I was looking through the Vette Vues 68-72 Fact Book and saw the shoulder harness option. I just brought my 68 L89 home and was looking the car over and found in the cargo area that there was a seat belt bolt on either side in the lower portion of the wheel well buldge. I pulled the carpet back above the console where the pocket for the shoulder harness buckles would be located and found a couple of screw holes. I'm just wondering if my car might have been equiped with the shoulder harness option. There are no belts in the car right now so I have no idea. I looked in the rear wheelwelll area and can see the reinforcement bracket for the harness bolt. Did all the cars come with this bracket? Maybe some of you guys could check. This was a rare option with only 350 cars being so equipped. The pics show the location of the bolt inside, the reinforcrment bracket in the wheelwell and the screw holes above the center console. Thnks, Mike[IMG][/IMG] [/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

 

[IMG][/IMG] Here's the pic of the screw holes above the center console.

 

My understanding is that in 68 the coupes had the shoulder belts standard and the convertibles had them as an extra cost option (A85). The 350 installations are in the Verts only.
No details on your car, whether it is Coupe or Vert.

 

My 68 vert has the reinforcement bracket, bot no hole on the glass to it. Guess it never had shoulder belts.
The bracket itself was had no hole. Just a semi perforated circle where a 3/8" bolt should go. Not sure if yours is original or added later.
Gary

 

My car is a Coupe. The Vette Vues Fact Book shows the shoulder belt as an option for the convertible only but that is for 69. In 68 they show it as an option for all cars. Don't know if the Fact Book is correct or not. This is what I'm trying to confirm. Thanks, Mike

 

My 69 coupe has mounting plates..don't know what happened to shoulder belts....lap belts are GM....

 

All 68 coupes came standard with shoulder belts
Heres mine

 

"601P" Thanks for the absolutely beautiful posting of those pictures of you 68 belts.

68 owners who might want to install shoulder belts should look at those flat twin "cups" that are used to hold the shoulder belts on the bulkhead behind the driver in the event that the driver/passenger did not want to use their shoulder belts. This "twin cup" retainer is still available from Paragon and Dr Rebuild. I bought a NOS part from Dr. Rebuild. It shows a part number, 3897390, in the left interior pocket and the chaacters 11.081/LEON on the right interior pocket. I bought another "twin cup" retainer from Paragon, and it shows the same internal number imprints. Paragon still list several color options. I don't know if the Doc has these color options.

Also, the NOS part from Dr. Rebuild, very subtly looks better than the Paragon part. Maybe this is my imagination. The Dr. Rebuild part has the mounting holes drilled in the part. The Paragon part doesn't. Also, the wall thicknesses of the NOS part seem thicker than the Paragon part. Anyhow, the Paragon part is really nice and also, I don't think Dr. Rebuild has any NOS parts left. He does sell repro parts (which are plainly indicated in his catalog), which is what I suspect are pretty much the same that Paragon sells (Paragon doesn't generally specify repro/NOS parts).

Anyhow, if you want to put 68 shoulder belts in your 68, you should try to get one of these twin cup retainers.

 

"601P" Thanks for the absolutely beautiful posting of those pictures of you 68 belts.

68 (or 67 C2) owners who might want to install shoulder belts should look at those flat twin "cups" that are used to hold the shoulder belts on the bulkhead behind the driver in the event that the driver/passenger did not want to use their shoulder belts. This "twin cup" retainer is still available from Paragon and Dr Rebuild. I bought a NOS part from Dr. Rebuild. It shows a part number, 3897390, in the left interior pocket and the chaacters 11.081/LEON on the right interior pocket. I bought another "twin cup" retainer from Paragon, and it shows the same internal number imprints. Paragon still list several color options. I don't know if the Doc has these color options.

Also, the NOS part from Dr. Rebuild, very subtly looks better than the Paragon part. Maybe this is my imagination. The Dr. Rebuild part has the mounting holes drilled in the part. The Paragon part doesn't. Also, the wall thicknesses of the NOS part seem thicker than the Paragon part. Anyhow, the Paragon part is really nice and also, I don't think Dr. Rebuild has any NOS parts left. He does sell repro parts (which are plainly indicated in his catalog), which is what I suspect are pretty much the same that Paragon sells (Paragon doesn't generally specify repro/NOS parts).

Anyhow, if you want to put 68 shoulder belts in your 68, you should try to get one of these twin cup retainers.

 

That's the info that I was looking for. Thanks. 601P, Beautiful car, I love the red interior. Are those the original belts? If not, where did you get them? Mike

 

Thanks,


They are original....

 

The rear brackets started to appear on the assembly line in mid-1966 whether the shoulder belts were ordered or not. See pic for location in 1967 body.

As stated above those belts were standard in 1968 coupes and an option for convertibles. Your car had them at some point as the mounting hardware was used. I had to cut through the carpetting to get mine installed.