When installing a set of Garagistic Racing Seat Floor Mount adapters if you don't plan on using racing harnesses you will need to find a way to mount your factory seat belt buckle to your racing seat. In this article we will go over the differences between the E30, E36, and E46 seat belt buckles and different mounting options for your seat belts.
Garagistic Buckle extension bracket
This bracket is designed to mount your seat belt buckle to the floor mount adapters. Simply bolt the lower portion of the bracket to the seat adapter and then you can bolt your buckle to the adapter. See below picture.
E30
The E30 has the most primitive seat belt design as no E30s have retractors. These are the easiest to move from your existing seat over to a racing seat. Simply unbolt the stock seat belt buckle from the seat and using a slightly longer bolt on the racing seat you can install the buckle in the same location on the racing seat. See below picture in E36 section.
E36
E36s are the first three series module to use a retraction device on the buckle. In order to install your seat belt buckle onto your racing seat, you'll need to disassemble the buckle in order to install it onto your seat. Doing this will require breaking the buckle so if you don't want to ruin your existing seats we recommend going to your local pick and pull and sourcing a buckle from another car. Below you will find a picture of an installed seat belt buckle from an E36 on to a racing seat.
E46
The E46 seat belt buckle is the most complicated design of the three chassis. It uses a retraction system and a steel cable. Taking them apart is significantly more involved than the other two. As such if you would like an easy solution to mount a buckle to your seat we recommend sourcing an E30 or E36 buckle from a pick and pull and disassembling it like in the above E36 picture. The E46 seat belt will fit as it's the same size. Another option is to simply install the entire buckle and retraction system on to the side of your seat. This method, depending on the racing seat being used may sit the buckle too high for the seat belt to be effective. For this reason we don't recommend installing your buckle this way.
Buckle Alternative Solutions
One other option is to use the rear seat belt buckle from an E36. They are simple to bolt on in the same manor as the others but offer an extended belt design that makes putting the belt on very easy.
Comments
1 comment
So is it safe to bolt the seat belt buckle directly to the seat? Or should I try and bolt it to the floor? The car in question is an e36 and the seats are FiA approved and I plan to use the rear seat buckle.
Please sign in to leave a comment.