The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Looking at Richard'sdolly's thread "Settling in my new Dolomite" I saw Bumpa's picture of a rear seat belt reel and thought "mmm, don't think they'd fit my car".



I need inertia reel units that fit further forward than that because of the mid-HF speakers behind them and the 10mm MDF baseboards they and the 6" subs inboard of them are mounted on - in angled housings.

I had some reel units originally in front of some 6" Alpine SPE-1620 co-axial speakers. They was some good speakers, but the tweeters had paper cones that rotted and blew. I did try to find 6" replacements, but couldn't find anything with a low enough profile to go round that brace under the left hand elliptical speaker hole and would take the base. Hence the 4" mid-HFs and 6" subs - I think I could fit 8" ones, but these were easy and v. reasonably priced, and turned out good enough for me - the mids being 4 ohm and the subs 8 complicated the crossover design though.

When I first fitted those rear reels they clamped over the top of the seat squab and bent it a bit - that didn't matter 'cos it were knackered anyway. But as part of fitting the subs, etc., I decided to fit a replacement squab I had. That meant I had to lift the reels up a bit so they wouldn't damage it. So I added some 1" long tubes and longer bolts with Allan socket heads. These lift the reel units enough above the top of the squab not to damage it, and allow easy access to the bolts.

I do have to take the reels off the shelf to take the squab out, but since I can do that without taking out the baseboards to access a nut underneath, that's an easy enough job.





Graham

Good solution Graham, as long the mounts are strong enough to stay in place when needed. It's not a problem I have as I'm a philistine when it comes to hifi and rarely listen to anything when I'm driving. A pair of cheap speakers on the front parcel shelf does me.

The longer bolts will increase the bending moment on the mounting in a crash. I looked at the original mounting points under the shelf cover, when I first fitted the rear belts - and a middle one for a baby seat that I've since removed. Those mountings are of the few places where there's no rust yet. And looking at the plates and mountings of the drums inside the reels, I'd be very surprised if they are the weak link even then. Also, that bracket under the Securon unit pictured will also increase the moment on the mounting as well - maybe not quite as much and they probably yield more easily than the longer Allen bolts.

Also, the rear belts were fitted at the instance of SWMBO for the kids when they were still little. So I didn't worry that much about the extra moment. Maybe now the boy - prophesied to be largest, if not necessarily greatest, of the Horde of The Things - is a teenager, I should re-visit that.

I don't remember if there's access through the boot to add an extra plate under the existing mount, and even longer bolts, to spread the increased moment - I've got spare nuts in the kit waiting to go in the Herald. But that would want welding in to avoid complicating the process of mounting or removing the reel unit. When the wind dies down a bit I may go look.

The other option might be to use a U shaped bracket bolted to the original mounts like the Securon unit and with a fixed nut or stud in the top to take the reel. Of a similar size and material as the bracket under the Securon unit, that should have the same ability to bend down and reduce the moment on the original mounting in a crash. That much give after the inertia reel has locked shouldn't be a problem. Or is that overthinking it?

Graham

Here's what the speaker setup on the back shelf that inertial reel unit is making space for looks like (currently):



I do have an unmodified shelf cover in store.

Graham

No I got the tube and the longer bolts off ebay for a few quid when I came to replace the squab. I'd have to go look what thread the seatbelts are as I don't remember. But its not hard to find.

Graham

7/16 UNF. But the order history on ebay no longer gives any details of what length I bought. I guess you measure the rise you need and add that to the length of the bolts you have. I think I should have got stainless, looking at how they've started to rust.

Graham