Problem finding three point seat belts

[philo_beddoe]

Hey, ever watch mecum or barret jackson auctions or those restoration shows on disc or velocity? How the heck do they get perfect OEM belts every time?!

[LTZ C20]

Muuuuchoooo dollars.

[philo_beddoe]

Yup, that must be it. $$$

[brewster]

Ok so I went to a local junkyard and I found quite a few nice bench seats that got skinnier near the seat belts, but (there's always a but) the latch to allow it to tilt were broken on all of them, there was a little thing on the frame of the seat that spun, and the metal part on the seat itself had some weird thing on it anyways, my question is how can I fix that, did it have a latch to allow the seat to flip forward that broke or is it just free like some of the older chevy bench seats, if anyone has pictures of their latching mechanism on their 1980-1987 chevy truck that would be helpful, thanks

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[LTZ C20]

The latching mechanism is similar if not the same I believe as the late 70's type. It's a hook latch with a door striker type stud. The latch holds the seat in the upright position, pull the little lever up and it releases the latch to tilt forward, fold the seat back to the upright position and it re-latches on its own. All of the parts are bolted on I think so you might be able to take them apart and get enough pieces to make one working seat

I may try to take my seat cover off tonight if we get all out errands done and eat dinner at a reasonable hour.

[brewster]

Ok my bench seat that I have now is like the hook latch and door stiker type, but these didn't look any thing like it, I didn't see a door striker on the nonmoving part and on the moving part it look like a piece of flat metal that was flush with the seat and it had notches cut into it, it was weird

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[LTZ C20]

Well then maybe I was on the wrong track, but to my understanding, the mechanism to allow forward folding of the seat back was the same, no reason to make it over complicated. The setup still works on my seat.

[LTZ C20]

I know this is a bit old, but I figured it would be a good place to add my new stuff. I finally got my hand on a good set of seat belts from a donor truck, i.e. pick and pull. I found a truck at p&p that had a complete, matching set of seat belts.

So these belts are a matching set. They have all of their trim sleeves/covers. The plastic is in very good shape considering the truck I removed them from. I let them soak in a 5 gal bucket of water and professional all purpose cleaner our detail department at work uses and then pressure washed them clean. Now they are soft and fully flexible and they don't stink. All of the buckles and retractors work great. I haven't cleaned the big covers for the driver & passenger retractors yet but I will soon and I have all of the factory mounting hardware. In total, with all the other little pieces I picked up, plus the entry fee to p&p 1 person 1 day and 2 people the second day, I'm into this whole deal for $100 flat.















I also picked up a few random parts. Some bow tie side trim badges, wire loom holders, seat belt B pillar mount covers and 2 very nice vanity mirrors for the sun visors. Both of those came out of 80's trucks, the glass in them was failing so the mirror image on 1 was bad. I went down to the local glass store and had 2 new mirrors cut the shape of the old ones and I put those into the backings. They look great now, just like new. I'm pretty proud of those.







These are GM part #14016671. The old pieces of glass are next too them.

[brewster]

Alright I FINALLY got around to finishing up this project, so kind of a recap I wanted 3 point seat belts in my 1975 truck but I needed a 1980-1987 bench seat because of the curve near the back of the seat. The curve in the back of the seat allows room for the 3 point seat belts, so I got the nicest bench seat from the local junkyard and it was crusty, dusty and blue, which didn't match my tan interior very well, so after driving around with that seat ,with a blanket over it, for about 4 months I finally got my seat reupholstered with my old bench seat material, I got new tan vinyl, but kept the old plaid plastic?? part because it was hard to find and expensive

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[brewster]

This is my reupholstered 1980-1987 seat


This is my seat belt retractor, the color is a great match but I may paint it to match later


As you can see in these photos, on the seat bottom towards the back of the truck, is where the seat itself curves in to make room for the retractor, this is the most important part you need if you want 3 point seat belts in your truck

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[brewster]

The seat from the junkyard was free, and the upholstery on the seat cost me about 300 dollars, the seat belts themselves cost about 200 dollars, the ace warm brown spray paint for the seat side covers costs about 5 dollars , so overall I have about 505 dollars in this project, which may seem like a lot for three point seat belts but it looks great and I won't be complaining about the cost if I were to get into an accident.  If you have any questions about this, please post to this thread or message me I would love to help

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[LTZ C20]

Good job. Good to hear. Looks really nice.

[roundhouse]

It's always a lot of work
Mine is a 75-77 can with the shoulder mounts on the door post
We used a bench from a 82 and belts from a 82-87
But the anchors were no good so we used anchors from a explorer

We gotta nice seat cover on eBay
If you get the slip on seat cover get the two piece kind that has a separate piece for the bottom and the back
 


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[MrFiveOh]

Alot of people dont know this, but there was slight changes in the mounting location for seatbelts in these trucks, I found out the hard way. 73-79 models work in 80-87, but 80-87 model seatbelts dont work in 73-79 cabs. Mounting holes are slightly different between the two cabs. I still looking for belts on my 74.

[Captkaos]

I have/had 1985 3 points in my 1973 truck and ran it that way for years before I tore the truck down.



The seat and the actual belt setup changed.
We sell Retrobelts but had an issue with a set we sold to a customer last.