MG Car Club of South Australia
HISTORIC REGISTRATION NEWS
From..Geoff Goode
HISTORIC VEHICLE REGISTRATION BAY TO BIRDWOOD RUN
AND MOUNTING THREE POINT
SEAT BELTS IN THE MGA MODEL
The following explanation is one that I
gave to a fellow MGA owner on what I
consider the best way to mount three
point safety belts.
ust a brief note with regard to historic registration and your obligations as the vehicle owner: if your registration is renewed during the year,
you do not have to bring your rego
papers into the club rooms to be
stamped.
Just enter the dates into the forth
coming year in your log book. Your
blue rego forms will be stamped and
details recorded by the club in the
annual January / February log book
update period.
That is the time to bring your statutory
declaration form to maintain your historic registration. The stat dec is required regardless of whether or not
you require a new log book and vehicle re-inspection.
I presume you have an MGA roadster
1500 or 1600, 1600 Mk2's have the
mounting-points factory installed.
Whichever model, I recommend static
belts as they will hold you firmly in
place. This is essential in a car that
has so little space between yourself
and the dashboard/windscreen if a
crash occurs. Modern cars have pretensioning systems that work in conjunction with the seatbelt retractors.
J
Unless you are fairly competent at
mounting these safety items, I would
suggest you use Wiltshire as they will
give you an outcome that would considered complying with current safety
standards - as much as is possible for
these old cars.
The method I used is described below, I chose to mount the upper belt
ends on the tonneau panel as this is
the best point of departure, from
mount to shoulder (within 15 degrees
from the horizontal), and was initially
specified by the factory for roadsters
until the 1600 Mk2 model. A section
at the back of the factory workshop
manual shows the exact location of
the mounting points. These are available from the USA and I know a club
member who can help in sourcing
them, if you wish. Let me know if you
wish to proceed down this path. Also,
the MGAGURU website of Barney
Gaylord is a good source for opinions
on where to mount the belts, and
BAY TO BIRDWOOD
A reminder, the Bay to Birdwood Run
this year includes all vehicles produced up to 31 December 1959.
Therefore, most MGAs and Magnettes are included.
Please consider entering this year as
you will miss out next year. These
cars will not be eligible for the 2017
Bay to Birdwood Run the commencement date for entry will be from 1
January 1960.
SEAT BELTS IN AN MGA
Whilst on the subject of MGAs, recently, I was asked how one might
best mount a pair of three point safety
belts in the MGA model.
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