Restoring OEM Seatbelts

[TKCR]

And so far, this is what I have completed. Mainly just the center belts, buckles and lap belt. Got the rust off the chrome upper anchor.
All these pics are pretty much just doing a through cleaning. I also throughly cleaned the mechanisms and re-lube those.

[TKCR]

And here are the center buckles and lap belt. They also got new emblems. Now it’s just a matter of getting the retractors back together. I’ll post the completed set ASAP.

[hatzie]

Those look great as usual.

The big deal on the Spirit of 76 is the low production numbers seat upholstery and the white door cards. Supposedly only 500 of them were built.
Do you have a source that could duplicate that seat cover?

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by hatzie

Those look great as usual.

The big deal on the Spirit of 76 is the low production numbers seat upholstery and the white door cards. Supposedly only 500 of them were built.
Do you have a source that could duplicate that seat cover?

No, not right off hand. I would imagine the materials would have to bought from SMS Fabrics, if they even have it. And then have it made. I bet it would end up being an $800-$900 just for the materials from SMS

[TKCR]

Just finished up a set of 87 Burgundy. Here are the Before pics.

[TKCR]

And After!

[TKCR]

Here’s a set of 1976 Saddle, 1st Style 3pt belts. These were done for a fellow forum member. They were pretty faded in spots. So they got the usual stuff. Through cleaning & dye. Retractor mechanisms cleaned & lubed, which these have 2 separate retractors. So the black housing for the upper retractors also were freshened up with Black.
Here are the Before Pics. Last pic is a close up the housings, one of the Before and After.

[TKCR]

Here’s the completed set.

[TKCR]

These are 1973-1975 2pt belts with a lap belts, in Charcoal. These were cleaned and restored for someone. These were DIRTY! So dirty they could stand up on their own! Buckles were all disassembled for debris and rust removal. Throughly cleaned and got New Buckle Emblems.
Here are some before pics.

[TKCR]

After Pics

[TKCR]

I got the 1976 belts done finally. Ran into a little hiccup, one of the retractors just quit working, like it totally lost its spring. That didn’t happen, but I sure couldn’t figure out what or why it happened. So I sent them off to be repaired by someone that knew more on what to do, than I did. I can repair most things on these seatbelts, but every now & then I get something that just has me stumped. So it’s back and working again!

[TKCR]

81-87 Blue. New Buckle covers & Emblems.
These were restored for someone.

[1972K20]

I have a 1988 V30 crew cab 3+3 that's Air Force blue. The front belts (blue) need some attention to include the retractors. Also, the rear seats have laps belts only; however, there are holes with plugs in the pillar for what appears to be a shoulder belt mount. I'd like install matching shoulder belts for the rear. Can you help?

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by 1972K20

I have a 1988 V30 crew cab 3+3 that's Air Force blue. The front belts (blue) need some attention to include the retractors. Also, the rear seats have laps belts only; however, there are holes with plugs in the pillar for what appears to be a shoulder belt mount. I'd like install matching shoulder belts for the rear. Can you help?

I have several sets of blue 3pt belts. They would just need cleaned and restored. Send me a PM and I can give you the info on restoring your front belts also.

[TKCR]

Just restored this set of 1987 Blue seatbelts. These are NICE and clean.

[TKCR]

This set of Charcoal Black belts were restored for someone. Throughly cleaned, rust removal, lubed all the mechanisms for better retracting. Buckles were disassembled for debris & rust removal. New Emblems and New Upper Anchor covers.
Here are some before pics.

[TKCR]

And the after pics.

[TKCR]

1979 CarmineRed that was restored for someone. Here are the Before Pics.

[TKCR]

After Pics. New Emblem and buckle covers were use, along with new upper anchor covers.

[TKCR]

Been sick for several weeks, so it’s been slow going on getting anyone’s belts completed. But finally got these finished up. I started them awhile back, and then that’s when I got sick.
So these were someone’s retractors, he didn’t have any centers, so I had some extras that I was able to use. The casings, at one time had been painted by someone. Poorly done and they used paint. Paint is not to be used on seatbelts . So it just took more effort on my part to get all the old paint & overspray cleaned off, so they could be properly cleaned and prepped for dye. Rust removed from the mounts. And the buckles were disassembled for through cleaning and rust removal. Ultimately, NEW buckle covers, NEW emblems and a NEW Lap latch buckle were used.
The retractor mechanisms were throughly cleaned & lubed. There was a long string that was wrapped around one of the wheels, so that was slowing that belts way down.
Here’s the BEFORE PICS

[TKCR]

And here is the AFTER!

[LT7A]

Looks great! Plus, free string!

[TKCR]

Been working on someone’s 1987 Charcoal Black belts. My my my, these needed quite a bit of work. I’m not finished with them, since the retractors were sent off to get rewebbed. One side, the housing was melted. Not sure what happened there. And the other side, the webbing has about a 1/4” cut. So new webbing is the only way to fix these.
So before I sent these off, I got the retractor mechanisms throughly cleaned and lubed. Removed the rust from the mounts, which were pretty rusty, especially the extra tab that is used on the 87.
I also replaced the melted housing with one that I had. Also got both the housings off, throughly cleaned and dyed. Had to get these done first and sent with the retractors. When they get the new webbing, they can route the webbing thru the openings before they sew the latches on.
Here are the Before pics. I had to use the ones that were sent to me, from the owner of the belts. Dummy me, got busy on them and totally forgot to get pictures.

[TKCR]

While the retractors are off getting rewebbed, I worked on the center belts. As you can see from the pics in the above post, he sent extras. The center belts were really rusty, so the extra center belts he sent were used for parts. When the covers are that rusty, they need replaced with better covers or new covers.
Everything was cleaned and the rust removal process was done. Then I picked out the best covers & buckle emblems. Then the belts were throughly cleaned & dyed.
The tab mounts that are used just on the 1987 retractors, were very rusty and pitted. I got all the rust off, sandblasted them, primed and painted them. The pitting still shows some, but all the rust is gone.
Once the retractors come back, I’ll update the post with the final pictures.

[1rippen6]

PM sent