Fitting inertia reel front seatbelts to your EJ or EH
This is a step by step guide including ‘clickable’ enlargable pics showing the mods required to remove the original style bolt hole from the centre or ‘B’ pillar on your EJ or EH, and how to put the plate in required to fit aftermarket new approved inertia reel seatbelts. The principles can be applied to any old Holden of similar build.
First of all, with removing the top bolt hole in the ‘B’ pillar, you will need to cut a 90mm section out of the pillar. You will need to make a very neat hacksaw cut top and bottom through the inner section of the pillar only, and drill out any spot welds in that section also. You can see in this pic here through to the hole on the outside of the ‘B’ pillar. You will need to fill this hole before welding the inner back on.
Here is the section now laying face down. There is a piece of plate laying in the groove of the section. It is 80 x 50 x 2.5mm. Bend the plate to suite the section. Obtain an inner thread, being machined, or a nut. Drill a hole in the middle of the new plate and make sure it and the hole in the section are all in line with each other.
This is what the pieces should look like once the plates and inner nuts have been MIG welded to the inside. Note the holes where the original spot welds were drilled out.
Finally place your original sections back on the inner pillars making sure you put them on sides they came from. This is what they look like once they have been MIG welded and ground back. With a little bit of linishing and putty, they are totally concealed and if done this way, are strong enough and will pass engineering.
The next step is to put the lower plates in to fit the inertial reels onto. You will find once you have removed your seats and floor coverings that the inner section of the sill panel, just below the ‘B’ pillar has a lot of circular recessed sections. It is extremely important that you clean all tar and sealer residue from the area to get a good quality weld. It is the centre one of these just below the pillar that marks the point we want. Using a circular hole cutting drill attachment, cut a 25mm hole in the very centre.
Again using the same size plate 80 x 50 x 2.5mm and the same thread nut as before. Drill a hole in the centre of the plate and weld the nut to the inside. This is why you need to cut the hole in the inner sill to allow for the nut to go inside.
Finally, once the plate is welded on with top quality MIG welding, you will see here that it is strong and will pass engineering. The clean metal is the only way to get the welds to be smooth. I only lightly linished the welds after this, just to remove a few slight bumps and spatter.
The seatbelts used in all applications were Klippan or Autoliv brand, and are Australian Standards approved. They are available from Rare Spares, or any major automotive aftermarket and replacement parts supplier. You will need to get a stalk length that suits your seats, so measure from the original middle holes in the tunnel floor to the height you require to suit your seats. Keep you buckle high enough to be friendly to use, but low enough so it cannot injure you in an
accident.