<VV> Safety

[Jay Maechtlen]

>   Some just buy an old car because it is cheap, and then think they can strap on a few safety devices and go their merry way, without bothering to fix other critical systems. (Adding a shoulder harnesses might sound like a great safety feature, but maybe you’d be better off spending that money replacing those 50 year old brake lines).
>
> And no, you can’t just bolt on a pair of Chrysler Sebring convertible seats - as Kent’s article clearly states, it’s a very complicated project.
>
> All I’m saying is that if you’re committed to drive an old car, you’d best start with the understanding that you are the most important safety feature and concentrate your efforts on bringing that item up to speed before spending much time and money on other things.  And if you DO decide to add safety features, realize that they, unlike other modifications, HAVE to work correctly, or they may do more harm than good.

Good points, in that the basic systems have to work properly.

The comments on the Sebring seats - the idea of expecting the seat to 
also carry the shoulder harness loads has always made me nervous - 
obviously it can be done well, but easier to mount the anchor to the 
body structure securely.

(IMO - and in fact my seat belts do not use factory anchors, rather they 
mount to some reinforcements that spread the load out such that I could 
probably hoist the car into the air with my driver seat belt.)

Safety - how about quickening up the godawful slow steering of a stock 
'Vair? I have no regrets for having done that, even though mine is much 
less easy to park.

Tandem master cylinder - should we shun them because only later cars 
were engineered for them? Well, maybe not because the cars they were 
first installed on were mostly unchanged from those with single masters?

Disks - less prone to funkiness when wet - also a fairly easy choice. 
Although I seldom see any discussion of verifying front'rear balance and 
lockup behavior at full panic stop.

Oh, well, as they say - your mileage may vary.

Jay

-- 
Jay Maechtlen
SoCal
'61 2-dr modified w/fiberglass skin,
transverse 3.8 Buick V6 TH440T4 trans