Greetings, I finally purchased a fishmouth GT and of course it didn't come with seatbelts. My question is did the 72's have unique mounting setup? I have tried a 74 at pick apart and it is completely different mounting setup. I have a 2 inch horizontal elevated about 1/2 inch rod where the star bolts would go. The guy I bought it from told me it was a 1/4 mile track car and I am thinking it might have been modified. Thanks for any info.
The factory belt in a '72 used a split belt arrangement where the shoulder belt was detachable from the lap belt. The mounts look like this (the one in the circle): In the picture above I added the plate mount shown with the 'X' over the circle to accomodate the later year combination lap/shoulder belt, you will not see it in unmodified 1972's. Shoulder belt mount location (under the back glass on the top of the panel that separates the cab from the bed: The belt arrangement in '72 with the shoulder belt being a constant tension belt was inconvenient at best. The shoulder belt has a boss at the buckle end that slips into the lap belt and then are buckled together as a group - the downside of this arrangement was with fixed tension and when adjusted properly you couldn't reach some of the dash controls or lean forward very much. As mentioned I modified mine to accept a later combination belt that has the inertial catches and installed reinforced hard points up at the roof to permit a shoulder belt that wasn't an impediment to safe operation of the car.
The factory seat belt foundation at the floor is an angled section that is welded to the body under the channels that sit over the frame, think of it as an 'L' that then sticks up through the channel to that semi-circular with notched portion that sticks up above the scuff plate area and that is also welded on top of the channel. It is rather robust but needs to be considering the force it is designed to hold up to. It looks like they cut off the original bracket at the top of the rocker panel and then welded in the bar, probably as you surmised with rigging in some kind of 4 point harness. Perhaps you could take a battery powered sawzall out the yard and they'd let you get the section of the rocker that has the correct front and rear mounts for the '74 belt arrangement? I think they changed to the combination belt around that time - perhaps someone with a '74 knows if the belts were combined by that time?
No, they weren't, but it did have the points to allow the installation of '75 Elite 1-piece belts, and they worked very well. When I was rear-ended, I was pushed into another car, and the belt kept me from sliding forward into the steering wheel. I weighed 395 at that time.
Unless you want original Ford, there are many 3-point aftermarket belt assemblies offered that work very well. In fact, they work better than the double retractor waist/shoulder combinations that came in the later Rancheros (I should know).
X2 on what 72GTVA said. The stock shoulder belt and mount not only limits forward movement, but also is uncomfortable for taller drivers. Relocating the mount and going with a more modern belt assembly is the way to go.
You can get aftermarket retractable seat belts here.. https://www.gotbelts.com/retractable-lap-shoulder-belts/m.products/81/view/116
If you would like a more modern setup, I was able to mount a modern belt from a '90s taurus in my '73 with little effort. I mounted the reel to the wall behind the seat, the shoulder retainer and the free end of the belt at the stock locations shown above. It is plenty strong, My buddy and I were able to pull the car forward from the seatbelts.
