60 Series Rear Shoulder Belt Bracket
Want to put shoulder harnesses in the rear seat of your 60 Series truck that only has lap belts? This bracket can help you in your quest. A word of warning: there are many ways to install shoulder harness into the rear seat of a 60 Series truck, and this bracket helps accomplish a very specific outcome. This is an outcome that I wanted for my personal truck, and it's not for everybody. There's cutting of sheet metal involved and rare old OEM parts to track down. Heck, even the seat belts themselves are expensive. This is entirely a DIY project and the success is up to you - the bracket simply exists to help you. Still interested? Read on...
In the US, FJ62s mostly came with shoulder harnesses in the rear. To hide the retractor - the part the reels in the belt when you take it off, or locks the belt in a crash - Toyota used a piece of plastic on the outer wall of the truck. This necessitated shortening the cargo panels versus the longer panels in FJ60s with lap belts. These brackets allow you to install Seat Belt Planet shoulder harnesses in such a way that you can achieve an almost-factory-like FJ62 appearance. Like I said, these brackets are a piece of a very specific, niche puzzle. The problem they're solving for is that the retractors are about 70mm thick, while the plastic cover is only 30mm deep. A hole needs to be cut in the sheet metal, the bracket installed, and then the retractor plus the head of the bolt holding it sits at about 28mm out from the sheet metal. Just enough that it fits under the plastic cover. The bracket also places the reatrator in just the right spot so the belt webbing comes out almost perfeclty flush with the C-pillar. The photos tell the story. I also did a write up of my installation process on Mud, which can be found here. Before starting this project you should read not only my post, but also the other various Mud threads on retrofitting shoulder harness in lap belt 60 Series trucks.
Bracket Facts:
-Laser Cut
-CNC bent
-1/8" (3.1mm) thick
-4130 chromoly steel, great for high-stress applications
-Two 8mm holes for bolting to pinch weld
-One 12mm hole for bolting to seat belt retractor
-Sold in pairs (Qty 1 on your order is two brackets, enough to do left and right belts in the back of a 60; the middle bench position can remain a lap belt)
What's needed for the project:
-This pair of brackets (the ONLY thing I provide)
-Hardware for the brackets (NOT included; absolutely insist on hardened steel bolts and nuts, do NOT cheap out on the hardware; grade 5 at minimum but preferably grade 8, or use the metric equivalent of 8.8 or 10.9 respectively; using less than grade 5 means you may as well have no seat belt at all because that would be entirely unsafe)
-Seat Belt Planet 60 Series rear shoulder harnesses (the brackets are specifically for these belts; I don't know if other belts will work; SBP does include some mixed hardware, but probably no M8 bolts for attaching the bracket to the pinch weld)
-FJ62 plastic retractor covers (discontinued by Toyota, can only be found used)
-FJ62-sized cargo panels (can be found used; alternatively you can order the ABS panels I make here; I can customize these to get rid of the speaker holes if you want)
NOTE: The two lower holes of the bracket must be bolted through the pinch weld above the wheel arch (where the sheet metal is doubled up) as shown for additional strength, and not too close to the edge of the pinch weld. Bolting the bracket through single-ply sheet metal is ineffective and the hardware can rip out in a crash. Toyota bolted their shoulder harness retractors through the pinch weld in the 62s, so we're all going to follow suit.
NOTE 2: I make no claims about the safety of your DIY project shoulder harness installation. My bracket does not play a role in how you perform the rest of the work involved in retrofitting a safety restraint system into a ~40 year old vehicle that did not have that as original equipment. You're on your own, but there are helpful hints here, in my build thread linked above, and elsewhere on Mud. Study up before starting.