SEAT CHANGES
The original seat design was for conventional lap diagonal seat belts; however I decided to install four point harness belts. The new belts wrapped around the head rest on the seat and were prone to slipping off you shoulder unless you really pulled your self in tightly.
The solution was to take the belts through the seats in the conventional manner; this meant some surgery was needed to make this work.
Allan Wakelin had just done some paint work on my car and suggested I wander up the scenic drive to his upholstery man; Stephen Huggins. After a quick inspection, a consensus of what needed to be done I headed off home to pull the seats out so Stephen could begin the alterations.
Stephen quickly had the seats stripped down so we could mark positions and discuss how the leather could be finished to trim around the new seat belt positions. Once the holes were cut we pushed a belt through to see how it looked and once again think about the best way to finish the trim.
The challenge was then how to trim the holes and after some internet searching Stephen tracked down some plastic seat belt trim from Racetech in Wellington. Because of the width of the seat I needed to get some spacers made and drove through an industrial subdivision asking who could fabricate these spacers. I was sent to Bernie Knight at Classic Sheetmetals. What looked like a simple task four spacers were made but did not do what we thought they would. I wanted the spacer to vary in width to match the contour of the seat, but the main issue was that the plastic trim as a male and female design! Third time lucky I had the four units made, painted and ready to install.
My good friend Andrew Brislen, aka AJ who lives in Laguna Niguel, California is the absolute guru of special parts and custom tools. AJ is currently in the process of building one 1966 Barracuda from two Barracuda’s! I was fortunate to be there earlier this year to help with the project, as expected AJ made several wonderful custom tools to make things happen efficiently. AJ will correct me but I think he has the trademark WERD TOOLS.
Hardly in AJ’s league I realized I too needed some special tools to help fit the trim to the inserts. So, with some wood, bolts and nuts some Kustom Kiwi Tools emerged in true #8 wire Kiwi technology.
Not only do the belts look better but they are certainly more effective. It was Allan Wakeling, a New Zealand Zealand sprintcar legend, who said he would not feel safe with the belts on the track. My immediate thought is the YouTube clip of Allan’s enormous accident at Western Springs two years ago – now I would not feel safe in that either!!!
