Seatbelt Restoration

[Bud K.]

I need to restore the seatbelt fasteners. Any ideas on how to dis-assemble the female side so that I can strip/sand and paint it?

Bud.

[Jeff A.]

Re: Seatbelt Restoration

I considered doing them myself, but ended up sending them to Ssnake-Oyl Products in Tyler, TX (800-284-7777). Not cheap, but done to perfection.
Cheers!
Jeff

[Bud K.]

Re: Seatbelt Restoration

I've read the old posts, the two main players names keep coming up. But... I want to do it myself, plus living in Oz makes things a little more complicated. The overall condition of the buckle is very good but the paint needs to be removed and repainted.

I've also looked in the Restorer CD and found no articles on the subject. I find it hard to believe that people haven't dis-mantled the female fasteners before. What is that split-pin that the paddle pivots on is made of?? Is it fibreglass? How do you get that wedge out? If you have to destroy the wedge to remove the pin, what do you replace it with. Fab up another piece of fibreglass?

Maybe it would be better to gently sandblast/beadblast the paddle after masking the chrome and then apply the paint. I don't know but I bet someone does.

Bud.

[Mike G.]

Here's how to do it:

There was a great how-to article in the NCRS Restorer a few years back. I wish I could recall the author's name, because I am indebted to him for guiding me thru the process!

Going by memory, you first lift up the lever and find the small c-clip on the shaft. Remove the clip, and then push in on the shaft from the wedge end. Retract it as far as you can. Lifting the lever, you can then expose the inside tip of the wedge in the shaft slot. Then, it's a matter of prying the wedge out with a pick applied to the wedge inner tip.

Once you get the wedge worked out 1/8" or so, you can grab it with small needlenose and pull it the rest of the way. Voila' it's apart.

[Kent K.]

Re: Seatbelt Restoration

Excellent article on the TDB posted by Jerry Fuccillo on Friday, 17 June 2005. Later, he submitted it to the Restorer. Even though the article dealt with 1967 seat belts, there should be a lot of similarities.

[Jack H.]

Re: Seatbelt Restoration

Just back from the NCRS Australia meet in Tasmania--lots of fun being down under!

Disassembly of the seat belt buckle (female vs. the clasp--male) is so simple that nobody talks about it...

The release handle pivots around a hinge pin that's held in place by a small E-clip. Pull the clip and you can easily tap the pin out of the buckle body with an ordinary drift. Note, there ARE pre-wound spring(s) around the hinge pin that cause the release handle to automatically return to its closed position and they'll unwind when you remove the pin....

Once the hinge pin is removed, the release handle simply lifts free from the buckle body. That leaves you with the naked body, the belt tension roller and the seat belt fabric snaked through the buckle body around the tension roller and back out of the buckle body.

You'll scratch your head trying to find a way to release the tension roller without luck if you haven't done this before. The answer is so simple, that once you realize how to do it you'll kick yourself!

The tension roller is held in the buckle's body side slots via interference fit. You clamp one side rail of the buckle body in a padded vice and slowly carefully BEND the opposite side rail with a pair of padded pliers to spread the rails apart and remove the tension roller.

Using one hand to bend the opposite side rail with padded pliers and the other hand to hold the tension roller and turn it sideways to minimize the amount you have to spread the buckle body makes the job quick and easy.

Now, you can remove the tension roller from the belt fabric and the material will simply fall out of the buckle body. As typical, reverse the order of steps when you put the buckle back together.

[Mike G.]

tension roller removal not required

the webbing can be easily removed from the buckle with the roller in place. Feed it through on an angle. Now if you're going to have the chrome re-done, then you use the spreading technique.

BTW, I've never been able to drive the pivot shaft all the way out with the wedge in place. But I've never been brave enough to really whack it.
It's not that hard to get the wedge out once you can get at the bottom of the slot. Then the shaft just slides through.

The original Restorer article (Fall '96) was by Steve Galante.