Taming the seat belt mess

[jocko]

Good afternoon gents. Some earlier threads about seat belts and discussion about retractors, three-pointing it, etc. My biggest frustration was this:
- my belts flopped around on the mounting bolts (bolts seated, but shoulder was pretty wide and there was lots o metal clankin. Now, granted - there is a mechanical reason for that - to get the correct angular relationship with the tensile direction of the belt itself, but as long as not mechanically limited - I thought the clanking could be cured).
- the belts were also mounted such that the long latch end belts were mounted outboard and the short male end belts were inboard. So, when I opened my door, the belt REALLY fell out on the floor and scraped on the ground almost every time unless I always wrapped them back up in the seat every time I got out. Then getting in was a pain.

Sounds trivial (and it is) but something worth fixing I thought.

Goal was to keep it at least "looking" original. The key to all this is a set of 65 impala seat belt retractors (I had some from my previous car). They mount on the belt itself (not at the base) and when you release the latch, they just wind up on themselves out of the way. I also swapped the belts outy to inny so that the short male ends were outboard on the cab (like they should be I think - but not important, you HAVE to do it this way with these retractors - and this configuration was stock on my 65 Impala, i.e. short belt male ends on the outboard belts) so that they just retract on themselves and store just at the end of your reach when sitting in the seat. Lastly, I installed a rubber grommet below the belt and above the floor to eliminate the rattling. The grommet is just thick enough so that it only covers the shoulder of the bolt (so, bolt fully seated and tight) and still allows free movement of the anchor on the bolt for proper orientation (you would not want to use washers or too thick a grommet for this). I also washed the belts up a little and let them dry while I had them all out.

Here's a link to the part - it's Part # CD607 on the page. It's easy to install.
http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/f...1AD56201&trk=3

Important safety tip - when wearing the belts, the end with the retractor has to be fully extended (i.e. unwound) so the seat belts still work as advertised - i.e. if it's partially wound up, it's the same as slack in the belt. All your adjustment should be made by adjusting the webbing on the female latch end (like you already do anyway) - but just make sure when adjusting that you have fully unwound the retracted belt.

Here's some pics. First pic is the "before".

Hope someone may find this useful (will take 2 posts to get all the pics in).