I have the original shoulder harness belts in my 69. I replaced the lap belts last year. The problem I am having is the material on the shoulder belt is kinda limp (compared to the lap belt) so when it retracts it folds over and jams the retractor from time to time. Can I put some sort of sizing or starch on them? These are unique to 69 so other harnesses are not an option for me. :chevy

 

Can you please post a pic of those factory 69 shoulder belts?
Thanks

 

O.K. But it may take a day or so... Camera battery is dead and won't take a charge right now. :cool:

 

Give http://www.ssnake-oyl.com a call.

 

The material that GM used for your shoulder harness webbing was thinner and more pliable than the webbing used for the lap belts. I'm willing to bet that this material difference along 30+ years of age have something to do with the current condition of your belts. The shoulder harness retraction system for those cars with seperate shoulder and lap belts wasn't all that great anyway... Even if you were able to "stiffen" the shoulder harness belts somehow, you might not achieve the result you hope for.

GM used this thinner shoulder harness webbing for a couple of reasons. First, it had to roll up smoothly and not put any drag on the retractor, something stiff webbing is going to hinder to a degree (and why I would suggest not trying to make them more stiff). Second, the thinner shoulder harness webbing allowed the shoulder belts to be longer within the space limitations of the retractor than if GM had used lap belt webbing.

I am unaware of any vendor who has access to new shoulder harness webbing that is close to the original material; the ones that I know that do reweb the shoulder harnesses use the lap belt (or similar) webbing... The result when it is restored this way is a shorter, stiffer shoulder harness belt.

If you have your originals, I'd be inclined to clean them up and leave them as is.

Regards,

 

Here's mine before I took it out last week:



My lap belts are at ssnake-oyl being rebuilt at the moment.


[Modified by Steve Straus, 3:07 AM 3/13/2002]

 

Thanks guys... Mine are the originals. I had one original lap belt but the driver's side was history. I got my lap belts from Sunwest at a show before all of the trouble with them began. There is one place on the driver's shoulder belt that doubles over on itself as it retracts but I guess I will just leave it alone.



[Modified by silvervetteman, 4:40 AM 3/13/2002]