I have a 2 1/2 year old boy, and he's already got the car bug. Clearly a hereditary affliction. His favorite toys are his car toys - Hot Wheels, diecasts, Tonka trucks... His favorite movie is that Disney "Cars" movie. He has Lightning McQueen on his little backpack he takes to pre-school, and also on his little shoes that light up when he walks. He would wear both to bed if we'd let him. Some kids his age ask strangers if they can pet their dogs. He asks them if he can play in their cars. (If he asks at all.) He'll flip the fuel door open on any random car in a parking lot and tell you he's "fixing" it. Every other night I have to get out one of my old RC cars and let him terrorize the cats and crash into walls with it. Sometimes he just has to sit in a car, particularly mine, and usually he'll say "I wanna rock" so I have to turn on the stereo. And not just any music will do. He'll tell you if something doesn't rock enough. He's always asking us to turn up the music while I or my wife is driving, and he also asks us to drive faster. "No, really REALLY fast!" If we're in the Maverick, he will cackle madly when I put the pedal down. ...Which brings us to the Maverick. (Yes, this post really is about the Maverick.) The boy loves the Maverick almost as much as I do. He likes the sound it makes, the way it rides, the way it shakes around while we're idling at a light. Daddys car is much more fun than Mama's car (Daddy's got better CDs too) and he's always begging for a ride in it. I try to oblige him whenever I can, but it's not always practical. For a couple of reasons. First and foremost, Mama's car would be safer in a collision, and therefore that's his ride 90% of the time, period. But on a nice, clear Saturday afternoon when traffic is light and nobody's in a hurry, it's nice to go for a drive with my son in the Mav. But putting his seat into my car is a chore! And that's what this is really about: Newer cars have steel rings just for this purpose, between the bottom and back of the seat and behind the top of the seat. They're bolted in exactly as the seatbelts are, using a large brass-colored Torx bolt. I didn't know this until 2 1/2 years ago, but evidently they're pretty standard in cars these days. His seat has straps with clips and they're specifically designed to secure the seat using those little attachment points that my car doesn't have. When I put his seat into my car I have to do it differently. I run the seatbelt in the middle of the back seat through the child seat to secure it, then I run those straps down to the front seatbelt anchors to which I've attached a short length of seatbelt strap for the clips to attach to. Finally, I push the front seats back to where they're touching the baby seat for extra tightness but it's wedged in there pretty tight either way. His seat is absolutely secure this way and I wouldn't leave the garage if it wasn't, but man it's cumbersome to do it that way and I'd rather do it right. So, has anybody ever retrofitted those baby seat clips you find in modern cars into a Maverick? Are there universal ones sold somewhere or have I just found another excuse to go plunder the Pull-A-Part? I'd rather not buy another seat, but if there's one that works better in older cars like the Mav I'll consider it. Any of you older and wiser gents who had little kids in the 70's care to tell me how these seats stayed put back then?
Your situation sounds identical to mine minus all the chatter, my boy doesn't talk all that much just yet, few words here and there. But demands that you know what he is talking about! he will not go anywhere without his "hars" (cars) and to him a "har" is anything with more than 4 wheels. Back to your thread, I have not found a way and did exactly what you have, now that i dont have to drive it daily, i dont much worry about it anymore!
i was looking at mounting the UAS bracket from a focus under the seat.you would have to renforce the floor.but it would make putting a booster/car seat in!you should be able to find something that will work at any scrap yard?tim
Well, my youngest is 24 now but yes, both of my boys grew up in one of my Mavericks just as you describe. Especially my oldest (28), he absolutely loved it. Matter of fact I had to build both of them Mavericks when they got their licenses. Sadly though, to answer your question, 20-25 years ago very few people even though about seat belts much and while they did use baby carriers few used child seats, especially properly secured ones. There were no seat belt laws. Cars were very dangerous if you were involved in collisions compared to todays cars but nobody thought much about it because there was never a big deal made of it like it is now. I'm sure someone on here can probably give you some good answers but it probably won't be the guys that were driving these cars in the 70's and 80's. I'm really glad to see how concerned you are with it though. Society has changed a lot over the years and safety has become a very big issue. Anyway, I'm sure you'll get it all figured out and you probably should write a tech article on this as there are lots of young people on this board, many of which either have young kids or will soon. Good luck...and thanks for bringing up such an important topic.
I have been having the same internal discussion, only with less words. (I love your stories by the way) I have not ever been able to get a car seat securely fastened in any of my Mavericks. I have considered trying to find some of those anchors like the newer cars have and bolt them in, just haven't done it yet. Nor have I searched the internet to find some. I've been meaning to check to see how the ones in the Focus are mounted, but it's a fleeting thought and never pops back up when I actually have time and energy to do it. Feel free to be the pioneer on this one, and we can all copy your work.
Well, sounds like I'm not alone here. Since there's apparently some interest in the idea, I think I'll do it, take pics and write it up in a tech article like Ray suggests. I don't think there's going to be much to it, probably several simple ways to make it happen, but it would be something good to have posted up. I know sometimes I look at the tech articles and I see an idea that never occurred to me before, so maybe someone will come across it one day who hadn't thought about it, and if it helps make anybody's little one a bit safer then it's worth doing and documenting.
I'm guessing they have probably changed the design of car seats since the late 80's now that those hooks are standard. I remember when I was very little, I rode in a car seat that was designed to be secured by the seat belts. Only used that in the '88 Thunderbird my mom had at the time though. I can still remember riding in the back of my dad's Comet strapped in tight by the lap belt, and not even being big enough yet to see out the rear 1/4 window. He tubbed the car out in 91-92 and did away with the rear seat at that point, so I was 2 or 3 years old then. I wasn't like your son at that point though. That Comet was loud and shook around alot. I was terrified of it when I was little. I always enjoyed helping him work on it, but didn't like to hear it run or ride in it back then.
We didn't even own a car with seat belts until I was 7 years old and Dad bought a new 67 Custom 500. We never used them, there were no seat belt laws back then. In the 80's with my kids, we had to use car seats for the kids, they were still new to the market at that time and were secured by the seat belts. I guess they are worth the time and money, but sure are aggravating at times. What I don't understand is the fact that they want kids to use a booster seat until they're 4'5" tall.....it seems to me,and I'm no rocket scientist, that it would be safer to be lower in a car than higher.
Yeah, the booster seat thing is ridiculous. My kid comes from a long line of short people, so if I wait until he's 4'5" he'll probably be in a booster seat next to his prom date.
Looks like these anchor points started happening around 1999, became a federal regulation, and began with the Ford Windstar: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-26-1999/0000879093&EDATE= ...And it's called LATCH: http://www.car-safety.org/latch.html
