I have been running my 1959 F100 Ford truck without seat belts since I got it about 3 years ago. Seat belts are not required because they didn't come with the truck originally. I have been wanting to put belts in it for a while. It has been an interesting project, so I thought others might like to see how I went about it. Thus this blog post is to show how I did it.

I really like the way my 1989 F150 truck belts work and decided to see about finding some belts out of another 1989 F150. There is one thing I do not like about it and that is the way it retracts when the door is opened. I thought that newer models did away with that feature and was correct.

I went to the Southern Pick-a-Part salvage yard to begin my search. I did a lot of walking before I found just what I needed. It is a nice set of clean gray restraints out of a 1993 F150 XLT Lariat.
You have to have a T50 torx socket and ratchet to break seat belt bolts loose. There are 8  7/16-20 fasteners.  Four on the floor and 2 on the A pillar and 2 behind the interior panels for the retractors. The outboard floor fasteners I found I did not need. The inboard floor fasteners are shoulder bolts. I found that I needed 4 of these shoulder bolts. You will have to remove the covers from the shoulder belt hardware on the A pillar. This is done with a small screw driver. Pry out on the bottom. It will snap off and up to be removed. Put them in your tool box so you won't forget them. The bolts in the pillars were longer shoulder bolts I found I didn't need these bolts either, but be sure to put the felt washers in the tool box. The felt washers keep the hardware from banging around while you are driving down the road.  The retractor bolts had keepers on them so that they stayed attached to the retractors (that was nice that I didn't have to keep track of them).  These restraints did not have the door activated feature which made me happy. I used my battery powered dewalt impact driver with a 3/8 socket drive attachment to speed these bolts out after breaking them loose. The floor bolts were straight forward in that they were easy to get to. The A pillar bolts were the same and had to come off before getting at the retractors. There were about 6  phillips head screws holding the retractor covers/panels. Again the impact driver make quick work of these fasteners. It was a bit of a challenge to extricate the shoulder belt and retractor from the cover/panels, but was doable with out deconstructing anything else. I also took the grommets in the seat that the belts were threaded through. Be sure to get 2 more center floor shoulder bolts out of another F150 truck. Take inventory before heading to the cashier to make sure you have everything.

I took these to the cashier and was happy to Pay $20 including tax for the whole lot.

Tools needed
T50 torx socket
Drill bits
25/64 tap drill
1/2 twist drill
1/8 pilot drill and slot drill
step drill for 7/16 holes in sheet metal ( use pilot drill first)
center punch
7/16-20 tap   Lowes and home depot do not carry this tap I got it at ACE hardware.
Various sockets and extensions
Impact driver and 3/8 drive adapter. This make things a lot easier, but not necessary.
Razor knife
various hand tools screw drivers pliers etc.  

Other hardware I purchased.
2 - 7/16-20 nuts
2 - 1/2 x 3 inch coarse thread bolts
2 - 1/2 coarse nylock nuts
4 - 1/4 x 4 x 6 steel plates
4 - 3/16 x 2 x 2 steel plates
2 - 1/4 x 2 x 10 steel plates

The steel plate was $25 at a local machine shop.
I got the 1/2 inch hardware in stainless at Lowe's
The 7/16-20 nuts I found at Ace hardware.
The hardware was about $8
Tap was about $6

Other than paint $59 was the total cost.

The 2x2 steel plate I used as washers to go under the floor of the cab. I drilled 7/16 holes in the center as I wanted the hole to exactly match the bolts. I painted them for rust control.

The center belts were set 7 inches from center at the back of the seat just in front of the gas tank. I drilled 7/16 holes and did not use any washers above the floor.

Some where in here you will have to measure and cut the holes in the seat for the seat belts to come through. I marked a line on the seat bottom where the seat back and bottom came together. This was used as a guide after removing the seat back. I found the location for the seat belt grommets and used the grommets as a pattern to cut the hole for the seat belt. I took the seat out of the truck to cut the holes. I drew an oval shaped pattern a tiny bit smaller than the opening though the grommet. I cut on the lines with the razor knife. I then used a long screw driver to dig through the foam making a large enough tunnel for the seat belt. (My foam is 50 years old, if you have newer foam it may not come out as easily as mine did) You may be able to find a better tool to remove the foam.

You will need to separate the grommet halves. It takes a pretty good bit of effort to get them apart. I used a small screw driver and what ever I could find to get them apart. They aren't made to come apart, but they weren't damaged by the pulling and prying. Notice one grommet half has pins or points designed to penetrate the seat fabric, thus holding the fabric firmly in the grommet.

I fished a nylon string through the tunnel and the two grommet pieces. I tied the string to the two seat belt metal tabs and slowly fed/pushed/pulled the seat belt though the grommet and from the top down through the tunnel in the seat. I fed the lower grommet through the seat cover. I used pliers to squeeze the two grommet halves together. This is very important to get the grommet halves fully engage as that is what holds it in place. The two halves of the grommet stay together with dogs or catches.
Make sure you put the right belt in the right hole and the left in the left hole. (there is a difference)

Reinstall the seat bottom in the cab.

When installing the center seat belts, be sure to put the offset plate on the top as shown in the photo below. Use the same shoulder bolts that were used for this purpose in the donor truck. The bottom side is fastened with the purchased 7/16-20 nuts. Lock washer or lock nuts are recommended here.

Here is a photo of both center belts bolted to the floor.

Here is a photo of the 4 x 6 plates welded together drilled, milled and taped for mounting the retractors.

The slot was make by drilling a series of 1/8 holes and then milling between them with the drill by rotating the drill back and forth. Not the best way to mill, but affective in making the slot. The Hole near the slot was drilled and taped to 7/16-20. The hole in the bottom is a 1/2 inch hole. I did the drilling and milling before welding. Was important to orient the plates correctly when welding as there are several ways to do it wrong so it would not work. I marked the plates with a sharpie to help me keep them straight.

Here you can see how the slot locates the retractor up and down. What is hard to see on the right side, by the black 5, there is a tab that goes over the edge and locates the retractor side to side.

At this point I painted these brackets. I used these brackets as a template to drill the holes in the floor of the cab. They are mounted on the same step that the gas tank sits on. That means you have to drill through 2 layers of sheet metal.

Here you can see the 1/2 in bolt that does double duty in holding the retractor and the seat belt to the floor. Notice the bracket is aligned with the pillar and the front edge of the tank step. Be sure to test fit before you start drilling and welding. Take the time to lay out everything to ensure proper fit.

You may be able to tell that you could get away with a shorter piece of plate for the bottom side of the bracket.

Here is the final position of the shoulder belt. Notice it is mounted about in the middle between the rear window and the door opening. If you have a small window cab then you will have to figure this one out on  your own.  I fashions a plate to bolt the shoulder harness in.

This is what is left of the 1/4 x 2 x 10 inch plate. I was going to leave it the full size until I found 2 gussets mounted at the door opening. I cut the plate with an air grinder and cut off wheel and some hack sawing too. The gussets would not allow the full size plate to sit flush against the inside sheet metal of the cab pillar. The long stem is  only to make is so I could hold the plate up inside the pillar while I bolted the hardware to it. Truly this plate could be 12 inches long to make it easier to assemble. Notice the hole is offset to one side. I thought it would make it fit the curve of the pillar better. I was wrong. You can just as well put this 7/16-20 threaded hole in the center of the plate.

Here is a picture of the hole for the shoulder harness. I used a step drill (harbor Freight) because a twist drill tends to leave a 3 cornered hole in sheet metal. The step drill leaves a round hole.

Final notes: The drivers belt rubs against the gas filler pipe, but after a couple of test drives it doesn't seem to hinder the operation of the system. In the future I want to make covers for the retractors. Not sure how to do this so some thought will be needed. Open to suggestions or what you did.