Baby seat in the 'Bird?
 

Does anybody here have a forward-facing baby seat installed into the back of their Third Gen? I haven't driven the Firebird in almost two years, mostly because babies are expensive, and secondly there was no room for the rear-facing seat. Our little one has graduated to a new seat and I'd like to be able to cruise in style on the weekends again with the family.

Does GM offer a belt conversion for compatibility/safety? The rear retracting lap belts are not suitable for a car seat. I'd like to be able to have my son at least ride in the car before he's 12, which is the minimum age in Vermont for a child to be able to ride in the front seat...

Thanks!

Re: Baby seat in the 'Bird?
 

well, even when he;s like 7-8 he can ride in the back right? my little brothers (8 and 12) ride in the back of my T/a all teh time.

the 91-92 cars had rear shoulder belts as well. You could upgrade to those :)

Not real interested in changing the car too much. Trying to keep as much stock as humanly possible. Our son is only 15 months old right now, but we'd still like to go out for "Sunday drives" with him this year.

I haven't driven the car in almost 2 years... Can't let her rot away in the garage... :(

I think they started around 88 or 89. The interior I have is out of an 89 Formula and it had the rear shoulder belts. I just bought a set of the brackets from Thirdgen Ranch (he cut them out of a donor car for me) and this weekend they're getting welded into my '83.

Word of advice on the baby seat, look for one that has a smooth bottom and sits down as far as possible into the bottom seat cushion. Otherwise you stand a big risk of tearing the bottom seat fabric. Ask me how I know. :(

Many seats have an open bottom which makes for a rather sharp edge around the perimeter of the seat. And most are too wide to fully set down in the 'dish' of the rear seat bottom, putting most of the pressure on the side bolsters. When my son was about 2 or 3, I had a seat in the back for him. The base was too wide to fit down fully into the bottom cushion, so I had a folded towel to help protect the seat, but the first time I pulled the child seat out, I found that it had begun tearing the sides of the bottom cushion.

Both my kids have ridden in my car in carseats. & all I do is pull the seat belt til it starts to ratchet back then lock it.

My daughter is now in a boster & my son is out & they both love riding in the Camaros. We hae 3 of them.

Heck my daughter rode in her first fbody when she was only a couple months old in a rear facing car seat (was the first 4th gen we owned LOL we still have it)

Well, i have modified the rear seats in mine (1996 240SX seats work great ;)) the old brackets were used to connect the "latch" belts of the carseat, then use the lapbelt through the back. In the hatch area is a small hook welded to the hump, that is for the top hook.

I have that Simpson "racing seat" for my daughter, awesome seat worth the price.

The best thing to do is use the car seat's harness setup to protect your child. Use the car's seatbelt to hold the car seat in place. The belt won't be tight when you attach it, but it locks up tight when the brakes are hit. Instead of running the belt thru the under side of the car seat, strap it over the lap portion of the seat. Unless your childs legs are huge, this connection will not interfere with the child at all.

http://www.babyant.com/bv022084.html

Yes, no? Anyone have experience with tighteners like this?

i took a pillow or small blanket with whenever i put the baby seat in for my kids. that little extra padding allowed me to get the belt to be tight on the seat. took a lil extra effort but it worked fine.

So the tethers connect to the hook in the trunk just before the well. I've never looked in that cut in the carpet on my bird but now we are getting a camaro for everyday use and will need to put the car seats in it now and then (twins:eek: )???

Try this:

http://users.rcn.com/mbrandsma/JUNK/safeornot.JPG

Actually... the cops I've talked to on other forums do not recommend this.

My little guy is only 15 mos. old, so he won't be riding in the front anytime soon.

So far, I've been anchoring the center tether to the anchor all the way to the back of the car that the t-top bag attaches to, and just pulling out the lap belt all the way, and letting it back in over his lap and the seat. That and his 5 point harness should be fine... I think... Going to make an appointment to have a car seat technician from our local rescue squad take a look at it...

I have three kids: 4, 2, and 2. I put the booster up front and the 5-point forward facing in rear. My 86 Camaro only has the lap belt in the rear and that *will* securely hold the rear seat in place. I took it to one of the state troopers "car seat checks". Pretty funny to see all of these minivans and the IROC. The cops said it is ok since I don't have airbags up front.

I'm looking into installing 4th gen seat belts so I have a three-point in the rear for when the twins are in boosters.

my 6 month old neice has rode in both of my third gens in a rear facing seat just fine. No damage to the seats or the baby.

I went to the junkyard and got an oldstyle rear center lap belt (out of a saturn?) that doesn't retract. It's the style that when you tighten it, the belt pulls out of the end that buckles. Put the seat in the back, kneel on it, and tighten away. My 2 yr-old is in safe and secure. He has a habit of saying "daddy go fast"!!

BackInBlackGP
There is some good and some very bad advise in this post. I am a certified car seat installer (went through the school before my little one was born), so I will try to highlight the good advise.

1st..Dont use that belt tensioner in that link. It is not certified/not safe (it can cut a seatbelt when involved in an accident).

2nd..A lap belt is perfectly safe to use for a front facing car seat; you will need a shoulder belt when the kid gets old enough to use a booster seat (like in Cadillac 's pic).

3rd.. Front seat can be used for a front facing carseat, due to no passenger airbag. The safest, best location for a child in any vehicle is in the center of the rear seat (not able in f-bodies so it would be either side of teh rear seat).

4th... those strap locations under the seat and in the rear hatch are not safe for the anchor system (if you have seen how the seatbelts are anchored, you would understand why).


Your lap belt will work with your car seat. The problem you mentioned with the seatbelt not being tight is fixed by switching th retractor mechanism in the belt to a "locking" one. This does not invlove any tools or removal of the seat belt.

See second post....

I am going to have to describe this rather than demonstrate, so bear with me. First, install the car seat in the back seat, the lap belt through the appropriate hole and latched. Next, focus direction to where the seatbelt comes out of the seat (where you can pull out extra amount of seat belt).

At that location, grab the seatbelt, and pull the seatbelt out of the retractor (as if you were pulling the seatbelt out to fit around a 600lb person buckling up in the back seat). Keep pulling until all the seatbelt is out of the retractor and it "stops" (mo more will pull out). With this "stop", you have triggered a mechanism in the retractor, changing it to a locking-style retractor.

Now allow all the slack to return into the retactor (at this point if you try to pull seatbelt out, it will lock and not allowe any slack to be pulled from retractor). Push the car seat down into the f-body seat and get teh seatbelt as tight as you can get. It will be tight enough when you have less than 2" side-to-side movement of the seat.

Hopefully this helps. If you were closer, I could show you a lot easier than trying to describe it.

that sounds like A good explination to me. i understood it perfectly. the seatbelts are mounted to the frame (or braced unibody) with 1/2' bolts. those "anchors" for the t-tops are held in by 1/8'th inch sheet metal screw through sheet metal. rusted in many cases. i barley trust my glass t-tops in them let alone an infant child.

Crazyn8, thanks for your informative posts!

So I should ignore the 3rd strap that normally anchors to the rear-deck LATCH anchor in my other 2 cars?

FWIW, if you have kids that require rear facing seats, consider putting them in another car. As for forward facing, I've had the whole family in my car with the top down. My kids are 4.5 and 20 months. My wife is 120 lbs.

:)

Funny how no one mentioned the clip that attaches to the belt after it has been tightened. I've used this clip with my car seat for the last eight years (two kids). The car seat is so tight in the cars seat it as if it was bolted in. This clip comes with many car seats or at least it used to.