Allegro Club International

[John Jenkinson]

Hi, Don't know if anyone would find this useful, but I needed to fit rear seat belts in my newly aquired Allegro as it is my everyday car and I have two boys to ferry around (ages 7&9).They are inertia reels, as kids don't seem to need much of an excuse not to put belts on,and statics can be a faf. Did it a few days ago and took a few pics. Hope it helps someone!
First as it was, standard.
First I removed the rear seat after finding the rear seat fixings. The seat cushion is held in place by a clip and released by pushing the bottom of the cushion rearwards.
Then I decided where abouts I wanted to put the reel.I then removed the rear parcel shelf to see where I needed to put the threaded bar that came with the belts. It seemed to find a good spot near where it looks like a pressing for a rear speaker should of gone.
Checking underheath for any clearence issues.
Next I drilled a 14mm hole for the bolt
I then painted the hole to stop it rusting(brown was the only suitable paint I had!)
I located the factory seat belt mounting holes which I could use and removed the plug. I couldn't use the factory top mount as it is on the side panel on the 'D'post and only really suitable for static belts.You can see the lower,outer with the plug in, and the inners as they come.It's recommended to run a tap through the holes if they are rusty to clear the threads on the wheelarch mounts.

I fitted the centre,short belt sockets with the washers as supplied with the seat belt kit.
I temporarily re fitted the parcel shelf back in the car so I could mark it accurately for making the hole for the bolts. I marked it through the hole with a marker pen. I then punched the hole out with a wad punch to make a neat job.

I re fitted the parcel shelf and fitted the reel with the correct washers as supplied with the kit.
After fitting the bottom end of the belts in the holes in the same way with the washers with the kit you should end up with some thing like this,hopefully!
After refitting the seats you should end up looking like this.
Here are the boys trying out the belts for size. These are Kangol belts that are adjustable for kids so they don't need a booster seat as you can see. I don't think they are availible new, but fitting other belts such as Securon or Quick fit should be exactly the same.

[Colin T]

Excellent How-To John. I fitted the estate version of these belts to my estate, I should have taken pics like you did.

Hopefully this will help other members to fit seat belts. It was one of the first things I did after getting my car on the road for obvious reasons!
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Hell has frozen over...... the car formally known as 'Heap' is back on the road!

[giz]

is the rear shelf steel strong enough to prevent the bolt head pulling through in the event of an accident? a lot of people do this with minis but have to reinforce the shelf with plates to prevent just that happening.
just a thought thats all.

tidy job though

[Richard Howe]

When I last investigated this, I thought I'd found upper belt mounts on the shelf itself... I only have belts in the back of my spare estate atm, I should see if they're suitable for one of the others - not that I tend to take people out in them, but it's a principle thing.
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...that's why Allegro will look as good 5 years from now as it does today.

[John Jenkinson]

Well it's one of those things. I'm pretty sure the mounts will be fine,as the parcel shelf is pretty solid. If the pulling force was at right angles to the shelf there might be a slight concern but it isn't. Also standard mounts are only a captive nut. The metal is no thicker at those points. Like a lot of these things, you have to use your own discretion at times. Hope it gives someone the confidence to have a go at fitting then. I took longer to wait for the paint to dry than to do the rest of the job!