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With all this time on my hands for another project, I wandered through Pep Boys across the street from the upholstery shop and left with two cans of Extend rust-to-primer stuff.
Coming back to my car on jackstands with no seats, I did the only sensible thing I could think of -- I removed the old lap belts that look like they came out of a 1970's GM car and tossed 'em on the floor in the garage. Then, I removed the seat rails which I'll be beadblasting shortly. Finally, I ripped up the carpets, shook 'em off and threw them in the trunk, revealing the sad state of my floorpans that even Fred Flintstone wouldn't want to rest his stubby feet on. But perhaps they aren't in the overall dire condition as I had originally feared. The worst area by far is the driver's side footwell.
I've reached a critical decision that is also a very personal one. I don't expect everyone to agree with what I've decided to do, but someone e-mailed me a suggestion for a good temporary repair -- until I feel like having the old rusted floorpans removed and replaced entirely -- a task I'd rather delay until I'm ready to tackle the rest of the bodywork in 2001 and then do everything at once.
Rather than go with pop rivets and a misappropriated STOP sign for sheetmetal fabrication (as someone else told me they used), I've decided to thoroughly wire brush the floorboards, treat with the Extend rust to primer spray, then create a fiberglass overlay that will create a tough, waterproof and very strong place to rest my feet until the rest of the bodywork is done professionally. The more time I've had to think about this approach, the more this idea appeals to me. It's cheap, something I can do myself and might even turn out halfway attractive. It's also only as permanent as I wish it to be.
I plan on owning this car for the next 20 years. I'm not interested in showing it. I want it to look great cosmetically and run great mechanically, but what's under the carpet -- so long as it is strong, sound and solid, isn't as big a priority as I thought it might be earlier. That isn't to say that I won't eventually replace the floor panels with proper steel replacements. I will -- and perhaps sooner than I think. I just want to be able to drive the car for the next year or so without worrying about my feet dropping through to the pavement at 50 MPH.
The passenger seat area of the floorpan seems to be in the best shape so far. However, I've decided to fiberglass the entire floorpan area on both sides, just to be on the safe side. I'm not crazy about all the cancer warnings on the fiberglass resin and Extend cans, but I'll just wear a good mask, work with great ventilation (I'll even use an electric fan to keep fresh air washing over me) and hope for the best. I found an English 5 pence piece on the passenger side footwell under the carpet. It's going to be my good luck charm, but I think I'm going to keep it in my back pocket while driving, so if I fall through the floorboard onto my ass, that coin will be the first thing to pit the pavement. I'll only treat my newfound lucky 5 pence charm as good as it treats me.
Tonight, I'll be vacuuming out all the loose rust and loosening some more with a wire brush. Tomorrow, I'll brush and vacuum some more -- then apply the Extend. The passenger side floor as a slight inward dent that I've decided to leave alone rather than try to flatten out with a hammer. I may try my hand at the fiberglass stuff in a few days, but may practice on something else first. I want to do a good job with it.
2/4/00 -- I spent about an hour last night vacuuming, wire brushing and vacuuming the floor panels some more. I was amazed at how much debris there was. Rust debris that used to be metal... While I'm pressing ahead with the temporary fiberglass fix, the thin feeling of the floor panels -- particularly in the drivers side footwell, leads me to wonder if there's really much more than the undercoating on the bottom side holding it all up! I'm not sure how thick the floorpans are supposed to be -- but comparing these to the '69 Mk3 that I bought and sold via eBay previously leads me to believe that these floors have deteriorated significantly. I have nothing to lose by trying the patch at this point (except perhaps my life), but it's going to be a real test for the fiberglass, without question!
My original plan was to fiberglass the floor panels and replace them properly with steel in about a year. After a very restless night of sleep, I've decided that no, I'll have them repaired properly as soon as possible. A local British garage will do the job for me, but they can't get to it for another couple of months at least...
2/7/00 -- Before I continue with the description of my floor repair, a quick tip for bead blast novices... I bought my compressor and blasting cabinet over the Internet and it's taken me a week or two of trial and error to get satisfactory results. My first surprise was that my $79 Harbor Freight bead blasting cabinet leaks. It also offers better visibility than I originally thought after I removed the protective plastic wrapping from the plexiglass cover/door. Duh! Another list member cautioned that water forming in the air lines of the compressor would foul my blasting flow after a short while and he was correct. He pointed me to a website that had an elaborate drawing of how to build moisture traps with pipe, etc. I found it a lot easier to purchase an inline filter with a clear glass reservoir and purge button to actually see the amount of water that's being diverted away from my bead blaster! Wow! BIG performance difference now. I bought my inline filter/water trap at Home Depot for $13. Highly recommended. Also, while my 2HP air compressor with the 4 gallon tanks is doing okay -- if I had it all to do over again, I'd spring for the larger 5hp compressor and larger air reserve.
While waiting for the floors to "cure", I've removed, bead blasted and repainted my ash tray and heater vents on the dash. There was some minor surface rust forming on them before. Now, they look exceptional. And brand new.
Tip: A light mist of sandable primer on these parts is preferable to a heavier coat.
It's been a very productive couple of days of trial and error.
Two days ago, I created a removeable fiberglass overlay to my driver's side footwell, which as you can see from the above photo, is in an advancing state of decay. After wire brushing with a rotary brush on my hand drill, there are even MORE holes that are apparent. After the wire brushing was finished, I vacuumed out the debris again and sprayed with several coats of Extend rust-to-primer converter and let it dry overnight.
I wanted to create a temporary overlay primarily to make it easier for the steel floorboard removal and replacement, which I plan to have done withing the next two to twelve months.
I successfully created a "mold" by laying extra wide aluminum foil that I procured from the kitchen drawer and pressed into place. This creates a removable barrier after the fiberglass has set up. I purchased an "Evercoat" fiberglass repair kit that included resin, glass cloth and hardener for $12.95 from Home Depot. The kit provides just enough material to repair one footwell. After the foil barrier was laid in and pressed into all the channels and corners of the floor, I cut the fiberglass cloth and held the edges in place with duct tape. The cloth extended fore and aft over the horizontal lip of the floorpan behind the pedals and halfway over the cross member directly in front of the seat. It also extended over the lip of the floorpan adjacent to the transmission cover. This provided some support on three out of four sides.
The fiberglass cloth was definitely sloppy to work with. It begins to disinigrate somewhat when the resin/hardener mixture is applied. I used a 2" paintbrush and the spreader stick that came with the kit to push and pull the goopy glasscloth into shape and position. Finally, I resorted to using my fingers in some areas (I was wearing my latex rubber surgical gloves and went through two or three pair when all was said and done. I was pleased with the results. A short time later, I had a hardened footwell "insert". The only trouble with this concept is that a single layer of fiberglass seemed too flimsy when not adhered directly to the flooring beneath it. Hence, in retrospect, I opted to scrap this idea, since the overlay provided no strengthening or rigidity to the decaying metal beneath it, which is quite necessary if this was going to work at all.
I resorted to "plan B" today and bought a larger combo pack of just resin and hardener in pre-measured amounts that was more than enough to thoroughly coat both the driver and passenger side footwells. I also opted to purchase a heavier fiberglass matting, which came in a large enough size to cover both footwells twice, if necessary.
Using my removed fiberglass footwell overlay as a pattern, I cut the cloth to simply fill the entire floor area of the footwell, but opted to not cover any other horizontal areas like I did with the removeable overlay. The idea here was to cover the business portion of the footwells with a thick coating of fiberglass, adhered directly to the remaining metal. After all, the majority of the floorboard, even on the badly decaying driver's side, was intact, with areas of very little decay, which would in turn help to support the weaker portions when the entire surface was treated. I don't know how architecurally sound my thinking is on this, but at least you can see where I was going with this.
I was actually rather reluctant to glass over the passenger side footwell, since there is actually very little rot through on that side. Barely any at all, actually. I went ahead and did it anyway, reasoning that if the driver's side was that bad off, the passenger side couldn't be too far behind, even though there weren't as many outward telltale signs of trouble. The footwell on the passenger side, while exhibiting only a few small holes, still felt "thin" with a bit more flex than I would expect ( I wouldn't expect any).
TIP: When trimming the glass matting to size, be sure to cut two or three one inch inward slits on the rounded (not squared off) inside corner area, so the matt will easily conform to the correct shape of the inside wall of the footwell while applying the resin. Also, be certain to wear a face mask designed to screen chemical odors. If you get some resin on your skin, it cleans off quickly with paint thinner. For goodness sakes, don't smoke or light a match while you're working with this stuff!
This time, before adding the hardener, I decided to add about a pound of micro glass beads (the same used in my bead blaster) for added strength and better sanding.
Since the matt is so much thicker than the regular glass cloth, I knew it would be important to get it well saturated with resin, so I used the entire can (about 28 oz.). I dry fit both matts to make sure that they fit well, and placed a barrier of duct tape along the crack where the floorpan meets the inner sill so no adhesion would take place there. If I were planning this to be a "permanent" solution, I would have had no qualms about applying the fiberglass there as well, but since this is temporary, I didn't want to glass over any area that would be in the way of cutting out the old floorboards when the time comes. Fortunately, this was the only area that needed special attention.
Once the matts were in place, I added hardener to the resin and glass beads and stirred. Using a small foam roller this time (MUCH easier than using a brush!) I folded back half of the matt and liberally slopped the goop on the primed metal floorboards and the back of the matt, before lowering it back into place. Then, I folded back the opposite half of the matt and repeated the procedure, ensuring a good base coat of resin under the matt. Then, I appiled more resin over the top, working the matt into the corners and edges of the floor and into the water drainage channels as best I could. I had plenty of time to apply resin to both sides to my satisfaction. Before the resin could harden, I used an exacto knift to cut along the inner sill seam and removed the duct tape.
I poured the remaining resin from the mixing container into my trash can and deposited the roller in there as well -- and was slightly alarmed to see smoke coming from the open trash container! Apparently the resin and hardener combo generate heat and the foam roller was generating enough chemical heat to create smoke, apparently. Yikes!
After four hours of drying time -- or about twice as long as the first attempt took yesterday -- the resin was still quite wet and tacky. I was initially alarmed at this, fearing that my introduction of the glass microbeads had somehow fouled the mix. I double checked the instructions on the cans and reaffirmed that the mix ratio I used was correct. I tried using the heat from a hair dryer to speed the curing process along (I'm not sure why -- the seats are with the upholsterer, the oil has been drained from the engine and the wheels are off -- it's not like I can go anywhere!) but the heat didn't generate any results that I could see. However, I was reassured somewhat by the fact that the roller I used and discarded was hard as a rock and had set up just fine.
Sure enough, about eight hours after the application, I began seeing evidence that my mix of resin is indeed drying. Whew! Had it remained tacky -- that was one mess I wasn't looking forward to addressing!
Wearing my respirator mask tomorrow, I'm going to do some very light sanding with my vaccum cleaner on, the nozzle near the sanding pad, drawing in the dust. Then, I'm going to coat the fiberglass with some primer. I'll probably paint the floors. I also don't like seeing the holes in the steel floors through the translucent fiberglass patch. I could leave them as they are -- they won't show under the carpeting -- but I'd like the job to appear well done and professional -- even if it is just temporary.
I plan on drilling out the drainage holes again, and re-inserting the plugs, even though I won't be driving this car in the rain. Unless my logic with respect to the strengthening aspects is way off, I believe that come tomorrow, I'll have some very solid and strong footwells. Both seat areas seem to be in very solid and good shape. So far, so good.
2/7/00 -- The footwell repair turned out great. I primed and painted the surface today and I'm ready to place the carpets back in. Actually, I'm going to hold off on that for probably another week. I need to remove the transmission cover first, so I can swap out the gearbox top with one that matches my vehicle. The PO installed a Mk2 transmission at some point along the way. Unfortunately, Mk2 transmissions, though identical in every other respect, don't have a provision for the back-up lights (since there weren't any on those models) so the back-up lights have been wired to a seperate toggle switch that the PO installed on the dash above the drivers side parcel tray.
John Smith of Ohio -- who had been such a help with my caliper rebuild (even offering to bead blast, repaint and rebuild them for free -- an offer I couldn't accept), has a Mk3 transmission cover AND the back-up switch, which he has generously and kindly offered to swap me in an even trade for my Mk2 cover. Wow! That's SO terrific! Now, I can have back up lights that work the way they're meant to. John doesn't know this yet, but I'm going to reimburse him for the shipping and throw in money for a nice lunch while I'm at it.
I've decided to purchase new carpets, but those will be the finishing touch after all the sheetmetal repair and paint work has been completed. In the interim, I think I will buy some sound deadening pad material to lay down before I put the old carpets back in. Here are a few shots of the finished and painted fiberglass footwells.
2/23/00 -- The floorpan repair is complete as of today. My new carpet set arrived yesterday while I was in the middle of repainting the floors to protect them from further corrosion until I can get them replaced. Even though they won't show under the carpet, it's important to me that they look as good as possible. It's just the way I am.
I finished painting the floors today and after lubing the window regulator, I installed my new door panels. But as far as the floor repairs are concerned, for now, this project is complete with one exception. I want to give the bottoms a good undercoat spray to seal the holes on the underside. Look at the floors before and after. Yes, I'm pleased.
2/3/00 -- Today was really something... While I'm waiting for the new adapter nuts to arrive from Spitbits to try my hand at keeping the wheels on the car again, I decided to haul my old seats over to an upholstery shop that was highly recommended by a local British repair shop and parts source. I recently bought the whole seat upholstery kit and kaboodle -- the new covers, seat foams, horsehair seat back material, etc. The previous owner recovered the seats himself at some point, but the covering is not original spec and at the time, new seat foams were not readily available.
While functional, the back frame is a bit bent on one of the seats and they're both a bit sloppy in form and appearance, not to mention fairly uncomfortable. After some deliberation, I decided that despite the claims of some retailers, this job is probably left to skilled craftsmen. Based on the recommendation, I called Dick's Upholstery in Escondido, California this afternoon. "Is this Dick?", I inquired. "It's Joe," came the reply. I explained to him that I already had the materials and wanted to know what he would charge to fit the new materials to my frames. "$45 per seat" came his reply. "How long does it take you to do it?" I asked. "One day", he said.
Well, before I knew it, I had the seats removed and in the back of my Expedition, along with the boxes of new materials for the job. When I got to Dick's, the place looked jammed with LOTS of car seats waiting for upholstery. A sign that read "By appointments only" hung over the door. Whoops! Joe came out to greet me -- a friendly hombre -- and said that the soonest he could get to them would be the week after next. Rather than carting the seats and new materials back home to store in my garage for ten days, I asked if I could just leave them there. He said sure -- and said that he might even be able to get to them sooner. I mentioned my concern about the rusty baskets visible from the bottom of the seats. "No problem" said Joe, "we'll wire brush them and repaint the frame components for you". Great. I can't wait to see how they turn out. I'm glad I have some "before" pictures.
2/15/00 -- I was supposed to pick up my seats from the upholsterer today but hit a snag. I found why the driver's seat back was listing strangely and the back was out of whack. There's a stress fracture where the seatback meets the seat frame. The workman at the shop said that he thinks Joe can weld the break and repair it for me, straightening out the back at the same time. Now I'm really glad I took it to the pros to fix. Hopefully, the repair can be made and for under $20. If not, looks like I'll be stuck trying to find another seat frame. The one seat that's finished however, looks GREAT.
2/16/00 -- Strange discovery today. I thought that the drivers and passengers seats were symmetrical. Alas, the backs are not. A quick holler for help on the Spitfire list confirmed this. Earlier today, Joe at Dick's Upholstery told me that there was another "problem" when I went in to pick up my seats. Joe had welded the frame back together for free, but was concerned that the seat back seemed way out of whack, not allowing him to fit the cover properly. I took the finished seat and the faulty frame home and whacked away on the repaired frame, removing a few big dents and trying to put more of a curve on the "longer" side of the seat back.
Hopefully, the seatback is sufficiently restored to complete the reupholstery. To be on the safe side, I've ordered a spare frame from Sheldon Walker -- a very nice fellow in Bakersfield who's parting out a '64 Mk2. Since my driver's seat is the same as the passenger seat in U.S. cars, I should receive a seat frame that has a bit less wear than most driver's seats would have. I'm also buying a set of door hinges from him to fix the sagging driver's side door on my car and a set of rails and seat clip for my passenger (U.S. driver side) seat. It will be interesting to receive Sheldon's seat frame and compare it with mine. I'm also interested to know whether or not the upholstery kits are "handed" like the seatbacks themselves!
2/23/00 -- The seat upholstery is in fact, handed. Once I pointed this out to Joe, he was able to correctly (and nicely!) fit the covers to both seats correctly. I'm happy to say that I pounded out the dents in the driver's seat to the point where it looks great. Now that the break in the frame has been welded, the seat is as solid and attractive as the passenger side. I've bead blasted, treated with Extend rust-to-primer and repainted my driver's side seat rail with Rustoleum silver metallic. It's ready for installation. My moulded carpet set arrived from England yesterday and I laid the center section in to see how it fit. I'm pleased.
Soon, another seat rail for the passenger side will be arriving from a gent named Sheldon Walker in Bakersfield, CA, who's parting out a '64 Mk1. It's going to need some remedial attention from the bead blaster, wire brush and paint can as well. My personalized plates have arrived at the DMV: "1967 MK3". I chose it over "NOT SAFE" and "BRRRRR". I also need to drive over there to complete the registration process, so I'm anxious to get everything put back together. As soon as my custom Tiger Maple dash arrives next week, I'll begin reassembly. I hope to have the car ready for the road by the first week of March. Now that the door panels have been installed, it's beginning to look like a car again. I ordered new bulbs for the guages and a rubber handbrake boot today.
In addition to sprucing up the seat rails, I had to get rid of a broken anchor bolt on the passenger side. The PO had simply drilled a new hole through the floor, but this solution wasn't the greatest because it limited the travel of the seat on the rail. First, I laboriously cut the remaining nub of the bolt off (could not unscrew it with vice grips -- I tried) with a hacksaw blade, then drilled through it. I borrowed a friend's tap and die set and tried to tap new 1/4"/28 threads without clearing out the remaining bolt remnants first. Big mistake. The tap broke off in the hole. I learned something new. Forget about drilling through a broken tap. Not even a Cobalt drill bit would touch it. I ended up going under the floorpan and grinding down the welded-on nut until it was flat. By that time, the broken-off tap end was history as well. I just inserted a new bolt and rather than weld another nut on below, opted for a nut, fender washer and locknut to do the job.
I had one seat clip from the PO and just bought another with the rail from the gent in Bakersfield. Both were a bit rusty so I bead blasted both and gave them a protective coat of metallic silver paint -- the same stuff I used to paint the rails. As you can see, they look fantastic.
3/10/00 -- Here are what the seats look like with the new carpeting, seatbelts, door panels and rubber handbrake boot installed. Note the wrinkles on the top of the closest seat. The driver's side (far side) had them also because of the way the seat fabric was folded vertically for packaging and shipping. The driver's seat has completely flattened out and looks perfect now. That's from a combination of leaving the car out in the sun and going for a drive today. As soon as I have some passengers, the puckers will disappear from the passenger seat as well. By the way, now that I've clocked another fifty miles without having the wheel fall off, my wife has actually let our two youngest children go for a spin with dad in the Spitfire yesterday and today. Yipee!
Call me irresponsible. Call me a fool. Even though I'm planning on replacing the floorpans with new ones in the near future, I decided to purchase a moulded carpet set from Rimmer Bros. in England. The carpets that came with the car were in so-so condition, literally beginning to come apart at the seams and besides, I'm anxious to see how the car will look with an almost totally new interior. But why did I have the carpet imported? After comparing prices with domestic suppliers that sell the set (for about $350), I realized that I could buy the correct RHD setfor my car (not available in the U.S.) and still come out ahead. With shipping, I paid about $325. Additionally, since my car is RHD, domestically available carpets would simply not fit as well, since carpet sets are cut keeping the pedal positions in mind.
My reason for choosing the moulded carpet was based on my perception of an easier installation and a better fit. I've since learned that this isn't necessarily the case. I hasten to add however, that I'm still quite pleased. The pieces that wrap around the "A" pillar area and the inner sills were trimmed to the proper size and fit nicely -- though the pillar set needed a slit cut in each of them to accomodate the parcel tray sheetmetal mounts. These, and the section that extends vertically to the rear shelf behind the seats must be glued in place. I also made sure to prise back my rubber door moulding and then refitted with the carpet parellel to the metal seam in order to create an additional friction fit for the carpet edges (that also looks very professional).
I shouldn't have let my guard down. Up till now I had been dry fitting each piece to check for fit, before using adhesive.
TIP: I used 3M 77 spray adhesive and really liked working with this stuff. I had a 24 year-old can of the stuff (!) that I'd been hauling around ever since I was a 16-year-old kid working for a florist, delivering arrangements and building "birds nests" out of chicken wire baskets covered with moss, adhered with the rubbery 3M stuff. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when the aerosol did not function. Ha ha. Here I've been, saving that can of goop for over two decades -- and it didn't even work! Happily, 3M still makes the stuff and Home Depot still sells it. The current version comes with two nozzles (very nice touch). One with a 3" circular spray pattern and the one I opted for with a 1" pattern. It only sprays where you aim it and is very neat to work with (as in non-messy). I opted to spray adhesive to both the carpet backing and the metalwork for a stronger bond.
When it came time to install the rear vertical strip that goes from the floor boards, over the driveshaft hump and up to the lip of the back shelf, I didn't discover (until after I'd glued it on) that one side was cut too long -- and the piece itself was too tall, extending about 3/4" above the metal seam. In order to fit the shelf mat (which includes a nice, sewn in rubber clip strip that goes over the metal seam at the front edge of the shelf), I had to trim away the excess from the top. Once I did this, I laid the rear shelf piece down and pressed the rubber strip down over the edges of the carpet along the seam. I didn't expect the rubber clip strip to pucker near the top of the driveshaft hump, though... I should add that this particular piece was not moulded and in my opinion, should have been.
TIP: The instructions say to use scissors to cut any excess carpet. I'd highly recommend an exacto knife instead. Much easier to use in my opinion -- but be careful!
The next step was to lay the main section of carpet down over the seating area and over the driveshaft hump, hand brake and cross members. This moulded section actually fits exceptionally well and does not require any adhesive.
The instructions say to use a needle to locate the seat rail mounting holes and seat belt anchor holes, mark them with chalk, then use scissors to cut holes in the carpet. Lacking chalk and the patience to track any down, I improvised another solution that I liked much better and worked out great. I borrowed six push-pins from my 7-year-old son's bulletin board on his bedroom wall and used them to locate all four seat rail holes and two seat-belt anchors. I worked one side of the car at a time, but if you prefer, you can use 12 pins and do both sides at once. Then, leaving the pins in place, I simply folded back the carpet,located the pin points and used my exacto knife to cut out "square" holes around each one, creating openings of about 1/2" in each position. It's a lot easier to simply drive the point of the exacto knife through the plastic backing on the carpet, making four slits that create the square opening.
TIP: To ensure proper hole alignment, be certain to mark or "pin" all matching seat rail holes at one time. In other words, make sure you have at least 4 pins on hand. Six if you want to do the seatbelt anchors at the same time.
The carpet kit came with snaps for the footwell carpets to keep them from sliding around. I was able to experience my first "pop-rivet" job, riveting four snap receptors in each footwell.
I've decided to forego the installation of heat/sound insulation material at this time. For one thing, this car will not be driven very often. At the most, probably 2-3 times a month. A little extra road noise isn't going to be an issue -- particularly with the dual Monza exhaust currently fitted to the car. Road noise? What road noise?
The PO also installed a sheetmetal plate directly below the transmission to deflect road noise. I've heard that this really works, along with making certain that the engine shrouds are in place. The PO fashioned some nice, durable metal shrouds for the engine compartment, but since they are made from perforated stock, I'm questioning whether they really have any practical value insofar as noise deflection is concerned. They were removed while I was replacing the front shocks. I'm going to clean them up and reinstall them soon. The PO had painted them red, as he did the generator, valve cover and radiator shrouds. Unless I change my mind, I'll probably be painting them black.
The new carpets look great. The bad news is, when I replaced my transmission cover recently, I must have done something wrong -- I can't use first gear. Agh! So, off the carpets will have to come -- at least the ones up front. I'm still excited, though. Within two weeks, I should have the interior completely put back together, including my tiger maple dash and stealth vintage radio project. It's going to look great.
5/9/00 -- As a finishing touch to my now-completed interior, I ordered some seatbelt decals from Joe Curry. They are metallic and adhere to the buckles with a little water and ammonia-free window cleaner. I think they look awesome. Joe has them available in two different styles -- round or square. Both feature the Triumph shield. By the way, the seatbelts themselves came from Moss. They feature hooks that connect to the eyebolts on Triumph floors and also come with new eyebolts in case your Spitfire doesn't have any. The buckles are chrome and resemble the old "aircraft" style -- they also resemble the kind of hardware that you would find in a mid '60's sports car. They come in both lap belt and shoulder harness variations. I chose to go with the three-point protection. Somehow, I'd rather not put the telescoping steering wheel to the test. And the "crash pads" leave much to be desired for protection.
Please. Always wear your seatbelt while driving -- and that goes double for your children if you have any.
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