PDA

View Full Version : 1969 seat belts and shoulder harness


kevinw
12-20-2017, 04:21 PM
hello. I just got a 69 Malibu 2 door. its at upholstery shop.
anyway, before I took it there, I couldn't figure out how the lap belt connects or to where? there is like to couplers attached but the one for lap belt is near floor and not adjustable

upholstery shop couldn't figure it out either. right side is the same.does anyone know or have pics? thanks!

chevymaher
12-20-2017, 05:51 PM
On the outside of the seat near the doors. The chrome piece. In the center of the seat is the adjustable part. The chrome part snaps in a vynal part with a button in the center to release it. It adjust. I can go down and get pics if needed. Mine are all hanging on the wall still. 68 but they share the same belts as 69.

kevinw
12-20-2017, 08:01 PM
can you send me pic? are you able to connect both the lap belt and shoulder harness? I had a 68 in college, and I remember then I was able to hook up both. but the belts on the right side by the console, only one is long enough for lap, and the other one is not long enough to connect the shoulder harnesss

chevymaher
12-21-2017, 03:58 AM
Believe it or not my picture hosting site is down for maintenance right now. My site storage is filled here. I use post image since photofuckit went Natzi. Maybe in the morning i can post or i can just e mail them to you if they are down to long.

Anyway I just went down and got 3 pics for you. One of the buckle locking part, that is the adjustment. One of the metal part that snaps in. And one of the 2 snapped together.

Sounds like you just don't have a shoulder belt. If you remember they were really long. There was a wire clip on the ceiling for them it went from the back of the door to the clip and 2/3 of the way back to the rear when stored. When you pulled it out that belt went across your chest to the buckle in the middle. The center buckle was the same size as the one for the lap belt.

In a bucket seat car there were 2 buckles for each side in the center. And in a bench there was a third on one side for the center passenger.

I just scored online for you. I found and saved pics of the belt in the storage position. Another where the belt is gone and it shows the wire clips in place and a close up of the clips.

So whenever the post image site is done with maintenance or we e mail whatever your set.

On my car I wont have a shoulder belt. It isn't needed if the car originally didn't have one by law, and in 68 it was optional. Only lap belts for me. My car did not ever have them. There is nothing on the ceiling to attach that stuff to.

But the 68 we had when I grew up had them and listed above is the way it was. It was a new thing back then and i thought they were cool like a race car LOL.

kevinw
12-21-2017, 08:14 AM
i do have a shoulder belt. and I have the two buckles on each side near the console. they are all there, its just the 2 buckles are very short in length, to where I can attach the lap belt, but the shoulder belt does not reach far enough. but my car came with them, with the clips on the roof when not in use. frankly, I am so used to shoulder harnesss in my cars, I really want to be able to use this one. the upholstery shop where the car is at now wont mess with them for their stupid liability concerns. geez . but the two buckles by the console seem so short in length from the floor where they are attached.

Hank70SS
12-22-2017, 09:59 AM
The lap belt retracts into a plastic housing bolted to the floor between the seat and door. If chevymaher doesn't get you some pics I can take some of mine. As far as the shoulder belt? Pretty sure there was an issue, a safety thing, with those back in the day and it was recommended that they not be used. You can get a 3 point belt, shoulder and lap like in todays cars. Believe they use the same mounting points you have. I think that would be a better option.

kevinw
01-10-2018, 10:31 AM
chevymaher, is there a way you can post pics of that lap belt earlier in this thread? still trying to figure this out. I got a seat belt extender at Oreilleys, but it wont work, the male end of the shoulder harness on the car is much wider than what the extender is now.
thanks!

chevymaher
01-10-2018, 03:38 PM
On the right 2. The box is the retractable part. The bottom part goes in the seat and bolts to the floor on the hump behind the seat.

https://s5.postimg.org/bb1nq9tuf/CHEV6872_FR-_FRONT-_REAR-_LAP-_SEAT-_BELTS_MAIN.jpg

kevinw
01-10-2018, 08:09 PM
ok thanks!

kevinw
01-10-2018, 08:10 PM
does the shoulder harness female end "wider" than than the lap belt female end? it appears on my car that it is

chevymaher
01-11-2018, 02:29 AM
One thing I have learned with cars is nothing is written in stone. They did all kinds of things on the same model even. Just depends on what they had at that particular moment in time as they were putting them together.

Which is one of the reasons the purist make me laugh. They were not alive to see them new. But point out how yours is wrong. Uh jeerkweed I know the original owner and this is how it was delivered. But I digress.

When your as old as dirt and these things were new and the family cars of everyone you knew you saw some oddball stuff.

I have seen them both ways back when these things were a dime a dozen. My dads and the 2 I had were not like that. Being 68-69 chevelles. The shoulder would connect to either of the seat parts. But I have driven a few that were like you are describing. Go to belt up and it only worked in one of them.

Made you sit there and think "Am I stupid I cant get the seat belt to work?"