Restoring OEM Seatbelts
 

I have been restoring our original seat belts for a short time now. It started with the set I did for myself. When I bought my truck about 6 years ago, the first thing I did was change the interior color, from Burgundy to Charcoal. It was extremely hard to find a decent set of seatbelts, so I opted for the aftermarket ones, until I could find some. Well about 4 years later, I finally found some. So here is the set that I found. I throughly cleaned them and then freshened them up with dye. Polished all the stainless steel buckles.

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Next set I found were in excellent shape! But they still needed a good cleaning and freshened up with dye for the small section of webbing that is faded. Steel wooled the stainless steel buckles and polished.
These are the Before pics

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And after Restoration. I sandblast the mounts also.

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Next set I did, were Burgundy. A lot more fading in the webbing. These got the typical hot bath and a good scrubbing. Sandblasting the mounting tabs and freshened up with dye.
Before and after

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More before and after pics of the Burgundy belts

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Next up are CarmineRed seatbelts. I did these for a friend. I also restored a seat for him. These got the good bath, steel wooded the buckles, sandblasting of the mounts and freshened up with dye. I removed all the plastic sleeves, they were pretty broken and he didn’t want them on there anyways. So here are the before pics, and the seat I did for him.

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And now for the AFTER pics. I also added the before and after of the belts in his truck. He had Blue, but we found a CarmineRed set to restore.

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Another set of Black/Charcoal. Throughly cleaned, sandblasted the mounts.
Before Pics

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After pic. Freshened up with dye.

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These are probably the worst ones I have had so far.

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These pics are just after a good cleaning and prepping, before the dye process. These are also getting new upper anchor covers.

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And AFTER

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These are a set of 87 Black/Characters seatbelts that I restored for someone. Sandblasted the mounts. Had quite a bit of rust on the buckles. So those got a good deal of steel wool and polishing. Had some rivets missing too, so I replaced those.
Before and after

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Next up is a set of 81-87 Blue. Some of these seatbelts I didn’t get before pics, I’ve been so busy, and I just get started on them and forget to get pictures.

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Another set of Black/Charcoal seatbelts. Here are the before pics

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I did cut some of the broken parts off the sleeves. And the GM sticker on the buckles are getting replaced with new ones.

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These here are a set of 73 seatbelts, Charcoal.
Before pics.

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Same process. Throughly clean, sandblast the mounting tab. Freshen up with dye
After pics

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1977 Blue.
Before pics

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After

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1975 Blue. At one time, someone had attempted to spray one of the retractors black. So that one, I had to get all the old dye cleaned off.
Before pics

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These also got new GM buckle stickers.
After

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This is a set of Mahogany seatbelts
Before pics

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And after

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Burgundy. This is another one of those set of seatbelts I didn’t get any before pics on. They really weren’t in bad shape at all. Just needed a good cleaning and freshened up with dye.

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Now these Saddle Tan belts. I really wished I had some before pics. I got these off eBay and I thought I could save those pics, but you can’t. So all I have is after. But these were very filthy and had a black mildew stains all over the webbing. This set of belts are probably the most time I have ever spent cleaning. My Mom even helped out with these. I believe she spent every bit of 2 hrs on the center buckles alone. We were trying different products, trying to get that black mildew stains out of the belts. Well I say we had luck. I ended up spending every bit of 3 hrs on each of the retractors. They turned out great!!

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Another set of CarmineRed seatbelts. I’ll be doing a seat for this guy also.

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what dye did you use and how did you go about dyeing them

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Every time I look at your page, I get the urge to go tear my seatbelts out and send them your way.

You are doing awesome work with these seatbelts (as well as your seats) and I thank you for continuing to update the threads with your latest works of art.

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Thanks for the kind words:metal:
Maybe during the winter months, we can plan on that. I got quite a few to do now. But I really enjoy the Before and After on some of these belts. There’s been a few that I really thought were past any help, lol.

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I use dye that is formulated for fabric & plastic. I get it from USA1 Industries. The key to dyeing success is cleaning and most importantly, prepping.

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please confirm that is carmine red. It looks so more red then the before pictures. Do they fade that bad or is the other red

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UV light is what fades plastics, paint, and cloth. UV has a shorter wavelength than visible light.
Red pigments absorb more of the destructive high energy short wavelength UV light than other colors.

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They actually do fade that bad. The reds are the worst.

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Out of interest, were these belts manufactured by Allied Chemical or Irvin?

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I had just decided to go with the other red for my 78 build (entire interior) because my trim is the color of the belts before your restoration and it looked way out of place next to my current metal dash color I never thought they could be so different in color then the real color. WOW I think I will buy a can of dye and get a better idea of the color first.

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Your 77-78 Red is not Carmine Red. It maybe a different shade, darker maybe, but I have never used the 77-78 Red, so I can’t say for sure. So trying to match my pics up to your interior isn’t the way to go. Anyways, some of the belts that I have done are either 79-80 CarmineRed and 81-83 CarmineRed, even those are different in color. Picture colors always look different on the computer, and verses the lighting. I’m sure your belts and your interior trim is faded, especially after 42 years. I haven’t come across an interior that hasn’t, no matter what the color.
Now if you want your seatbelts restored, I would use your belts and use the 78 Red, especially if that is actually your interior color. Best thing to do also, is if you have a SPID sheet in your glove box or on one of your inner fenders, see what it says your interior color is. A lot of people don’t realize that our trucks have had numerous different shades of reds, blues, tans, grays and greens.

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I don’t have any idea, never paid any attention to who actually manufactured them.

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Those look great. Might have to send you mine when I get to that point

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I bought this truck in pieces. The previous owner says when he bought this truck this is the interior that was in it. All my interior pieces are the very faded red that your seatbelts show. My lower metal dash is a red that matches the outside of my two tone truck (red) which is a great deal a different red then the faded trim pieces. I am sure 78 red is the org interior color . I never had the dash pad or carpet . I am really not trying to match a org color other then I am having my seats recovered in GM Hounds tooth red and black and I want the red to match the rest of my new red interior. that lies the problem. Since I have no idea what the new dash pad and carpet color actually look like until I buy them. If I get them and they are way off next to my seat I will be buying another. I am on my way to the man recovering my seats and get a sample of what colors he is using and then I will try to match to it to any year that is the closest.. Thanks for all the help