Topic: Restoring seatbelts

[Hipo giddyup]

Does anyone have any tips on re-dying faded seat belts? I have the original seatbelts for my 1964 1/2 coupe but the black coloring has ofcourse faded. Luckily the chrome is in great shape.

[suskeenwiske]

You may have some luck checking with a fabric or upholstery shop.

Ray

[carlizard]

I  had my seatbelts for my 64.5 vert restored by http://www.pythonrestoration.com/.  They are absolutely like brand new.  I've attached a picture that shows a portion of the belts.  I'd do it again with them if ever needed.

[Hipo giddyup]

Thanks for the reply. Since I have performed about 99% of this cars restoration I would like to be able to freshen them up myself but I'm open to other suggestions. I' m only doing the front since this car did not have any rear seat belts. Do you mind if I ask how much it cost you? If this is not something you want to post publicly you could PM me. Also, what was there turn around time? Thanks

[midlife]

I cleaned mine up by soaking in hot water with a good dose of simple green, followed up by a good rinse.  Finally, RIT dye was used to freshen up the color.  Someone way back in 1998 told me about this method on VMF (Speegle?  Turner?).

[69RavenConv]

I cleaned mine up by soaking in hot water with a good dose of simple green, followed up by a good rinse.  Finally, RIT dye was used to freshen up the color.  Someone way back in 1998 told me about this method on VMF (Speegle?  Turner?).

I did something similar but used Woolite instead of simple green. It worked well.

[Hipo giddyup]

That sounds good. Do either of you know the ratio of simple green/ woolite to water?

[69RavenConv]

It's been a while but I'm sure I just followed the directions on the Woolite bottle for hand washing -- maybe a little stronger. Simple green is pretty gentle, I should think the consistency of dishwater would be good?