hopwood

My friend Alex (Cheburator) came round yesterday to fit some rear 3 point belts to my OB.

I have a Euro 79 which has FAR too much sunk into it to even consider selling. So when my son Max came along in 2009, I knew that sooner or later I was going to have to find a baby seat solution. Online research indicated that 3 point belts were pretty much a necessity for a baby seat in the back of the 928.

There is a Porsche seat, I believe called the Prince, that uses a lap belt only but it looks very cumbersome and certainly not the sort of seat a baby could fall asleep in.

So installing 3 point rear belts was a necessity. I checked the c pillars on my 1980 Euro - the threaded holes were present and correct. Next I sourced a perfect pair of 3 point rear belts from a 1990 S4 being broken on eBay.

We removed the rear seat backs (2 x philips, 2 x allen keys) and the side trims that hide the seat belt retractors. The original retractors came out easily enough, but there was simply no way the S4 ones would go in, they are far too big.

Back to the drawing board. A look on Rennlist showed that some guy had dremelled his bodywork in order to fit them in - no thanks. Instead we hit upon a different, more elegant solution.

Alex disassembled the new belt retractors, removed the belts, did the same with the old belt retractors and simply fitted the new belts (complete with 3rd point mounting and bit that clicks in the receiver) into the old retractor. Once this was done, and the retractors rebuilt with springs etc, they could be fitted back into the car.

Of course, because we are using the old retractor, they fitted perfectly. I haven't fitted the rear seats back in yet - here's some quick pics.

MASSIVE respect to Alex for not being fazed by disassembling 30 year old seat belt retractors and managing to get them back together again and working perfectly!

Cheers,

Joel

Hilton

Very cool Joel - nice approach and solves the issue of tracking down 3-point belts from Australia (which was I think the only country to get the early belt mounting style in 3-point version - PET will confirm)

For fitting a car seat, make sure you also use a tether from the hole in the floor of the hatch behind the seats. A 928 3-point belt isn't ideal for holding a child seat as the belt receiver is so far forwards, so you *must* use a proper tether and anchor bolt.

If you're not sure what I mean by anchor bolt, check this thread for details - pretty sure you can find them in the UK. If not, there's a crowd in Australia who'll ship them.

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...adian65sl.html

jpitman2

Seat belt bolts are ALL 7/16" UNF. The anchor bolts have a shank that allows the belt plate to pivot when the bolt is fully tightened. Next time I have occasion to pull a rear seta I might go to the trouble of fiiting retracting units - currently only have adjustable units, necessary to pass inspection on import.
jp 83 Euro S AT 53k

hopwood

OK thanks Hilton. I also just wanted to add that this workaround is only necessary for MY77-83. 84 and newer can take the big retractors ok.

Cheers,

Joel

Dave928S

Thanks for posting Joel .. that's neat.

sweet928

Can you show where the third point mounts up? So are you saying that back in 79 they were already ready to put in three point belts? Why did Porsche wait a decade?

Dave928S

Here's the rear point in my ROW 82. If yours has it this is where it should be. Bit of a PITA to see it with the upper part of the interior quarter in place .. but you should be able to get enough clearance to see.

Hilton

Porsche didn't wait a decade.. the US regulations did.

Andre Hedrick

That was me who did the cutting and shaping, as the belt set I have, the wrap up exceeded the spool on to wind up the belt completely. Otherwise I would have done it this way also.

As soon as i get my stitch welder, I will go back in an remove the JB weld wheel well filler and put back metal.

Glad it worked out for you that way.