To sell or not to sell - advice please

[sunshine]

We have an 1980s mini but have not used it in over a year, mainly because we cant put kiddie seats in the back.

Its been for sale for a good while (no takers initially as the bottom has fallen out of the market) but recently we've had quite a few phone calls about the car for some reason (50th anniversary perhaps).

It needs a bit of work - rust, etc (surprise, surprise) but I have no mechanical/bodywork knowledge or expertise so to do the job cheaper than a professional would be (a) a gamble and (b) a potential pile of mini parts in the shed for a couple of years.

It boils down to this question. Is there any way (both practically and safely) to modify the car so that child seats can be safely installed? Being child seats, it would have to be completely safe. If its possible, I might consider keeping it. If not, the next caller will probably get the car.

Any advice would be welcome

[DaveC]

What year is the Mini?

A very interesting question though.
Presumably you are looking to fit rear seatbelts and use them to belt in a child seat / booster seat?
The proper reinforced lower seatbelt mountings are in place from 1982 onwards, earlier than that and the holes only are in place.
The question is when did the proper upper seat belt mountings appear on Minis?
These are usually hidden behind the trim on the c-pillar so it is hard to know whether these are there without removing the trim. Maybe someone who has stripped an 80's Mini might know?
If yours has all of the proper reinforced mountings you could fit a set of belts in the rear.

Alternatively, Minis from 1989 onwards seem to be fitted with rear seatbelts, so you could sell yours and buy a 1989 onwards one instead?

[geoffrey conboy]

my 1984 has them but no belts but the holes are under the trim

[sunshine]

Thanks for the replies - its 1988 and my gut feeling is that its leaving my posession, one way or another

[sanguiss]

I also am interested to put rear seat belts on my 1974 one, I was reading a thread on mini mania where they are sayng that the 3 point seat belts that are fitted on newer minis are hooked to the bottom of the parel shelf structure, which has been reinforced in the newer minis to purpousely to fit the seat belts. As far as I understood the parcel shelf frame is weld to the car frame so we would need to get a newer parcel shelf frame, weld it instead of the old one and then we can fit seat belts.

[just_st3v3n]

just out of matter of interest have you any pics of the car and how bad is the rust??

steven

[Jozi]

wrote:
just out of matter of interest have you any pics of the car and how bad is the rust??

steven

Haha - you just smell rust and want it don't you!

Would a seatbelt holding a child seat not have to conform to certain safety standards in the case of an accident?

[The Marcos Graveyard]

I think it would be ok if you use the production fitted anchor points.

[sanguiss]

thought about it over the we, what you want at the end is to have the lower anchoring points, and then you can fit the baby seat, am I correct? so you could fit the seatbelts that only go around the waist, and you should be able to get around the problem that way. Am I talking rubbish?
Sergio

[DaveC]

From what I have read it is recommended not to use a booster seat with a lap belt only

[sunshine]

To clarify, the end result I require (if I decide to keep the car - hence the request for advice) is to have 3 point belts installed safely (NOT lap belts - the car already has these).

We already use a booster seat and child seat in our family car, so I would need to be able to use the exact same, child friendly set-up in our mini.

Steven - photos on this post
http://www.irishminis.ie/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2413

[woody]

When stripping an MPi recently zakgt asked me ro remove the rear seatbelt anchorages to fit them to his gt. After much thought and time constraints I left them alone. The upper one goes up the c post about 6" and accross the parcel shelf about 5" in a trianglar fashon.The lower one in the pocket on the wheelarch is also a substantial piece of metal. I would presume the shells being produced by heritage must have these fitted so they may be available.The simpler solution is to have plates put in on the shelf and buckets for your own mounting points.While they wouldn't meet legal requirments they are better than nothing.

[DaveC]

It would be worth looking behind the trim going by what geoffrey conboy says about his 1984 Mini above. You may well have the brackets in place already. All you need then are the seatbelts.