T-TOP TOM

Putting in new carpet and seat covers and would like to make the seat belts look better, can you dye them? Any advise you can share would be very helpful. Thanks, Tom

7T1vette

If the seat belt webbing is faded, I wouldn't recommend it. Dyeing them should be possible, but old/faded seat belts means that they've been in sunlight a LOT; thus, the webbing is probably significantly weakened from UV damage.

It would be more advisable to have the webbing material in your belts replaced. Sending them out to a specialty belt refurbishing place is very expensive. When I first purchased this car, I was in the same situation...I had all the hardware intact, but the webbing was almost trashed. I found some webbing material of the right color and width at a fabric wholesale supply store. I removed the [still assembled] belts from the car and took them and the new material to an upholstery shop so that they could replace the belt webbing.

The process is for them to reel out all the webbing from the retractor and cut the old webbing at a spot (about 6", as I recall) leaving an adequate 'stub' for the new webbing to be sewn to. That 'stub' is still GOOD material, as it has never seen the 'light of day'. The upholstery shop repaired the belts exactly as they were received, but with the new webbing. It only cost me $60 for that work, but that was some years ago. $100 would be a reasonable fee for that work, I think.

Anyway, it worked for me.

palmbeachvette76

Yes you can BUT don't do it, or at least I would strongly discourage it. I work for the seatbelt manufacture who makes replacement Corvette seatbelts sold by almost all of the supporting vendors on this site plus we have a full refurbishing department. We see many belts come in for a webbing replacement after the owners attempt dyeing theirs and they get stiff and the results are normally bad. You'll also run the risk of staining your shirt if the dyed belts get wet from rain or a hot sweaty day.

As 7T1vette said, if your belts are faded then their strength has been compromised plus factor in the age and it's just not safe. Seatbelts are your only line of safety in these older cars so don't compromise your safety.

Eric

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Easy Mike

Yes. Use household RIT dye.

Roco71

The company that Eric works for puts out a incredible product at a very reasonable price. I am very satisfied with the ones I got for my 71.

grumman41

I would be concerned about the solvents in the dye weakening the seat belt strength. As noted by previous post, these belts are pretty old anyway.

Maybe a water based dye for a small improvement? They are pricey, I don't have the budget to have mine rebuilt but will have the webbing done, not a area for me to compromise.

Kevin

7T1vette

Belt webbing is cheap. Seat belt stitching is a normal process used by racing belt manufacturers and can be duplicated by anyone who has a stitching machine and the correct type of thread.

Go whichever route you feel is best for you.

John 65

I tried the rit dye, it worked ok but I wasn't really happy with the results. Finally did what 7T1 vette did, only I went to the local shoe repair place here in town. They had machines there that did the heavy stitching needed to join the two peices. Went there with a small section of good webbing sticking out the end of the retractors secured by a few spring clamps to hold it. It worked out great. Good luck.