Topic: '70 Mach 1 Deluxe seatbelt w/warning belt color?

[J.Rovirosa]

- '70 Mach 1
- 4 speed and tach
- Deluxe belts w/warning lamp
- 3W (white deluxe) interior

When my father bought this car in the late '80's, the guy he'd bought it from had apparently started restoring/modifying it, so it came with a few things that it probably didn't leave the factory with.  Attempting to gather parts now to switch it back over to the factory 3W interior and am a bit confused about the seatbelt color.  Have had a difficult time finding pictures online of cars with these three options together (3W/tach/Deluxe seatbelt w/bright buckle) and was hoping someone could confirm whether the Deluxe white interior cars had black or white Deluxe, bright buckle seat belts.
(Found a partial set of very dingy Deluxe belts with bright buckles among the parts stash with the car that *might* be white, but of course I'm not completely sure they originally came on this particular car).

[Coralsnake]

That interior was used on 1969 Shelbys

Searching for white interior Shelbys might help

[J_Speegle]

First welcome to the site. Hope you find the support and information you need to complete those concours related projects

First thanks for include some of the details about you car. In the future consider including in every post with a question when and where your car was completed since some details relate directly to a specific production period. Lots of members save themselves typing and time by just including your cars details in your signature. That can be done in your Profile settings found in the toll bar towards the top of every page

- '70 Mach 1
- 4 speed and tach
- Deluxe belts w/warning lamp
- 3W (white deluxe) interior

When my father bought this car in the late '80's, the guy he'd bought it from had apparently started restoring/modifying it, so it came with a few things that it probably didn't leave the factory with.  Attempting to gather parts now to switch it back over to the factory 3W interior and am a bit confused about the seatbelt color.  Have had a difficult time finding pictures online of cars with these three options together (3W/tach/Deluxe seatbelt w/bright buckle) and was hoping someone could confirm whether the Deluxe white interior cars had black or white Deluxe, bright buckle seat belts.
(Found a partial set of very dingy Deluxe belts with bright buckles among the parts stash with the car that *might* be white, but of course I'm not completely sure they originally came on this particular car).

First question is how did you determine that your car was ordered with the "deluxe, bright seat belt" latch covers? Guess it was a Marti report so I'm just checking


For others reading this thread here are two examples

Here is a 1970 NJ built white interior (3W) Mach's Marti report not not showing the deluxe/bright seat belt latch covers. This car originally had black belts and black latch covers as well as boots on the outside belts in the front



Here is a 1970 Dearborn built non-Mach with the deluxe white interior and the Deluxe Belts/Warning Light





Appears that white interior were not popular that year likely since there were so many interior colors and different materials introduced that year. I found a higher percentage of white interior in Boss 429 cars likely due to the bright exterior colors options and trying to find an interior that would go with most of that limited number of exterior colors.

You likely noticed that the vast majority of pictures from Mustangs are of "restored" one both done well and not done well so they typically are not IMHO a good source of answers for many detailed questions we address and discuss here.

So going through my collection of cars I found the following



Only found one example where a white interior car had the deluxe belts (white color and bright latch covers) but that was a restored car unfortunately. That was the car shown in the lower of the two Marti reports posted above. 

The positive thing at this point is that these items are something that can be swapped out with not a lot of effort if you find that the color of the belts are different at some point in the future.  BTW I did check 70 white interior Cougars but that just confused things further. 


69 and 70 Deluxe interiors differed in a number of details but would guess Pete is focusing on belts. If not that's a good discussion for another thread

[Coralsnake]

My apologies, thought he was looking for 1969 stuff 😵‍💫

[hopey]

(Found a partial set of very dingy Deluxe belts with bright buckles among the parts stash with the car that *might* be white, but of course I'm not completely sure they originally came on this particular car).

Worth checking the date code on the seat belt labels to see if the correspond with your vehicle build date. Usually they are pretty close, within a month or so in my experience.

[J.Rovirosa]

That interior was used on 1969 Shelbys

Searching for white interior Shelbys might help

Thanks for the suggestion.  Did a quick search and every one I saw had black belts (with the black camera case buckles) with the white interior.  Learned something new, too...wasn't aware that the '70 Shelbys were leftover '69's.

[J.Rovirosa]

First welcome to the site. Hope you find the support and information you need to complete those concours related projects

First thanks for include some of the details about you car. In the future consider including in every post with a question when and where your car was completed since some details relate directly to a specific production period. Lots of members save themselves typing and time by just including your cars details in your signature. That can be done in your Profile settings found in the toll bar towards the top of every page

First question is how did you determine that your car was ordered with the "deluxe, bright seat belt" latch covers? Guess it was a Marti report so I'm just checking


For others reading this thread here are two examples

Here is a 1970 NJ built white interior (3W) Mach's Marti report not not showing the deluxe/bright seat belt latch covers. This car originally had black belts and black latch covers as well as boots on the outside belts in the front



Here is a 1970 Dearborn built non-Mach with the deluxe white interior and the Deluxe Belts/Warning Light





Appears that white interior were not popular that year likely since there were so many interior colors and different materials introduced that year. I found a higher percentage of white interior in Boss 429 cars likely due to the bright exterior colors options and trying to find an interior that would go with most of that limited number of exterior colors.

You likely noticed that the vast majority of pictures from Mustangs are of "restored" one both done well and not done well so they typically are not IMHO a good source of answers for many detailed questions we address and discuss here.

So going through my collection of cars I found the following



Only found one example where a white interior car had the deluxe belts (white color and bright latch covers) but that was a restored car unfortunately. That was the car shown in the lower of the two Marti reports posted above. 

The positive thing at this point is that these items are something that can be swapped out with not a lot of effort if you find that the color of the belts are different at some point in the future.  BTW I did check 70 white interior Cougars but that just confused things further. 


69 and 70 Deluxe interiors differed in a number of details but would guess Pete is focusing on belts. If not that's a good discussion for another thread

Thanks for the reply.  I'm working off the Marti report for the car that lists the Deluxe belts with warning light, but will probably invest in the repro window sticker.  Will also try to fill in the details of the car in my profile.

I'll preface this by saying that this is my understanding of the different belts offered in these cars, so please correct me if I'm misinformed:

- standard belts (black camera case buckles with black trim ring)

- Deluxe belts (black camera case buckles with bright trim ring)

- Deluxe belts w/warning light (bright buckles, dash-mounted warning light on cars with a tachometer)

- coupes and fastbacks had larger buckles in the rear seats, convertibles had the large buckles front and back

After posting this, I've found pictures of "restored" cars for sale with Marti reports and they all have had black belts with the 3W interior, but none listed the Deluxe belts with warning and most of haven't been 100% concourse restorations since a lot deviate from their Marti reports in one way or another (color changes, for instance).  I did find photos of an unrestored Mach with the white interior and white belts, but this car of course had no Marti report and I couldn't tell if they were Deluxe belts.  Photos of an unrestored low mile Boss 429 showed black Deluxe "warning light" belts with the white (but not 3W) interior, so I'm probably going to just go with that as reference. 

Bought a complete set of dark green Deluxe belts off a '70 Cougar that I'll have rewebbed in black, SEM color coat the plastic black, and call it good, since finding decent white plastic for these things at this point will be next to impossible.  Car will have its original color and interior, but will also have some Day 2, period-correct performance mods, so it doesn't absolutely have to be 100% correct.

[J.Rovirosa]

Worth checking the date code on the seat belt labels to see if the correspond with your vehicle build date. Usually they are pretty close, within a month or so in my experience.

Thanks for the info...I'll have to see if the tags are still even there on what remains.

[J_Speegle]

Thanks for the info...I'll have to see if the tags are still even there on what remains.

Remember there was a recall the 70 production year with the seat belts so the ones in many cars are not the originals as they came down the assembly line

[J.Rovirosa]

Remember there was a recall the 70 production year with the seat belts so the ones in many cars are not the originals as they came down the assembly line

Also wasn't aware of this...thanks for the heads-up.

[midlife]

What was the reason for the seat belt recall?  This is the first I've heard of it, but my knowledge of the 70 is somewhat limited...

[J_Speegle]

What was the reason for the seat belt recall?  This is the first I've heard of it, but my knowledge of the 70 is somewhat limited...

It's mention in the Decoding Date Code article in the Library on pg 40 Doesn't go into allot of detail since the article is focused on date codes not the recall. Will have to dig out the TSB or reference I have

[67convt]

I have an unrestored 70 Mach 1 428 car with C6, tach, A/C, convenience group, deluxe belts/warning light, 3W interior and other options - everything in the car matches the Marti report.  Exterior color is grabber blue.  The car was built in Metuchen and completed on 21 Oct 1969.  The seats are still in great shape with no rips or tears.  The seat belts in the car are white.  The seatbelt tags are still all in place on the belts and are dated (if I recall correctly) Aug 1969.

Dana

[JohnB]

I have an unrestored 70 Mach 1 428 car with C6, tach, A/C, convenience group, deluxe belts/warning light, 3W interior and other options - everything in the car matches the Marti report.  Exterior color is grabber blue.  The car was built in Metuchen and completed on 21 Oct 1969.  The seats are still in great shape with no rips or tears.  The seat belts in the car are white.  The seatbelt tags are still all in place on the belts and are dated (if I recall correctly) Aug 1969.

Dana

Pictures?

[specialed]

Have seen many white int. 70 b9s with tan not white (as i dont think ford made white seat belts 69-70 era anyway).  The MPC is confusing about seat belt colors on white interior as the codes vary depending on the deluxe vs plain intieror and deluxe belts are a separate option with seat belt warning option included. They also call the light colored seat belts beige color. All 69 white interior cars had black belts but 70 was different and seen many restored  white interior 70 cars with black belts but i think restorers thought that was correct as in 69.  We had a 4800 mile 70 white interior b9 in shop back years ago and rear seat belts were tan (biege) and fronts were black and had 70 white interior b9s that had all belts tan but remember all b9s had the deluxe seat belt option. There are brownish gold colored seat belts also but the light tan belts i think people think they are dirty stained  white belts but they are a light tan colored not white originally anyway. Got a  rare orange white int 70 b9 in shop that was missing interior and now has repo white interior with black belts but i think the restorer put black belts in thinking they were correct but not sure which color is correct now. Also the first 160  1970 b9s had full deluxe interior with deluxe doorpanels and wood radio faceplate then the reat of 70 b9s didnt have deluxe doorpanels and had black radio faceplate but the rest of interior stayed deluxe and the code was different so this gets confusing and was told ford was running short on 70 deluxe doorpanels that were on all mach1s so they quit installing them in the boss cars since all mach1s had full deluxe interior of which dont make sense since boss 429s were a more expensive car so does anybody know any more info on seat belts or doorpanels in these 70 cars?