Child Safety Seats in Vintage Cars

Child safety seats in classic cars.

Is it evil that I researched which baby seat fit my 65 Mustang better before I researched which was the safest? Yea, it probably is. When I was a kid, we were lucky if we were buckled in. We were just as likely to be thrown in the back of a pickup with half a load of chicken manure and no working latch on the tailgate. Of course back then you worked eight hours for a dollar and twelve cents and everywhere you went was uphill.

My 65 did not come from the factory with seat belts in the back seat. That just shows how much tougher we were than today’s kids. I’ve had the car for twenty years and “kids round one”,now both in their 20’s, often rode in the back sans protection. (Enter hate mail and abuse allegations below). But when I re-did the interior last year I added rear seat belts for “kid round two” (just an infant last spring). We used the proper rear facing infant seat for the 2015 season but that meant the front passenger seat had to be all the way forward. With the new TMI sport foam already making us sit a little higher than we were used to with the old seats it just doesn’t feel right. And the child seat still rubs the back of the front seat so I need to put a towel between them. Yea, that was us at the 2015 Street Machine Nationals with the car seat in the back. I had at least as many people comment on the child seat as on the new paint!

But this year was going to be different! He’s a big boy now. Wisconsin law says at his current age and weight I can use a front facing child seat.(I researched this). I started shopping for a front facing seat that fit comfortably in the back of the Mustang; maybe even a blue one that kind of matched the interior. I told my wife about all my research, sure she would be proud of me for figuring out how to make our summer better. The little man could sit in normal, forward facing cruise position, no more towel over the back of the front seat, easier to lift him and out for my old back. She would be so happy she would throw me a little parade or bake me a muffin. Turns out I was wrong. 

She patiently informed me that all the momma/baby sites are clear on the fact that regardless of the law, your child is safer in the rearward facing seat until they are at least two. And that the child’s safety is somehow more important than how well his car seat fits my lifestyle.

Since this is a kid that climbs up and stands on my coffee table as soon as I take my eyes off him, I suppose he may need a little help in the safety department.

So it looks like at least one more year of the big funky rear facing car seat, then like fifteen years of a booster seat. A booster seat, in a muscle car. Not sure what Steve Mcqueen would say about that but there you go.

Hot Rods; Real Life.