Front Seat Belt Latch Re-assembly

[Kim in Tulsa]

As you may recall, my husband took apart the front seatbelt latch from my 1970 Beetle and cleaned it. Then, he couldn't put it back together. So over the weekend we both worked on figuring out how it went back together and fixed it. In case this happens to anyone else, here are the instructions on how to put this particular seatbelt latch assembly back together.

Here you can see a view of what it looks like without the long screws in place...there are two circular springs that fits down in the mechanism and the hardware that holds the assembly together.

Next, you can see a view of the long bolts and the tiny bushings that go through the plates.

Here is the order in which the release latch goes on...

First, the plastic plate...see how it fits on the long bolts...

Then the latch with a spring...

Then the metal covering plate.

After doing this on both sides, connect them together with nuts. A needle-nosed plyer is useful.

It was a bit difficult at first because we didn't know what we were doing. Once we figured it out it went pretty easily. It's a bit nitpicky, because those tiny bushings want to move around and drop out while you're trying to run the long bolt through, but if you apply pressure to the plates while running it through, it will squeeze the bushings enough to hold them still.

This is what it looked like, when we pulled the car out of the field. (My husband found the missing white knob in the car, didn't know what it was and threw it in a box of spare parts. I stumbled on it while rummaging around and knew just what it was when I saw it! Woohoo! Lesson learned...don't throw anything away!)

Here I have boxed up both the front and back seat belts with the hardware used to conect them to the car in a baggie. Probably one of the last things I do to the car will be to reinstall these seatbelts...they'll need to be stored well for a while.

_________________
1970 Yukon Yellow Beetle
Check out my online Beetle Diary!
http://kimsbug.blogspot.com/

[Plantman]

Kim, Thanks for posting your re-assembly pictures and directions.
David
_________________
Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day,
No matter where you go, there you are.
'69 bug & '71 Ghia

[Kim in Tulsa]

[Dandingo]

That has to be the most concise instructional post i've ever seen. It must've taken you longer to photoshop everything on the computer than it did actually reassembling the seat belts!

[Kim in Tulsa]

[VW Kaefer]

Brilliant!

[Plantman]

A good lesson for all of us. Take lots of pictures-before, during and after.
David
_________________
Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day,
No matter where you go, there you are.
'69 bug & '71 Ghia