Suprisingly enough, when I searched on this, I came up with nothing , hopefully you guys can help. I'm getting an '83 z28 soon, and know a guy with a '92 donor car with the front end still intact. Without getting into the details of the wiring, can an airbag system from a new car, be reliably put into an older car? I assume the entire harness would have to be swapped over, but that's not a problem, as I'd probably swap over the 350 too, so I'd have to swap the harness anyway.

 

i wouldnt recommend it.

hell, i dont even recommend the first generation airbags to anyone anyway.... they're a little dangerous.

 

yea it could be a horrible situation if you swap airbags into a non airbag car. If they dont go off when you crash then they were useless and you just wasted your time and money and you really dont wanna test them in a crash. You probly dont even wanna test them with cover on which could be a bad thing too. if the covers dont just fall open and they become detached they could kill someone and thats on your hands because it was your work. the scariest thing tho is if they just go off. if something trips and there are set off while your just driving down the highway i doubt you'll drive straigh getting hit by one and if just the passenger one goes off the scare alone of something flying out at 300 mph and inflating nexst to you should scare the **** out of you, it would me and i dont know if dioing 80 that kinda scare would allow me to keep driving properly.

 

I just thought it'd be a reletively easy swap, thanks anyway. I'll post pics of my show-room quality '83 if/when I get it.

 

 

hes right anything faster than around 20 to dead stopped due to a crash and the stock seat belt is useless. It will actually hurt you more than a five point racing harness. the harness distributes the wieght of your body across multiple points where as the stock one distributes your weight entirely across a two inch line on your chest. I crashed from 12mph and i me and my two passengers had nice red stripes across us and because i was shirtless it acually made some decent abrassions. the five point harness is bigger also so every spot your body touches the harness there is more of the belt touching you. if you dont believe my weight ditribution theory try. have a friend stiff arm you then have that friend push you with the same force just using two hands.

 

Installation of the air bag / impact system can be done. It's quite a project and not something I would recommend doing (after having done this very project myself). Take the harness advice or buy a later model car with the air bag already in it, if that's what you really want.

 

I looked into doing this too, to my 87 GTA. What I found was, not only are there a lot of wiring isses )Duh, huh?) but there is a bar running side to side under the dash, not as simple as the bumper sensors and steering wheel swap.

I still WANT to do this, just can't afford to. In Aug. '04, I was involved in a car...I am lost my wife in a wreck, and am now permanently disabled. I love the looks I get pulling my GTA into handicapped spots! I don't have the permanent handicapped plates, and pull my blue tag down, except for when it is parked. Even then, I get looks from people thinking I'm just using my Grandparent's tag or something. I wish that was the case!

 

i think you people keep forgetting that these are not modern airbags.
these are the first generation, government mandated early airbags.
these are the bags that break peoples bones.
these are the bags that seriously burn people.
these are the bags that provided almost no protection, but did put 67% of the drivers at a greater risk of injury then a properly worn seatbelt.



airbags have come a long way since then, and i have no problem with a modern airbag infront of me, but those first gen bags... no way. they were prematurely introduced... forced on us by the goverment with a media campaign (remember the crash test dummies??) it was a pushbutton hot topic issue.
engineers didnt want to release this... politicians did.

things are much better now, but these bags belong in the dark ages..

thats why my car has the airbag disabled... and while i retained the airbag wheel, there is no chemical charge canister behind it... i removed the cover, popped the bag, drilled it off, and replaced the cover.... looks stock, but it isnt.
but i also wear my seatbelt properly. always.