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I finally installed the Juliano's 3-point seatbelts in my '54 1/2-ton, and
just in time. I installed them last night in 50-degree weather and woke
up this morning to about 6" of snow! (To the fellow who I said I'd send
photocopies of the magazine article on installation: I still haven't sent
them; they'll be on the way shortly.)
As for installation notes, the install is fairly straightforward. I
removed the headliner to install the upper point of the seatbelts (need to
put the "stress plates" inside the B-pillar), and removed the bench part
of my seat to install the receiving end of the seatbelts and to get to the
mount point for the retractor assembly. Then I climbed under the truck
and found good spots for the stress plates, double-check that I wasn't
about to drill into the gas tank, swore a few times about the tight fit on
the retractor mounting points, and drilled the 4 holes. I had a friend
help me with the installation of the lower points; I held up the stress
plates under the cab while she bolted in the mounting brackets. I'd
estimate total install time to be about an hour to an hour and a half.
I feel much safer now being belted in with that shoulder strap, especially
now that winter's finally arrived in Colorado (and in no small way). The
Juliano's seatbelt seems to be a sturdy piece of equipment, with two small
things that are bugging me: the button on the receiving end of the
seatbelts doesn't pop back out easily when the seatbelt isn't plugged into
it, and the retractors lock down when the belt is being paid out at a
fairly slow speed (i.e. when I'm trying to buckle myself in). And I was
short one Grade-8 bolt (46 cents at the hardware store). All in all, it
was definitely a worthy purchase.
Tim Lloyd, 1954 Chevy 3100 "Peanut"
"War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and
multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses." -Thomas Jefferson
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much of life. So aim
above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." -Thoreau
"...failure to terraform Mars constitutes failure to live up to our human
nature and a betrayal of our responsibility as members of the community of
life itself." -Robert Zubrin
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