redwingvette

I went the F-body route and they worked great. maybe I should think about selling my original 73 set. They need to be redone but would be good for someone looking for a NCRS car.seatbelt install

JustinGJ

Which ones posted above? I just finished installing the F-body belts in my '76, and they turned out great. I'm not one for obsessing over safety, but I like knowing I have newer technology keeping me safe. The non-retractable, while foolproof, are more expensive, non-OEM in appearance, and less convenient than the F-body belts. I've got $32.00 in my belts, including $22.00 shipped for all 4 belts out of a '95 Trans Am and $10.00 for installing the B pillar loops and re-sewing the belts at the latch. Not OEM, but safe and convenient.

LI76

I'd love to do the F-body in my 76, but I had read it didn't work in a 76. How did you do it?

ddecart

One option is one of the belts from Schroth
http://www.schroth.com/english/container_english.htm
The big problem though is providing a properly reinforced center mounting location for the center-mounted shoulder strap.

gearpig

I have a '76 also and the same question for Justin. Any advice on the install?

JustinGJ

I'll get pics when I can, but my cam isn't very good. You simply remove the old seatbelts, grab your rear seat f-body belts, hog out the hole on the retractor some, I went to 5/8", and have the belts modified for the shoulder strap hanger on the B pillar. I took mine to an upholstry shop and they cut the belt at the floor mounting point, slid the latch off, removed the F-body shoulder strap guide and installed the Vette part. Then they reinstalled the latch and sewed the strap again, I only lost 3-4" max. I have plenty of room, but I'm only 5'11, 180lbs. There appears to be plenty of room to anybody that can fit in one of these cars anyways. I'll try to get some pics, but really there isn't much difference in looks from stock, just the updated latch style and ugly red button on the female end of the latch.

gearpig

Thanks for the reply. You said use the "rear" f-body belts? I'm not having much luck on ebay finding the belts, but when I do, I look forward to seeing some pics if it's not a hassle! Thanks!

carnut114

I use the universal lap belts from ecklers. They were 25$ a seat.
Eric

JustinGJ

Finally got some pics taken of my F-body rear belt setup in my '76. Just for the non-believers out there, it is possible. Sorry about the mess, my battery is fubar'd so I have to keep the cables along.

Vette Gator

I'm another 76 owner with the same seatbelt problem and the F-body solution looks great (thanks for the pics!). At the risk of sounding stupid, where do you buy the F-body belts and what year and model F-body rear belts work well for our sharks?

stingry

I used these guys. The shoulder belt has clips right up tot he OEM lap belt. The retractor looks slightly different but works great. Prices were reasonable.

Frankenvette

I went to one of the F-body online forums, possibly fbody.com, and found many cars being parted out in the classified section. Scored 95 TA belts for $30.00.

JustinGJ

I got mine off of eBay, make sure you do a few searches and compare prices. I searched for Camaro, Firebird, and then Trans Am before finding my set listed for a '95 trans am. I got all 4 belts, front and rear, for $20.00, then spent another $10.00 locally having an upholstery shop sew the webbing up after I had them cut for the factory C3 B pillar loops.

Uncle Ralphy

Jim: Thanks for the link to the andover site. Just what I needed. You provided great info.
Al

tigers123

I am using the f body rear seat belts in a 1974, and yes they do work. I had to use the oem [corvette] latches however and it does not look quite right. The f body latches were on a real short piece of webbing and would not reach around the seat. The latching mechanism works okay, however the f body male part is just a little bit longer and sticks out of the female [corvette] latch. Just remember there is a seat belt guide for the f body car you have to cut off, and you will have to take the webbing out of the male f body buckle, so you can thread it through the hanger on the coupe. You do that by popping the cap off the buckle and gently prying [with two almost closed crescent wrenches]the body of the buckle to get to get the reatainer bar out of the buckle. Then you thread belt through hanger and bolt to floor underneath the seat. Re install latch. Most upholstery places i know will not sew webbing for seat belts because of liability. i would like to lengthen the webbing on the f body receivers, but local upholstery shops I know won't touch them. If anybody has any idea where I can get that done let me know.

Ybnormal

What I did on my 81 belts was buy a 50' roll of seatbelt webbing off ebay, cost me $16.50 shipped to my door. Replaced the webbing along with the original tags and took both assemblies to a local shoe shop and had them sew them just like the originals were sewn for $10. New belts for a total of $26.50 and you can't even tell I replaced them.

YBnormal...drive a vette
www.angelfire.com/al/swhite7/vette.html

JustinGJ

You just need to find a place that will sew them up, keep checking. I walked in, they sewed them up, I handed them a $10.00 bill, and left. No paper evidence, no harm done.

gearpig

Justin, I followed your advice and my 98 camaro rear seat belts just arrived today from an ebay seller. Looks like they'll work perfect, except they're grey. They were only 20 bucks and I couldn't find any black ones.

Anybody know if you can dye the nylon webbing black?

Thanks.