American Safety Equipment Corp. Safety Belts Mounting Instructions

[Maeter]

Dear All,

Attached find a scan of the mounting instructions for the ASE belts which were fitted to my (newly) acquired 68 L.

Pascal

[Richardnew]

Pay attention.

Dale Earnhardt died because he decided he knew more about seatbelt installation than Simpson.

Richard Newton

[smedley]

That's a lovely piece of "original" accessory literarure, However.....

The mounting position of the lap belts in SWB 900 series cars has had a lot of attention in the past.....from owners, trauma surgeons, and lawyers.

The eye bolts are set too high, the result being the lap belt sits too high on the lower abdomen rather than across the hips/pelvis as they should.

The belts sitting high across the lower abdomen have accounted for multiple, well documented internal abdominal injuries in frontal collisions. There is actually a specific injury to the small intestine described by pathologists at autopsy called the "seat belt injury."

These injuries resulted in later LWB lap belts anchors being moved lower to the seat frame or floor so that the lap belt crossed the pelvis...NOT lower abdomen.

If your SWB 900 is a garage queen concourse car, leave the belts anchored as original for originality...if you drive the car at all, move the lap belt anchors to the floor!

Retired Emergency Medicine/Trauma MD

[Maeter]

This was only meant to be the scanning of a historical document associated with numerous discussions on this forum with regards to original safety belts for our cars.

[smedley]

Understood!

The participants in this forum have a wide range of knowledge and experience. As I said, the scan is a nice piece of historical reference as to originality...

But I wouldn't want someone new to this forum or less informed to take the information in a "official" or "original" instruction sheet from the mid 60s as a current safety recommendation. Porsche and all those effected by those high mounts have learned a lot about the science of automotive restraint design since then.

Those mounts fall into the same "what was known then verse now" category as the cast iron bumper weights!