Front seat belt buckles

[Spook50]

The plastic housings (not the buckles themselves, but the plastic "pillar" assembly that they sit in) on both of my front belts are all cracked and beat up. Is there a good aftermarket replacement available (or better yet, an actual fix) for these?

 

[Beachcomber Bernie]

If your talking about the shoulder belt covers on the B pillars, there is no aftermarket item that I've ever seen. Small cracks can be glued but they are pretty brittle. Good used ones do still come up for sale and I would advise you to post a Wanted in the classified section. I just picked up one this month. Once you get a pair that are solid... Clean, lightly sand if needed and paint with SEM Color Coat for interior plastic. If your int is brown, the Cordovan Brown is a great match.

 

[enfield]

I think he means the female ends. Mine are trashed as well. I've been thinking of cutting the piracy l plastic off and seeing how that goes...

 

[Spook50]

Aye, the female ends. It's the plastic housing that the fabric and the actual buckle are encased in.

 

[Beachcomber Bernie]

Oh...
Well then, in the immortal words of Emily Litella ...

 

[FishNinJay]

Mine are split pretty bad also. I was about to do a fancy duct tape wrap pretty soon. I was also thinking of trying some JB Weld.. that stuff fixes almost anything, but I thought it might be TOO hard & inflexible.

 

[60Works]

The chemical adhesives in duct tape or JB Weld would damage the nylon webbing. I've used electrical tape to shore up the cracked plastic but never where it would touch the fabric of the belt.

New belts aren't that expensive and 30 year old, sun bleached nylon will only have a fraction of its original strength. I understand the desire to keep things stock but I don't think quality aftermarket belts degrade resale.

 

[enfield]

I've also considered searching for a set of female ends that are mounted to the floor with a stiff cable. They would stand up on their own, rather than rely on the plastic sheath.

 

[Spook50]

New belts aren't that expensive and 30 year old, sun bleached nylon will only have a fraction of its original strength. I understand the desire to keep things stock but I don't think quality aftermarket belts degrade resale.

True, but I haven't found any suitable bolt-in replacement for the female ends that are at all even similar to the OEM ones.

 

[jonathanblaze]

Did you ever find a suitable replacement for those belt sheaths? I was looking for some myself with no luck.