Hauling kids in your classic cars
 

I'm curious what you guys are using to safely haul your kids or grandkids around in your old musclecars. Booster seats require shoulder harnesses and that's hard to come by for rear seats in 1st gen Camaros. My daughter is 5 and I need to decide whether to buy a particular seat or add different rear belts. Thanks.

John.

I would think you'd be able to put a booster seat in the front passenger area since there's no airbag.

Yeah, that was an idea except our 68 only has lap belts in the front. I've considered installing shoulders up front but the interior is Ivy Gold which is a challenge any way I look at it.

Our boy grew up in classics. Never used any type of shoulder belt to retain the child seat, just a lap belt. The seat had it's own shoulder belt (5 point harness) to keep him in the child seat.

Was pulled over a few times (for other things) and never once did this method of child seat retention ever enter the discussion. Usually the officer was curious why I didn't have a shoulder belt on and then realized I had a lap belt on after he approached the car.

Are new child seats today only made to work with a shoulder belt style retention??

We bought a pair of "convertible" child seats a few years back for the twins. They are now six.

When they were smaller, the seats had their own harness system, and only needed a lap belt to hold the whole seat in. Now that they are bigger, they just use the bottom, so no harness set up. If the car doesn't have shoulder harness, it will not work on those.

I find it strange that the bus they ride to school has no restraints of any kind.

Isn't that interesting? We live in a world that pushes safety and big deals are made about shoulder belts, seat belt laws, etc... Yet school busses that shuttle millions of children back and forth every day still don't have seat belts.

My son never road the bus, took him back and forth every day myself. So even as he got older and was only retained with a lap belt in our classics it was still more than the school busses had.

Not sure if this info helps. But in 1972 (I was 6 years old) I sat on the rear floor pans of my Uncle John’s brand new Heavy Chevy Chevelle while he was power shifting on Playland Parkway Near my parents house. In his defense he did yell “ Hold on Kid” Rob

Federal law only requires seat belts in school buses that weigh less than 10,000 pounds, and historically, regulators have opposed such federal mandates on coach buses. But at least 18 states, including Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Virginia, are currently considering such legislation. Washington is the latest to join the club after the state senate transportation committee held a public hearing Tuesday on a bill that would require all newly purchased public and private school buses to be equipped with seat belts. So far, only six states—California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, and Texas—have a variant of such a law.

This should fix it.

I've used these before to install into the package tray, simple through-bolt anchor point with a plate washer below, for a top-tether child seat.
It does require a discrete hole to be drilled, and I used a cheap reproduction package tray panel to avoid piercing an original, but small price to pay to help the kids travel safer.

Well, that makes more sense than my Sears Auto Strap idea.

Very cool.

Here is another stupid one,

How can certain states have seat belt laws but yet that same state no helmet law for motorcyclists...

Figure that one out....

Rich

Loved that ad you posted Lynn. Still trying to picture a 10-year old who would willingly wear a leash :naughty:

In 1959, I was 6, my older brother was 9, and my younger brother was 3 (youngest brother had not been born yet). Mom travelled with the three of us by train from Virginia to Oklahoma to visit her parents. We all three had on harnesses for the whole trip. She knew that was the only way she could keep all three of us under control. She turned 90 on May 18.

When my sister and I were kids, we weren't restrained in the cars at all, lol. Dad always tucked the rear seat belts under the back seat, which was a common practice back then.

Then when I turned 16 my first daily driver was a 56 nomad that didn't even have seat belts. LOL Drove that car up into my early 20's before I parked it.

To some of you it's probably a miracle I'm still here :D

https://i.postimg.cc/8P1mNjfv/kgf.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Cx2GG7PC/screenshot-7204.png

Thanks guys. My main concern is using a booster seat which requires a shoulder belt. As of right now, I think I'm going to look at the possibility of installing some original looking rear shoulder belts.

Another option is to find a high back type of booster seat with a built in harness that uses a top tether like Tim showed.

I remember all sorts of unsafe travels when I was a kid. My grandmother's 64 Pontiac had no belts at all. Dad's 67 VW had the rear belts tucked under the seat, rusted floors and a missing passenger seat for some reason. And, of course, riding to Hershey Park in the back of and old Dodge Tradesman with no seats or anything in the back. It was fun rolling across the floor into some pillows when dad had to slam on the brakes on the turnpike.

My '68 had no rear seat belts and only a 5 point harness in the front that was a leftover from the racing days with the one-hoop roll bar. I wanted to drive my 6 yo son around (at the time) so I but in 3 point seat belts in the rear and replaced the 5 pt harness in front with over shoulder belts that are minimally adjustable. The front ones are terrible so I just use the lap belt part of those for me. May just replace them with factory belts.

This is from 1987 when my oldest was two years old. The tri-power set up was off of my '67 427/435 as was the hood. He loved driving with me in his car seat.

The reality is that there likely isn't a safe way to have any child in one of these old cars with steel bumpers and lacking crush zones. I remember one of the member's talking about how their Son was severely injured in a crash in a 69 Chevelle because the rear seat belt nearly cut him in half at impact.

I guess it's like riding a motorcycle to me...calculated risk.

Right Mark. Sadly, a few years ago we had a local guy and his son do the HR Power Tour in his dad's beautiful newly restored '69 Camaro get hit by an idiot who tried to pass a car coming in the other direction and hit them head on. The father died. Not sure any kind of restraint would have saved the dad or stopped the son from being injured.

I agree with the calculated risk comment. As compared to new cars our classics are just not comparatively safe.
When my daughter was a baby I would put her in my 67 Vette and strap the car seat in with the lap belt. When my second daughter came along 15 months later I would strap both of them in the Vette with the lap belt. At this point they were 3 and 4 years old. This was in the late 90's. I basically just drove around town at around 35 mph, but still it was a risk.

Wife and I had a 63' Corvette rag top -- put the baby seat in the rear somewhat between the seats above the storage area ...

When my son was not yet two I took him for a ride in my '67 L35 Camaro. When the coast was clear I stood on it at about 50 mph and roared up to about 90, the Q-jet induction making that classic WHOOM sound. As soon as I let off he shouted, "AGAIN! AGAIN!" Still chokes me up a little to this day.

His seat had a harness so the rear lap belt held the seat in place. He could see really well too and he wasn't used to that.

My son was about 3 when I took him out in my Silver Z06. I let it go on the on-ramp to the highway and we got moving pretty well. I slowed down and looked over at him and said. "What do you think about Daddy's Corvette?" He replied, "I wish it was Red"...

I guess this is not the right way his first ride up and down the block

Got the rear shoulder belts in my gold car today.

Very cool. My 7 year old grandsons (identical twins) keep asking for a ride in the 69 Z/28. So far, I have only taken them around the block buckled up in the front seat. I would feel much better having them in the back seat, with seat belts AND shoulder harnesses while in their booster seats. Originality be damned in this case.

How about a tutorial on how you mounted everything. Leave no detail uncovered or tards like me will screw it up.

P.S. SSL78, don't be offended, but that will get you arrested these days in most States. Of course, as I mentioned two pages ago, it is still legal to transport the little buggers in school buses without restraints. Strangely, because of grandfathering (not me, the law) I can take my little ones for a ride in the old limo without restraints, because it didn't come with them.

Lynn, I still have to put the set in my silver car so maybe I'll remember to actually take some pictures of the mounting plates I made. Otherwise, there really isn't much to engineer since GM offered this set up in the first gen cars and there are some nice details outlined in the Fisher body manual as well as Kurt's report on seat belts over at CRG.

http://www.camaros.org/seatbelt.shtml

I did have the belts made after I measured out what I wanted.

Hell, I rode in the back seat from age 5 to 10 or 11 in both the Camaro, the Chevelle, and the '63 Fairlane we had for a couple years. None of them have/had rear belts. Bonus: The Fairlane didn't even have lap belts in the front. That car was a massive turd. And I miss it, a lot.

At age 9 I rode in the back of a 54 Ford along with two of my three brothers from Virginia to Oklahoma. Of course there were no belts at all. I even remember climbing up and laying on the package shelf trying to get comfortable, as me and my three brothers were always clamoring for room. We survived a lot of things I would never subject my grandkids to.

On our 63' Corvette drop top we would put the baby girl in her baby seat and position it between the seats above the center cubby hole in back ... perfect!!

My father put a grade 8 eye mounted through the center of the package tray and down through the trunk floor using with 4" flat washers through the trunk floor and grade 8 bolts in order to use the babyseat top attachment in his 57 Chevrolet... same could be done in any camaro.