Headliner and seat belt questions

[Tim213]

Hi all, for those like myself who are not using a skylight but going with the standard fabric covering, if you utilize a headliner overhead how are you doing so to still see the fuel sight gauge? I have only seen one photo and that is of a doghouse concept along the upper fuselage just below the top factory stringer.
Second question is I want to use an inertia reel with a Y or V harness and not simply a diagonal strap, so is it possible to do so with the factory welded tab or do I need weld a tab further inboard for the belt attachments? Thanks for any input.

[Brad Ripp]

Tim,
I'm going with an inertia reel also. A member here recommended a company and product from seatbeltplanet.com I ordered one set to check it out and they are nice. The buckles are a little heavy, not sure if I will look to simplify and replace with lighter, but for a little over $100 for an inertia reel and y harness, I couldn't find anything else even close. I also saw someone mount the inertia reel on the horizontal post towards the rear of the interior rather than closes to the pilot. This way you can route the strap over that closest tube to the inertia reel mounted further back. (No interia reel in the back passengers view.) I'll try to take a picture of that when I get to it soon if you need it. Not sure if I'm making sense. I'd recommend checking into seatbelt planet though. They said the inertia reel needs to be mounted horizontal, so I'm going to weld a plate or something similar to mount it to the tube but in the tight space between the headliner and top fabric. I think there is enough room.
Brad

[Archer39J]

Saw something another builder did you might be interested in: http://www.foxflier.com/bearhawk/200...ay09/index.htm

Looks pretty clean to me.

[S Lathrop]

Here is what I did for the shoulder harness mounting. I added a tube and fashioned a bracket that spanned the 2 intersecting tubes. The bump at the front edge is a clevis with a threaded boss welded to the top. The reel is mounted in that clevis with a bolt from below. The reel is above the head liner, mostly. The mounting is such that the mounting on the reel and the harness are in a straight line over my shoulders. This is for a Hooker reel and harness.

This is what I felt was the best I could do to get a good shoulder harness function for the front seats. Lower would be better.

I have some experience testing shoulder harness in race cars so I was a bit anal about how I made this setup.

The down side is that the bottom of the reel does protrude below the head liner and will require some padding to protect a rear seat passenger if they were to be thrown forward. It would be an issue for me at over 6 feet tall but a child or woman should not have an issue.

Shoulder Harnes Mount'.jpg

[Flygirl1]

Tim, it's a Patrol, but should work with the 4 place. The fabric is wrapped around the top from inside to out and glued to the frame. The side piece is a separate insert. The front half is a separate piece from the back half and sewn together at where the skylight area starts. I have a practice template all cut out and ready to go if anybody is interested in borrowing it. It's actually a template for both skylight and no skylight. Some adjustments would be necessary if using the original rear window frames. We made them shorter and taller.