It helps to have a mate who.....

[zenrat]

I hope you double stitched the belt ends...


Funny, I was talking seatbelts with one of the ladies at work today.  Her partner has a Valiant old enough to not have belts in the back so if they take it away as a family she follows behind it in her car with the kids.  It's legal to drive it without the belts but if he wanted to fit them he'd have to do it properly, getting everything checked over by an engineer, or not bother at all.

[strobez]

To show how small it is, here's that belt alongside a Swann-Morton scalpel. (No, I haven't got an oversize Tamiya paint pot, sorry...........  )

I'll rummage around and see if I have a spare... they're very handy. 

[PR19_Kit]

I hope you double stitched the belt ends...

Of course, I didn't spend five years of my life testing cars, vans and seat belts not to have missed such a vital point. 

Funny, I was talking seatbelts with one of the ladies at work today.  Her partner has a Valiant old enough to not have belts in the back so if they take it away as a family she follows behind it in her car with the kids.  It's legal to drive it without the belts but if he wanted to fit them he'd have to do it properly, getting everything checked over by an engineer, or not bother at all.

It's not just a case of fitting them properly, the structure of the car has to be built to take the loads in the first place, or reinforced later on to the same standards. It's remarkably difficult to update a body shell to that standard once it's been 'value engineered', usually to make it cheaper to build. Jaguar had the very DEVIL of a job getting the E-Type past the tests back in the 60s. I think we tested 6-7 different experimental shells before we got one past the tests.

To show how small it is, here's that belt alongside a Swann-Morton scalpel. (No, I haven't got an oversize Tamiya paint pot, sorry...........  )

I'll rummage around and see if I have a spare... they're very handy. 

Magic, a vital adjunct to the small scale modeller's accessory listing. 

[kitnut617]

That sort of brings back memories Kit --- my Dad put seat belts in his Morris Traveler before seat belts became the norm' (he put in a set of those turn indicators too, the ones that were a little arm that popped out and before turn signals became the norm'). Anyway, the seat belts he put in were a full set of RAF seat belts out of an aircraft, with a center buckle just like what you have there --- Mom didn't like them at all   

I'm not surprised she didn't like them, 6 point belts don't really work for women!

I hope your dad reinforced the structure of the Traveller before fitting the belts, in standard form there was no way a Traveller body shell would stand the loads of an accident. We tested one in 1964 and it failed abysmally, and from 1965 onwards they were strengthened to pass the tests.

Not sure what year it was Kit, but middle 60's seems to be about the time. When did the first Mini get introduced ?

[PR19_Kit]

That would have August 1959, I can clearly remember gawping into Hartwell's showroom en route to catch the bus to school and being totally astounded at seeing the Mini's engine mounted SIDEWAYS across the car! 

[kitnut617]

My dad traded the Morris Traveler for a Mini Traveler, but that had to been in the 60's too. Maybe the Morris was in the 50's ---- hmm can't remember now. Anyway, Dad parked the Morris at the bottom of the yard alongside an Austin 7 and similarly looking Morris something-or-other. I was going to say an 8, but looking at pics of an 8 it doesn't look right. He had an old Land Rover down there too, that had an all aluminum engine ---

[NARSES2]

He had an old Land Rover down there too, that had an all aluminum engine ---

I was always told that was the reason the Land Rover was "allowed" to be built in post war austerity Britain. That fact it used non strategic materials ?

Now I've never really known if that was true or not ? Especially given that steel can/is/was produced from domestically sourced raw materials and Al was imported ?

[zenrat]

Friend of mine bought an old Land Rover.
We asked him if it had any rust in it.
He laughed at us and said don't be stupid they are made from aluminium.
We all laughed right back when he had to scrap it because the chassis was rusted.

[NARSES2]

Friend of mine bought an old Land Rover.
We asked him if it had any rust in it.
He laughed at us and said don't be stupid they are made from aluminium.
We all laughed right back when he had to scrap it because the chassis was rusted.

I knew a couple of people who got caught out by that. Mind you I'm not sure at all what the very early ones were built from ? After all they are older than me and nearly as old as Kit 

[Hobbes]

He had an old Land Rover down there too, that had an all aluminum engine ---

I was always told that was the reason the Land Rover was "allowed" to be built in post war austerity Britain. That fact it used non strategic materials ?

Now I've never really known if that was true or not ? Especially given that steel can/is/was produced from domestically sourced raw materials and Al was imported ?

I expect there was a surplus of aluminium postwar from surplus aircraft being scrapped, and not too many uses for the material. Steel on the other hand was used for everything so demand was high.

[PR19_Kit]

I knew a couple of people who got caught out by that. Mind you I'm not sure at all what the very early ones were built from ? After all they are older than me and nearly as old as Kit 

Land Rover chassis were always made from steel, and most of the earlier ones had all aluminium bodies. They used some steel in the bodies of later ones, and even fibrelass sometimes too.

[kitnut617]

I knew a couple of people who got caught out by that. Mind you I'm not sure at all what the very early ones were built from ? After all they are older than me and nearly as old as Kit 

Land Rover chassis were always made from steel, and most of the earlier ones had all aluminium bodies. They used some steel in the bodies of later ones, and even fibrelass sometimes too.

IIRC, it had four gear sticks on the floor --- they had different coloured knobs on them too, red and white yellow (I remember yellow)and I think there was a blue one -- not sure now. The other one had a black knob.

[Nick]

Friend of mine bought an old Land Rover.
We asked him if it had any rust in it.
He laughed at us and said don't be stupid they are made from aluminium.
We all laughed right back when he had to scrap it because the chassis was rusted.

I just reading finished On the Deck or In The Drink. The author was a test pilot for the Saro P.531, which later became the Westland Scout/Wasp. He had to give up flying after a nasty crash wrecked his back and take up Air Traffic Control instead.
His wife was shown the wreckage which had been recovered from Portland Bay. She had nightmares afterwards. Apparently the sea had dissolved large chunks of the aluminium skin....

[PR19_Kit]

Dragging this thread back to its already well drifted position  I finished the PSR work on the body and gave it 3-4 primer coats before the first BRG colour coat. (that's British Racing Green for those who don't know....) It came out pretty well and I'm not sure if it'll need another coat actually.




To get the full effect of what it'll look like, here it is with the bonnet and nose in place.




The real car has ZILLIONS of sponsor decals all over it, especially the rear panel, most of which aren't available in model form, so I've had to draw them up for my home printing system. Some went OK, but some are SO small I'm not sure if they'll be visible! This is about half of the decals I've done for the job so far.

[NARSES2]

I expect there was a surplus of aluminium postwar from surplus aircraft being scrapped, and not too many uses for the material. Steel on the other hand was used for everything so demand was high.

Yup, quite likely Harro. Never really thought of that

Now that yellow nose cone really brings her to life Kit