Talk me out of it: Converting 91 G20 to regular seatbelts

Got my niece's 91 Infiniti G20. The bearings or valve train had let go so the car was sitting in the yard behind her house. Hate to see it die, even though it is an autotragic, so I sourced a replacement engine and am about to return the car to it's former glory, such as it is. Only problem is I hate the motorized mice seatbelt arrangement and wish to convert it to the regular style seatbelts from the later models of the P10 bodystyle. While gathering the pieces I will need from the local pick n pull i noticed the upper and lower mounting points for the seatbelts in the B pillar are completely different for the 91 as it has to accomodate the motorized mouse cable winder and there is no upper belt anchor. A fix for the lower anchor is easy peasy. But to add an upper anchor is more difficult if i want to keep the factory kit from the later cars. i may have to cut out that section of the B pillar from the 91 and have the metal from a 94-98 welded in. Or, i can ditch the adjustable piece and just use a nutsert for the upper anchor. Or just leave everything as is and deal with the motorized mice, but that would kill my plan for upgrading to the nicer seats from a 99 G20 (which I already have and have adapted for use). What say the GRM collective?

I'd say go ahead and doo eeett.. I had a 91 Escort with the automatic belts and swapping them to regular belts was the best thing about that car.

I have everything but the trim pieces to convert my MX6 to manual belts.

I keep see-sawing on it.

1) They work
2) I don't have to worry about being pulled over even if i'm not wearing a lap belt. (Terrible habit, i know, but it is what it is.)

But on the other hand.... Removing them saves a little bit of weight, and gets rid of a very ugly bunch of parts in the area between the seats that i'd like to remove.

Interesting... I converted my S13 to manual seatbelts, and the later S14 belts were a direct bolt in with the addition of a drilled anti-rotation hole. Got photo of the area?

In reply to Swank Force One:

Part of my rationale for doing it was what would happen if the dang things break? Figured I would be doing the swap eventually anyway if I keep the car.

06HHR wrote: In reply to Swank Force One: Part of my rationale for doing it was what would happen if the dang things break? Figured I would be doing the swap eventually anyway if I keep the car.

I think that depends on the car...

The passenger side one is broken on the Escort, and the track appears to be messed up so i can't even run it back manually.

The MX6 on the other hand.... 24 years, 210k miles, and they're working flawlessly. This seems to be common on these cars. If they were a ticking time bomb, it would make my decision much easier.

In reply to Gearhead_42:

Nope, I can take pics of the area for both cars (91 and 94-98) this weekend though. They redid the stamping for the inside panel of the B pillar, it's completely different.

Swank Force One wrote:

06HHR wrote: In reply to Swank Force One: Part of my rationale for doing it was what would happen if the dang things break? Figured I would be doing the swap eventually anyway if I keep the car.

I think that depends on the car... The passenger side one is broken on the Escort, and the track appears to be messed up so i can't even run it back manually. The MX6 on the other hand.... 24 years, 210k miles, and they're working flawlessly. This seems to be common on these cars. If they were a ticking time bomb, it would make my decision much easier.

They worked fine the last time the car was on the road, so I really have no reason to believe they would die, and i'm pretty easy on equipment. But... My wife and kids can break stuff just by looking at it, and they might be driving this thing every now and then.

06HHR wrote: In reply to Gearhead_42: Nope, I can take pics of the area for both cars (91 and 94-98) this weekend though. They redid the stamping for the inside panel of the B pillar, it's completely different.

This seems to weird. Why would they make a US-specific stamping for something that is hidden behind the pilar trim? Every other car I've seen with motor-mouse belts has the mounting points for normal belts but just has different trim pieces.

JamesMcD wrote:

06HHR wrote: In reply to Gearhead_42: Nope, I can take pics of the area for both cars (91 and 94-98) this weekend though. They redid the stamping for the inside panel of the B pillar, it's completely different.

This seems to weird. Why would they make a US-specific stamping for something that is hidden behind the pilar trim? Every other car I've seen with motor-mouse belts has the mounting points for normal belts but just has different trim pieces.

Yeah, this has been my experience as well. Curious to see if that is indeed the case.

In reply to JamesMcD:

It is weird, the only reason I can think of for doing it is in the G20 trim, the chassis is USDM only. The P10 was sold as the Primera in Euro markets but the options packages and trim are completely different. Guess Infiniti is "Special".
I'll post pictures of the different B pillars this weekend. I would love for there to be a simple bolt-in solution (and there may well be) but I may have to use belts from a different Nissan model (maybe B14 Sentra or S14 240 or Altima) to do it.

Yeah I would use Sentra belts if I were you. Probably bolt right in? I dunno have to see pics..

Guess this means another trip to the Pick n pull this weekend, as if i need an excuse.

I switched over to generic 3 points in my S13 ($50 on Amazon). The B pillar has the proper threaded hole for the top anchor (for JDM market), so I just run it without the B pillar trim. It's a track car, so I can care less about interior aesthetics.

Well, went to the PnP today and took some pics, it is completely different, this is what I have (91 P10) The next picture is the setup for the 93.5 up P10 As you can see, the stampings are different. The indentation for the adjustable upper belt mounting and the bolt holes are just not there. the next picture is how the upper belt mounts in the 93.5 up models There is only one point where the stampings match, that is the trim attachment hole at the top. Pictured here So, what I plan to do is use that hole to help me locate where I need to place the Nutsert hole for the upper anchor, disassemble the adjustable mechanism and take the upper seatbelt anchor off or it. Put in a nutsert and mount the upper anchor to that. I think I can find a properly sized one, otherwise I may be getting a bolt welded to that stamping somehow. What do you guys think?

Make sure they didnt just weld an extra plate over the normal pillar to mount the robo belt.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Make sure they didnt just weld an extra plate over the normal pillar to mount the robo belt.

Never thought of that, i'll check it out in the morning, thanks!

Looked over what I have, unfortunately they didn't have an extra plate welded over normal pillar. These must have been on a special line or something, because stampings for the inner B pillar are completely different. I remember back in the day when this thing was built many manufactures were scrambling to meet the passive restraint requirements for the US market before they got their airbag installations engineered. So, you saw things like the motorized mice and whatnot before airbags came along and saved us.. I took the motorized belt mechanism off the B pillar and noticed that the top mounting bolt hole on the B pillar was pretty close to where I needed my upper anchor to be. Then I took apart belt height adjustment bracket to get the belt off if it, and noticed the bolt that held the upper anchor to the adjustment bracket would make a nice spacer. So, I used it as a spacer/mounting sleeve, found a slightly longer bolt with a large washer and did this: Now I have an upper anchor and the trim fits around it, except for the spot where extra sheetmetal was added to accommodate the robobelt Now all I have to do is drill a hole for the lower trim attachment tab and trim the hole at the bottom of the B pillar so the rectangular seatbelt retractor/tensioner mechanism will fit in a not-so-rectangular hole. I'm chuffed! Guess i'll be starting a build thread soon.