Before and after: restoring my '66 deluxe belts!

[sweet66monza]

The seat belts in the TurboTurd were original deluxe belts but were beyond hideous, to the point I would hide them under the seats at shows. Since my goal this time around is to fix everything I don't/haven't liked, seat belts were toward the top of that list.

I reached out to Snake Oyl several times around the first of the year inquiring to see what their approximate turnaround timeline was, as I needed to be sure I had them back in time for the convention. No return emails or calls and their secretary said she would pass along a note to call back a few times. My bride said "obviously they don't want our money, let's just do it ourselves!"

I fully disassembled them, sand blasted and painted the floor mounts and buckle guts, had the tongues and buckle housings rechromed, re-brushed the stainless covers, sourced reproduction release buttons and tracked down correct 3 panel webbing. My bride is a seamstress by trade and very crafty, she spend a couple weeks ordering tons of different silk ribbons to find the closest match and a few evenings dialing in the artwork and we put them together last night.

A few places around the internet reproduce the manufacturer tags, but they were either paper, incorrect artwork (by a lot) or funky ribbon and none had date codes present. There was faintly enough left over on the originals to date the front and rears appropriately and match the font. Overall I am beyond thrilled with them!

[cnicol]

IMPRESSIVE! !

[joelsplace]

You should offer the service since you have it all figured out now.

[fred bagnall]

Excellent work as usual Cody. Great work from your wife also. It is all about the details. Although my Corsa is almost your exact twin I would be hard pressed to get it up to your level of restoration.

[66vairguy]

Nice work Cody --- YES I did not like the response I got from "Snake-Oyl". It was "Send us your belts for an estimate that we charge for. If you don't accept the estimate you pay the fee AND a fee to ship them back" Apparently they have so much business they are not motivated for any more business. I told them to "take a hike". Their reviews are mixed.

I found a one man shop called Python seat belt restoration. Got a firm estimate after I sent in pictures via email and the workmanship was great. A couple months later I sent in another set of belts and then NOTHING for weeks. Finally they sent an email saying "sorry there was a family emergency, then a vacation". I was not happy with the lack of communication, but the work was done and as good as before. They looked great and worked well.

I liked that they gave me options, like deleting the label tag which saved me some $$$$ on two sets of front/rear belts.

So good work and a one man shop (good for quality control), but it gets done WHEN it gets done.
https://pythonrestoration.com/seat-belt-odds-and-ends

[flat_six]

You should offer the service since you have it all figured out now.

^^^This^^^

[flat_six]

I wonder what the tensile strength is on the webbing that you used. Either way, it's probably stronger than the 60 year old nylon that was in the old belts...

Nice work!!