When I got the Impala, included were some period style seat belt with the chrome latches in a nutmeg color that clashed with the car color. I put then in the front thinking I’d just live them, but my wife hated the buckles, the color, and they’re too long. The front floor had nut plates for them but not the rear, so just the front seats got them. I caved to spousal pressure and got a set of tan ones with the center button release, and have admitted they are much better, and look good. She was right again…
I have some black 3 point belts that came with my Belair. I'm likely going to change them to turquoise to match the seats.
@bobss396 I found some tuquoise/teal chrome lift latch ones for my Buick project online. They are everywhere. I think mine were on eBay, but they are Julianos, IIRC. Even Summit has them.
Julianos and Snake-Oyl are two sources for period style belts, they sell new ones or rehabilitate your old ones with new webbing.
I got Clarence's from Juliano's. Love 'em. They sent color samples ahead of time and I was able to match colors extremely well. Brian, isn't it about time for more pix of your '62?
Look at the buckles closely on the online sites, they are all the SAME. Meaning they all come from a single source, upstream. For my Ford, I went with Wesco. They had the best selection of mounting hardware as well as great prices and good instructions.
I'd love to see pics of what you guys have. I live in deer country and I really like to have seatbelts in my cars, but I prefer something period looking. I run two sets of aircraft style belts in my 57 Chevy and it's kind of a pain buckling a separate lap and shoulder belt.
There's your answer right there. Pick your color Pick your buckle Choose retractable or non-retractable Pay Install Done I can't imagine you could be disappointed.
My 62 Bel Air only has belts in the front outer seating positions (bench), as someone added them later. For some reason the old farmer drilled new holes instead of using the factory locations already there... However, the belts are teal and the interior is fawn (tan). It doesn't exactly look the best. Now with a baby girl I'm going to put belts in all six positions. I personally have never been a fan of belts with the button release in this era of car, simply since I know they're not correct for the era, they're a later development. I'm going with these for my car in tan. Buy once cry once. https://www.julianos.com/Bowtie-Lift-Latch-Lap-Belt-p/jugmb.htm
Her complaint was, beyond the color, she thought the buckles would unlatch catching a sleeve on them. I don’t recall that happening in our experience, but it’s better not to argue the small stuff…
I can see why she would think that. In my 62 with the airplane style I've never had that happen in 21 years. In the cramped quarters of my 46 GMC, I've had it happen a few times, but only right after I buckled because I didn't buckle it properly and the lift part was sticking up. That's actually one of the things that is tested to certify a seatbelt design to FMVSS. It's why the design pictured below doesn't satisfy FMVSS. https://www.julianos.com/Latch-Link-Lap-Belt-p/jurlb.htm
Hello, Perhaps, wives have a knack for this type of thing. The first thing my wife wanted were some seatbelts. The shoulder harness ones were ok, but there was no certified allowable mount inside of our 327 powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery. So, we had some tan bucket seats and so we got some GM tan belts that clicked together. There were not a lot of choices with the click in belts and tan is what we needed. Yes, I was able to cover the GM emblem and they looked stock as plain belts that clicked together. No Ford emblems showing, either… We were given the choice of a simple plain chrome top, but those were the slide in belts and lift the lever to make adjustments or get out of the seat belts. Those were available for all types of cars, but we wanted click in/out for ease of safety. The slide in ones took too much time to get in and out quickly. The key thing were the nuts and bolts that came with the seat belts at the parts department. I knew the guy at the local Chevy dealer parts section and he gave me some advice about the washer provided. The wide washer provided for under the steel floor was large, but the parts department guy said he had some larger/wider ones that were stronger. So place the larger one directly under the floor plate. Then if you wanted, add in the large washer before the lock nut goes on the secure the installation. I got stopped at a CHP auto check point that was popular in those days. they set up in the middle of a stretch of highway without any turns or cross streets. That way, there is no exit if one has some questionable headlights or chassis modifications. The CHP inspector looked at the sedan delivery and thought “gold mine on infractions…” not… he checked everything from headlights/taillights to the interior switches, etc. The one thing he did was to check that we had seat belts and checked the installation. When I told him that I had put on larger/wider washers underneath, he smiled and said that was better than just using the stock washer provided by the seat belt sellers. He smiled and gave me the nice hot rod and you are safety conscious and passed. YES! Jnaki As I drove away, it was a long uphill sloping highway and so, it pushed the throttle a little too much. In the rear view mirror, I could see the inspector look back at me pulling away approaching the sloping roadway. He was smiling… must have been a hot rod guy in his time… YRMV These days, the choices are plenty, as long as you get the "click in" versions. One even retracts...
The Jalopy Journal
