Cabriolet - car seats ? Roll Bar?

twobone · twobone's Garage

I'm looking at an 86' 911 Cabriolet.

I have a 4 year old and I was wondering if it is possible to retrofit a shoulder belt into a cabriolet so I can properly fit a booster seat as he gets older.

Also, if I put in a roll bar for drivers'-ed purposes, do I lose the ability to put in a car seat?

jdowty3 · jdowty3's Garage

I take you mean the rear seat. I ahve not yet figured out how to add a retractable shoulder set-up to my Cab but would also be interested if anyone has ideas.
I also have an Autopower roll bar. Most Cab roll bars require either removal of the rear seat backs or will lock them either up or down. I purchased a 2nd set to backs and modified them so I can still raise and lower them. I don't think the rollbar will interfere with a child seat but non-porsche seats don't fit very well in to the rear seat contours and make securing the seat difficult.

JeremyD · JeremyD's Garage

Yes you can retrofit a 3 point into the rear. booster seats can be tough to fit - but with a little shopping you can find one that will.

As far as for DE - I use the DAS rollbar - bolts in an comes out betwen DE's using the existing seatbelt and seat back hardware.

you don't want a rollbar and little tykes heads in the same vicinity.

IlMostro · 11-17-2005, 09:42 AM

I have an '86 Targa, under the rear speaker deck are the mounting holes for rear 3 point belts. I'd guess that the cab shell is the same. Apparently 3-pt belts were required somewhere in ~1984, the mounts were added to the shells, but rear 3-pt belts weren't actually installed for USA until later.

There's a piece of sound insulation on top of the mounting holes, but the insulation is pre-scored to remove it and get at the mounting holes. I just had to cut a hole in the speaker deck for the belt to run through.

Adding the 3-pt rear belts removed my mother-in-laws only argument that my 911 isn't a "family car". HA!

I removed the rear seatbacks at the same time as I added the 3-pt belts, I also have small kids and with booster seats the seatbacks really don't serve any purpose anyway.

jdowty3 · jdowty3's Garage

The problem with a Cab is that the rear deck is completely covered with the folded top when the top is down.

5speed · 11-17-2005, 04:14 PM

Although the threaded insert is present and an interia reel can be bolted. It works great for coupes and targas but a cab has a couple of problems to overcome. jdowty3 mentioned one the rear plastic window and top mechanism stacks directly onto the rear shelf carpet. Second the rear shelf for a cab has no room underneath, it is just a flat fiberboard with carpet. The coupe and targa's have room beneath to house the rear speakers and room for the inertia reels. Third the middle flat section of the cab top swings down right behind the rear seatbacks. So if you were creative you might get the reels mounted and covered, I don't know if the reels would interfere with the top mechanism. You could roll up a couple of hand towels and place them ontop of the rear shelf where the reels would mount and see if it all works. I would definately be interested in seeing it done, but you could not use them with the top down.

5speed · 11-17-2005, 05:42 PM

wow I really didn't mean to sound so negetive. I just wanted to point out a few things to twobone that I noticed were different for the cabs. I think it can be done, just takes some creativity and fabrication. In fact I am looking into doing this for my car, but had to put the project on hold. I already purchased the interia reels. and was looking for some room to route the belts. I hope twobone tackles some of the problems that I pointed out and saves me alittle time.