Cleaning up some seat belts

[glutamodo]

Okay, here's what I've been up to yesterday and today.

A few months ago I put a new headliner in my 62 bug. In doing so I took out the German-style rear shoulder belts. I did not reinstall them, because of two things - 1. they were filthy, and 2. the original plastic sleeves were both busted off, those being the clips that hold the two straps together to keep the adjustment. They died many years ago. I'd move the rears to the front at some point becuase they still had the sleeves on them. But the ones up front are in bad shape - one is broke and the other is getting close to it.

A while back I asked if anyone had any ideas about options for those clips. No suggestions came in.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=316635&

These were in the car when I got it, in 1989. I'd not be surprised if they were installed when the car was new. The car has the optional floor mounts for the seatbelts and I moved my belts down there, becuase solid shoulder belts are unsafe and uncomfortable as hell.

I'd bought a pair of repro seat belts and adapter plugs from WW a while back but those were to be a last resort. I wanted to see if I could continue to use these though.

Then I spotted these things on eBay -

Those things clip-on. And I ought be able to make them work in place of my broken originals. So I bought 2 pair of them.

Next thing though, is are the seat belts even worth saving? They are pretty cool - they just fold together, no latches. One of them has a broken ear on it, but that doesn't affect it's function. Another couple have a little damage to the webbing. But I'm the only occupant in the car 99% of the time anyway.

However, they were filthy. It's been on my to-do list for a while to see if I can't clean those up. I've taken a pail of soapy water out to the car in the past and did the dishrag-swipe/rinse/swipe routine before. But I never got them truly clean. And they needed it bad. So yesterday I took the rest of the belts out of that car and brought them in to clean them up. I knew I'd have to really work on them. This is how it played out.

First, I went and took some pictures. This was the first time I ever realized that one of these belts is longer than the others. I have no idea why. It was also the dirtiest one, as it had been the one I'd been using on the driver's seat.

Before picture (click to enlarge these photos)

Next up-

I got a large stock pot on the stove, got some water near boiling and put these all in, save the one with with the decent plastic sleeve on it. Added some laundry soap and let them soak a few minutes. Put that one with the sleeve on it just for a minute.

Then, drained that pot off into the sink. And rinsed the seat belts. Lots and lots of dirt coming out of these.

Next, I split the pile of belts between two pillowcases, which I tied shut, and threw in the washing machine with some other stuff.

I got them out and looked at them. Better, but not a whole lot.

Here's pics of both sides of them at this point:

Okay, what I did next was another round on the stovetop. Only this time I would first saturate each belt with a compbination of hand cleaner and foaming dish soap, and completely scrubbed the belt with a red Scotch-Brite pad and with a nylon bristle brush. One by one they got done and put on a boil for a while (except the one with good sleeve on it)

Then Rinse and repeat. But only this time I though of something else. Prell Shampoo. Which is the harshest shampoo ever made, I've always kept some around ever since I was a mechanic, because it was the best thing I knew of to get like hypoid and diesel oil and other nasty crud out of your hair. Works good on a stiff bristle brush in the shower to really work on your hands too. So I dug out the Prell. And did the same thing, shampoo on, bristle brush the heck out of both sides, then into the pot. I think I put some bleach in with the detergent this time as well. There was one belt that must have had some kind of pen leak onto it becuase I kept getting purplish colored ink to rise out of it. I worked on that one til it faded a little but I never did get it all out.

Finally, I drained and rinsed everything off. Ran them through the washing machine again as well.

Then, I thought I'd let them sit in some mild solvent for a while. So into a bucket of mineral spirits overnight.

This morning, got them out of the mineral spirits, and then I decided I'd try one more thing. I filled the bucket with rust/lime remover stuff and let them soak in that for a while. And I was still getting some crap out of the belts!

Next, rinse, work in some more dish soap and scrub, then rinse. Being wet it's hard to tell how they'd look. I knew they did look a lot better though at this point. All the various chemicals had tarnished the alumunium latch pieces though, so I got out some #000 steel wool and polished them up. One last round of mostly rinsing, then I let them hang in front of the oven door with it turned on a little ways.

Here's the final result. Front and back.

Oh - and those seatbelt adjuster things. I'd hoped to be able to use a Dremel to carve out enough room to run both webs through the snap-clip section of those and then cut off the slide-in clip. But there's just not enough room, so I'll have to use both sides of those adjusters. It's better than nothing though.

-Andy

[anthracitedub]

I think the dealer seat belts are cool...but the material looks be rather crusty. Im wondering if you could locate raw seat belt material and sew on the old hardware, since it has the VW logo on them. Personally I dont use seat belts in my 62 or 57...they have never had any mounted in them. I figure if your gonna get plowed in your beetle a seat belt isnt going to help you a whole lot...they may keep you in your seat though.
Id probably use the WW seat belts if looks and safety are your main goal.
You could always hang the others up in the garage as ornimental devices.

[glutamodo]

The material isn't too bad, just a burn spot on one and a frayed spot on another. Actually, they are all installed back in the car now. I don't have a garage to decorate them with, anyway!

[anthracitedub]

Yeah, I think you did do a great job restoring your original belts...Ive never seen belts like that...probably what should have been installed in my 62 from the dealer...mine just has large plastic screws to block the holes.

[glutamodo]

I think mine are pretty rare in a US model. At that point of time, I think most VWs in the US got optional seat belts installed by the dealership, and I think VWoA supplied some that they made for them, the more commonly seen latch style, similar to the ones that WW sells now, with the Wolfsburg logo decal on them.

I wish I knew the history of my car... Perhaps it was originally a Tourist Delivery car or something, and that's how it ended up with safety belts like shown in the Owner's Manuals.

[DrDarby]

The '65 I sold this past fall had those belts too, no lap belt just from sholder to the tunnel. They were longer of course as the '65's upper mount is higher.

While we are talking about all this I have a question maybe someone knows. I'll be daily driving a '62 from now on. It has a seatbelt mount as shown above from the owners manual picture that is 1/2 way up the back of the B pillar @ the bottom of the rear side window. I'd like to add modern retractable belts and was going to buy a new set from Mid-America of somebody. Has anyone mounted a set in this configuration and how did they work. What did you do about the lack of lower B pillar mount? I was thinking I could modify the mount a little and mount the retractor to the floor.
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