Where do I find seat belt information for old cars

Trying to find out at what age do cars have to have rear belts installed.

By way of clarification, a vehicle first registered (in any country) before 1955 is not required to have any seatbelts fitted; after that front belts became compulsory in NZ but rear seatbelts weren't mandatory until November 1979. However, any classic car built from 1961, but not registered in NZ until after 1991, is also required to have rear seatbelts fitted.

If you are interested in retro-fitting seatbelts, there are regulations around specification and installation standards contained in the Seatbelts and Seatbelt Anchorages Rule. This would require the modification to be certified by an engineer, and is a complex and costly process. I would also caution against fitting lap-only belts (probably the only realistic option in open veteran/vintage cars without strong pillars to mount the anchorage for lap-and-diagonal belts) as these have been shown to be particularly harmful to children. There are global moves to ban them from all new vehicle production.

Thanks for that. Car has been registered here since 1968.

costly allright, looking at getting my old hg holden done and looking at $800 for the belts alone mind you they are allretractables even the lap belts, and then there is the mounting plates which are $30 quid each for a certified piece of 3mm plate about the size of packet of smokes, god damm ! bloke reckons 2 day job and with labour at god knows how much that will be probaly no change out of 2k, ahh may give it a miss i think and buy some alloy heads instead.

#2 - Are you sure it was 1955! Most cars of that age didn't have anchorages and the first car I ever owned with belts was a 1965 Mini Cooper I bought in 1970 and I think they were fitted by the previous owner, as he did bit of low key club rallying in it.

Just checked Govt webite.Compulsory on new cars sold since 1965.

owning and running classic cars is not cheap and you should do it for the love of the car, money no object

was only doing cause every time the kids get in the car i have to adjust there belts up for them,sash belts. i got sick of telling them sit where you sat before , but then different people would sit in the car and again i would have to adjust the belts for the kids,grrrrrrr.