street-legal 6-passenger Festiva w/infant seat?

[bobstad]

I wonder if anyone might suggest ways to make street-legal and safe traveling with six passengers in my '91 Festiva L 5-speed.("The FestivaL Car")

This is with four adults, a ten year-old and one year-old.(maybe "infant" isn't longer appropriate, more "infink" now?)("toot-toot" for all you sailors out there...Popeye fans, etc.)

My idea is to use the area behind the rear seat as a jump seat space, with a third person in the rear seat and a baby seat mounted to the dash facing the shotgun.(if his mother; look out she may be loaded, with an itchy trigger finger!)

I wonder if there are any automotive seats which could fit behind the back seat, or what alternatives might exist, and means of mounting the seat and attaching a seat belt for that seat?

Also how to attach a third, middle, seat-belt in the rear seat; and too, ways a person might mount a rear facing legal baby seat to the dash?

[bobstad]

No one with any imagination on this?(come on, at least some ideas about a middle passenger in the back seat?)

[nonamekid]

A middle passenger in the back seat can be done quite easily. When my dad bought his festiva new, he had them install an additional seat belt back there. I think you can use another rear festiva buckle. I am not sure what you need for a lap belt. I will have to look at his festiva when I am able to.

Most of us would highly advise you not to mount a child seat to your dash. This would be very dangerous for the child in an accident.

[todd00]

one guy here did his headliner in velcro. you could always get junior some velcro duds and stick him up there. perhaps mom would frown on that idea. i dont think youd have room to mount a car seat from the dash, and im sure the cops wouldnt approve either. get 2 jump seats, and put the 10 yr old, and the adult you like least back there. or another idea, a recliner attached to the roof, where you could put your mother in law, or relative that forgot to buy you a birthday present. just tell her that seat is the captain kirk command post. any dedicated star trek fan would be honored to ride there.

seriously, i think you need a wagon or van if you plan on hauling all 6 pple around much. no matter how you figure it, sure wont be a comfortable trip for some of your group. id look for an old 4x4 tercel wagon or toyota 4x4 van if i was you. ive seen some good deals on tercels up your way. and they go great in the mud and snow too.

[bobstad]

Yeah, visualizing the child car seats I've seen they are all too large to mount facing backwards on the dash.(though I'd guess facing towards the rear generally might be safer in a crash than facing forwards if the neck and head were supported and awareness of an impending situation weren't a factor)

This wasn't a plan to be often implemented. Just for a special journey once. Three in the back seat on occasion of not too large people and/or children might be a more regular option. I'm not inclined to want to acquire another vehicle, and probably am not going to have lots of passengers in most situations anyway. I'd been hot on a plan in mind though which now seems not likely to materialize.

I've always considered the area behind the rear seat as one a person could comfortably ride in when forced to. To make that also legal seems feasible, though being rear-ended in such a situation would feasibly present an unthinkable reality.

Figuring out how to put a belt in for a middle passenger in the rear seat? The law seems adamant a person have a shoulder belt, rather than just a lap belt. Probably so an easy visual inspection can be done at speed passing a vehicle.

[bobstad]

LOL

One of my seating options for purely stationary motives is a round metal futon frame bolted to the roof-rack, which flattened out has served admirably hauling massive loads.

Though this also folds into the couch position too.

The idea of adding cushions to park at an outdoor music venue, or warm summer evenings at the back of a drive-in movie seems romantic.(there is an old drive-in still operating just north of Crescent City, CA; which makes a person wonder if many more do elsewhere anymore?)

[todd00]

i dont think there are many left. in the metro omaha area there was one drive-in. it seemed to do real well too. but i see it has closed now, and they are building some ugly prison looking office structure there. im sorry to see the drive-in's close, probably most of the baby boomers feel the same way.

when you talk of seating in the cargo area, i think of the old giant station wagons with the rear seat facing the back. probably could be done, if you could get the seat belt and such done.

[bobstad]

a national lampoon through the heart!

i dont think there are many left. in the metro omaha area there was one drive-in. it seemed to do real well too. but i see it has closed now, and they are building some ugly prison looking office structure there. im sorry to see the drive-in's close, probably most of the baby boomers feel the same way.

when you talk of seating in the cargo area, i think of the old giant station wagons with the rear seat facing the back. probably could be done, if you could get the seat belt and such done.

Ah, dem were the days! My family had both '57 & '61 Ford Country Squires, both white and the fake woody paneling, with red vinyl interiors and a rear-ward facing third seat.(seven of us, in classic Chevy Chase "Griswold" vacations, such as one to Disneyland when I was ten from Eugene, OR and back; the '61 had a 427 Thunderbird motor my mother carbon-choked to death by the time I'd gotten a driver's license, what a boat!)

[bobstad]

Funny after-thought!

Ah, dem were the days! My family had both '57 & '61 Ford Country Squires, both white and the fake woody paneling, with red vinyl interiors and a rear-ward facing third seat.(seven of us, in classic Chevy Chase "Griswold" vacations, such as one to Disneyland when I was ten from Eugene, OR and back; the '61 had a 427 Thunderbird motor my mother carbon-choked to death by the time I'd gotten a driver's license, what a boat!)

I get irked whenever someone refers to my Festiva as a "disposable econo-box" but in the era of the '50s & '60s monster V-8s often a hundred thousand miles was getting to be a really long-lived motor for many people;(perhaps brainwashing to encourage trade-ins?) and not too much more than that for those with better knowledge about getting the most in the way of longevity.

I'd had a '67 Mustang which must've had 300,000 miles* on the 289 V-8 when I sold the car that still only used half a quart of oil every 5000 miles, but that was exceptional and such motors were considered "sweet" in the sense of being anomalies which luck had blessed with near perfect assembly in the factory.

The modern tolerances, materials and engineering must allow for the greater mileages now, when the planet's biosphere could use people driving far less.

*Beat enough looking when a two-year old coming into my hands the thing must've already turned over the odometer once.(?)

[todd00]

i really like the old wagons of that era too. when i was a kid we had some boats, no station wagons, i was the only kid, but a couple old caddys and one of my favorites, an old lincoln. cars of that era had unique personalities they dont have anymore. yeah those were the days. i remember fondly the old days of drive-in's movies and muscle cars. pple that would refer to the festiva that way just arent educated on the little car.