 1968 was the first year that cars had to have seatbelts so technically it should have belts and you are required to wear them. You don't want to drive without them anyway, is it worth risking your life?

[Richard]

The early seat belts were killers. Kinda like tying your self in place with a rope. No head rests??? You can drive alot faster if held in place...

[///mChris]

I agree shoulder belts are the way to go. In fact I converted mine a long time ago from the factory lap belt.

It's just interesting detail..

[RickW]

I've discussed this before regarding VWs, many of which had mounting points in the early 60s. I believe the minutia of the law is that if you install belts you must wear them as a normal car. You don't get a pass just because they didn't come on the car originally. So if you have a car in which belts were never installed, it's a 67 or older, and you never put in belts, you can drive to your hearts content, though I'm not sure I'd like to have that conversation with a cop. That said I have new belts in all my cars with the exception of some of the very old models.

[Mike Self]

for shoulder harnesses, even though they weren't "required" until 1 Jan 1968, when the new safety laws went into effect.

Remove your rear quarter upholstery panels (on each side of the back seat) and I'll bet you find a large nut welded into the sill just below the window opening. that's where the shoulder harnesses mounted on the early 1600s and 2002s. You can adapt an inertia reel belt to mount there; although the retraction won't be so great it'll still lock up and do its job in a collision.

I have mounting instructions if you need 'em.

mike

[///mChris]

That's what I did. Unfortunately the angle of the belt is less than desirable. I now am planning on welding a nut to the B column.

[HBChris]

I just mounted my Bluedevils Repa belts, front and rear, and they are oustanding! The rear retractor is mounted directly under the shoulder mount under the rear quarter window, operation is smooth. This is the approach Dirk in Coral Cables did on his cabrio. I just need a button to keep male buckle from sliding down the belt. Haven't installed rear seat bottom yet, that is next, but I am afraid it will interfere with rear seat retractors, we shall see. No more stiff and unwieldly spaghetti belts!

[TKMad]

I just got a seat belt ticket in Cali in my built in '68 02. The judge didn't care a whit that it wasn't built with seat belts. He did reduce the fine though.