70 Camaro Seatbelts?

[KevinW]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
These came out of a 1970 but are dated A 29 69 with one B 31 69.Colour looks right.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just keep in mind that seat belt dates don't decode the as other components. A 29 69 is the 29th week of 1969 (not Jan 29th), and B 31 69 is the 31st week of 69 (not Feb 31st).

[/ QUOTE ]

The first letter denoted manufacturer, for deluxe belts A=General Safety, B=Bay Trim. You would never have mixed manufacturers on 1 car from the factory, so they came from different cars. 69 Camaros used Hamill deluxe, I am not sure who the maker for 70 belts are. But for 69, Bay trim and General safety were used for intermediate and full size cars, not Camaros.

[DarrenX33]

Been doing a heck of a lot of research over this weekend with Mike Stietz from the Gateway Camaro Club. After looking at my car and a few of his survivors.. We have come up with the following...

1970 Camaro belts

Lap belts w/retractors #1007

Shoulder belts both ends are # 1052

Rear belts both ends are # 1912

Deluxe buckles are Hamill

Standard belts are Irvin

I appreciate the offers thus far. I am in contact with someone who has a full set of blue belts for a 70 Camaro. They are restored and will get tags coded to my liking. A lot of $ but its worth it as these belts are 1 year only. And being their blue is even more difficult. The only catch is that he doesn't have the deluxe buckles so I have to go with standard plastic for a while till I can get 6 deluxe buckles then I can switch them over. I am told they are easy to swap out.. True?

Thanks all..

[CamarosRus]

Darren, No doubt Mike Steitz is one of the most knowledgeable 70 Camaro resto guys I know of. Quite frankly I was not up to speed on all the above facts you list.

I think the custom stainless buckles look much better than the black plastic. Please let us know if and how the two types could be swapped out ??????????

[3macs1]

You would never have mixed manufacturers on 1 car from the factory, so they came from different cars.

I agree with everything I have read so far with the exception of this statement. These belts are out of the same car. I found the other blue set last night and they are a different colour.
never say never when it comes to what the factory did especially back in 69 or 70.

[KevinW]

[ QUOTE ]
Been doing a heck of a lot of research over this weekend with Mike Stietz from the Gateway Camaro Club. After looking at my car and a few of his survivors.. We have come up with the following...

1970 Camaro belts

Lap belts w/retractors #1007

Shoulder belts both ends are # 1052

Rear belts both ends are # 1912

Deluxe buckles are Hamill

Standard belts are Irvin

I appreciate the offers thus far. I am in contact with someone who has a full set of blue belts for a 70 Camaro. They are restored and will get tags coded to my liking. A lot of $ but its worth it as these belts are 1 year only. And being their blue is even more difficult. The only catch is that he doesn't have the deluxe buckles so I have to go with standard plastic for a while till I can get 6 deluxe buckles then I can switch them over. I am told they are easy to swap out.. True?

Thanks all..

[/ QUOTE ]

Not easy at all to swap, damn near impossible (unless you have the equipment). lets look at the details

Numbers matching issues
Standard Camaro belts are made by Irvin, the anchor has and I on it and the label has Irvin, a standard model number and a date code that startes with A.

Deluxe Camaro belts are made by Hamill, the anchor has and H on it and the label has Hamill, a deluxe model number (diff from stand.) and a date code that has a E,F, C or possibily D in the middle.

So if you could switch buckles, then the label and anchor no longer match, strike 1

Design differences.
Everything about the buckle is different on Deluxe vs standard. Also the tongue (male) is also different. So any swap would have to include changing the male ends too. Strike 2.

How do you do it?
It is possible to get the standard buckle off the webbing without cutting. The plastic covers in a color are more valuable because the repros only come in black. Unfortunetly the covers are very brittle with age (especially blue) and will crack very easily even if you are careful. There are some tricks to get the covers off so you can remove the buckle from the webbing.

But you cannot remove the deluxe buckle (or male ends) without cutting the threads and re-sewing. This cannot be done using a home machine and using regular thread. It takes a really strong machine and special heavyweight thread (138 bonded nylon). strike 3

either buy the standards and stick with them or buy correct parts to complete your set and have them restored. I just finished up a set of 67 gold deluxes, but I did not have the gold thread, so I had to send them out to another restorer for sewing.

any other questions?

BTW, thanks for the numbers, i will put them on my charts. Do you have the numbers for standards too?

[DarrenX33]

Kevin, excellent info. Hmmm. Looks like the info I received regarding swapping buckles was incorrect. Thanks for saving me a load of headaches. The search continues.

[ QUOTE ]
BTW, thanks for the numbers, i will put them on my charts. Do you have the numbers for standards too?

[/ QUOTE ]
Numbers on standard belts were the same. Just the difference between Irvin and Hamill..

[68l30]

Fyi..The deluxe buckle heads do come off without cutting the belt.......It's just a little harder to seperate the metal cover from the chrome base plate.


Steve

[KevinW]

I was going to post pics of the internals of both deluxe and standard buckles to show you what I mean, but for some reason, I could not login from home. work access is fine, strange.

BTW, I find the deluxe covers easier to get off that the standards. I can pop the deluxe off in 20 secs. It takes around a minute or so after conditioning to get the standards off.