Fitting Harnesses

[RobM]

Hi there. I'd like to fit harnesses to my 1999 VVC 7, and was wondering what it entailed. I appear to have two bolts over my right shoulder, which I presume are for this purpose, but none over my left. Someone told me once that I may well have the threaded hole for the harnesses to bolt into over my left shoulder, but its just hidden by the boot cover, which is screwed all the way along that edge, and I would just need to drill a hole through teh boot covering. Is that the case?

 

Could anyone elighten me on what is entailed please?

 

thanks.

 

- How can such a cute looking car sound so ferocious! -

[Nifty]

Have recently fitted them to mine and a worthy upgrade. If you put your hand into boot and feel underside of that chassis rail you should be able to locate threaded holes - almost certainly there since they were on my 1995 1.4K. With predrilled holes it is just a case of drilling hole in boot cover (off the car) and bolting harnesses on. Will need to remove seats to do the bottom points.

 

Presumably you are currently on inertia reels. On my car it is not possible to remove the inertia reel mechanism without unrivetting the covering panel so they are staying put for the time being.

[RobM]

Thanks very much. Interesting how the bolts are there over your right shoulder but not your left! I am intertia reel, yes. Is it possible to remove the belt if you can't get the mechanism out? Most cars have the mechanism and belt inextricably linked.

 

I'll order some harnesses from Caterham soon and get cracking!

 

- How can such a cute looking car sound so ferocious! -

[Michael_E]

Little tip I picked up from Chris Wheeler that may save you time regarding the covered hole.

 

If you use a little taper hammer (rounded end) and tap away at the boot cover into the hole (and the inside edge of the hole) for a min or two the cover depresses into the hole and then cuts out as a rather neat circle. This can then be removed by a pin or other small item (tweezers if you've got them) so you don’t have to remove the boot cover.

 

 

C7 MLE

The big red one with yellow bits on.

[CHRIS CLARK]

Nifty.

Did you notice that the harnesses are not central to your shoulders/seat? I found they would not 'sit' correctly over the shoulders if the original holes were used (mine is a '93 car and was a 1.4 SS). I fitted a 'mod' to clear this problem.

[Nifty]

Chris,

 

I first became aware of this when looking at a friends car, a late 80's crossflow. I then looked at Ernie's late 90's Superlight and they were offset on the shoulders too, though not so obvious with his Tillets. I was a little apprehensive of this apparent offset since the right hand shoulder belt seems too close to ones neck but I have not noticed any problems when wearing the belts.

 

Does seem strange that the car is built with this offset though *confused*