Topic: Deluxe Seat Belts

[Deuce]

The hand-written order invoice for my '67 coupe shows "DELUX BELTS" on the options list order for the car.  The original window sticker doesn't list the Deluxe Belt option.  The belts are still in the car; below are a couple of photos.  I'm guessing these belts were dealer installed?  Front seat belts only, no rear seat belts.

I've seen some discussion in this forum that the factory was installing seat belts during the period this car was built, December 1966. 

[67gtasanjose]

PLEASE WAIT for other input from other members but my understanding is for ALL Domestically sold 67 Mustangs (and all cars sold in the USA) were equipped with front & rear lap belts STANDARD. (optional shoulder belt or optional DELUXE belt) My understanding is that the STANDARD belts had a colored clamshell style, flip-to-release reciever and the deluxe were a push-botton release plus also had the seatbelt warning lamp below the ignition switch or in the Convenience Control panel if it had that option too.

I do not know anything about a "Seat belt delete" option, but possibly that could explain it?

What I see in the pictures, looks more like a "dealer install" style or in other words, an over-the-counter belt. It makes no sense to me they needed to ADD SEAT BELTS onto a 67 Mustang destined for sale within the good old USA (or Canada?)

Please, Others who may respond, I am teachable but this one is NEW going by my experience.

Richard

[67gta289]

ALL Domestically sold 67 Mustangs (and all cars sold in the USA) were equipped with front & rear lap belts STANDARD.

I agree with that statement.

optional shoulder belt or optional DELUXE belt

Agreed

STANDARD belts had a colored clamshell style, flip-to-release reciever and the deluxe were a push-botton release plus also had the seatbelt warning lamp below the ignition switch or in the Convenience Control panel if it had that option too.

Three for three.

I would ask four things:

1. A picture of the invoice (with VIN , name, address redacted if desired)
2. A picture of the Marti report (same comment as above)
3. A picture of the "top" of the seat belt (latching part) to confirm if they are standard or deluxe, and hopefully to tell if they are the correct application
4. Information on if/how the rear seat belt holes are covered (bolt or other)

[67gtasanjose]

First, The belt is definitely NOT the deluxe style belt for a 12/'66 production date Mustang. That much is clear. The dates (tag & stampings) look to be off by several months when comparing my 11/2/66 deluxe set to it. My original belts only preceded the build date by several weeks, not months (if that much) I suppose it is like apples/oranges since the O.P.'s are not Deluxe. The dates do at least precede the build date. The date tag indicates the belts were assembled 45th week '66, which is consistent to about a month ahead of the cars actual build date. The 7-66 date on the chrome buckle would indicate when the metal was stamped, not the final date of the subassembly (seatbelt assembly)

First, I thought it may be an Export of sorts but it looks like the O.P. has a 1967 C-code vinyl Hardtop, C-4, AC, PS, T/E; San Jose Dec 6 1966, DSO 71, (copied from his profile.)

(Edited 4/12/15 after rereading and reviewing the post and images)

[67gta289]

Good points Richard.  Safe to say that all four belts should be there.  The only question is did the "DELUX BELTS" option listed on the order invoice translate to a car delivered with that option.  Most likely yes.  The Marti or similar Ford report should tell.

I hate to ask, but since this is an original owner (family) car, but since it could be pretty well unmolested as well (thermactor system still installed based on a different post), could the rear belts be simply pushed down behind/below the seats?

[Paperback Writer]

Not to get too far off topic, but this is rather interesting…

The Marti Report for my ’67 Convertible (9/22/1966 SJ build) doesn't list the Deluxe Seat Belt option – however the car had the deluxe seat belts (and the under-dash warning light as well) when I bought it in January 1983.  The date codes on the belt labels were between 29-66 through 32-66, which if I’m decoding the dates correctly corresponds to a mid-July to mid-August 1966 time-frame – and that lines up perfectly with the Sept. 22, 1966 build date of the car.  So, I’m about 99.9% sure that these seat belts are original to the car…

So why no mention of them on the Marti Report?  I decided to check the order sheets to see how a customer would have selected the Deluxe Seat Belt option, and was surprised to find that the option wasn't listed on the early (June, 1966) version of the order form, but it was included in the later version of the order form that came out in November 1966…

My car did have the Deluxe Interior option as well, so maybe that’s how the early cars got the Deluxe Seat Belts – there doesn't seem to be any other way to order them!

[Deuce]

Good call!  As soon as I posted I thought I should have checked under the rear seat. Sure enough the seat belts are there, hiding from view for decades.  Rear belts have same date code, and are black with black camera case flip-up release buckles same as front.  I will assume these were installed when the car was built and are not the Deluxe belt option.

Thanks,

[67gta289]

Deuce,  that's good.  Now if you find that roll of $100 bills under the seat cut me in for a slice

As for type - the standard belt had a "flip open" style release, whereas the deluxe had a pushbutton.

[67gta289]

The Marti Report for my ’67 Convertible (9/22/1966 SJ build) doesn't list the Deluxe Seat Belt option  ...  So, I’m about 99.9% sure that these seat belts are original to the car…

So why no mention of them on the Marti Report?  I decided to check the order sheets to see how a customer would have selected the Deluxe Seat Belt option, and was surprised to find that the option wasn't listed on the early (June, 1966) version of the order form, but it was included in the later version of the order form that came out in November 1966…

My car did have the Deluxe Interior option as well, so maybe that’s how the early cars got the Deluxe Seat Belts – there doesn't seem to be any other way to order them!

Based on what you posted, I would make the same conclusion that they are probably original equipment.  My Dec 20 car has interior decor, but standard belts.  By then they were clearly separate options.   If you did not order a deluxe interior, how would you order deluxe belts? 

Time to check other cars.

Looking through some documents I have, I found a Nov 3 built Dearborn car with the deluxe belts called out on the Ford window sticker.  I also found an Oct 18 built SJ car with the deluxe belt option specified in the Marti report.  Next was a Sept 9 SJ car with interior decor and shoulder harness - no deluxe belt listed - but unfortunately the interior pictures I have don't show the belts.  Found an Oct 10 SJ car with deluxe belts on the Marti.

Bingo - found an Aug 22 SJ car with the trifecta - interior decor, deluxe belts, and shoulder harness.  This effectively kills the assumption.

At this point I go back to a dealer change.  If done at the time of dealer prep, the proper date coded belts would make some sense.

[Hipo giddyup]

 Very interesting topic and I always learn so much!! My  Nov. 17th,  66' built Metuchen coupe has the deluxe belts with warning light but not deluxe interior. The car has been this way since my family has owned it, 1979. Curious now if the later option list started the first of Nov. for this addition to show on my car's Marti report?? I will check my build sheet tonight and see if i can get a pic of that evidence. So other early Nov. cars must also list this on their Marti report.?

[67gtasanjose]

For anyone tracking data about this...My ELITE Marti report DOES call out for the deluxe seat belts option seperate from the interior decor group. Scheduled build date in San Jose of NOV 1, 1966, actual build date NOV 2, 1966. DSO 71, Los Angeles ordering district. You may wish to include the DSO for statistics too, it could also weigh into the results. For whatever else it is worth, my original set were Ivey Gold, Hamill & the belt's date codes tags were oldest being 39-66 thru something like 42-66 (could be 41-66, I cannot remember right now but not beyond 42-66 I am sure) Statistically speaking, January 1, 1966 was on a Saturday. Using Jan 1 as week#1, then week #39 (my oldest date code) would put it at October 1st. If the date code deciphering begins instead on the first Sunday, then the oldest date possible becomes September 25th for the oldest possible belt date code on my Deluxe seat belt set. TRANSLATION: My Deluxe seat belts were installed roughly one month after they were produced on my SJ example. This is simply "My example" and the date codes were NOT all from the same week most likely because of the vat they were in on the manufacturer's floor and eventually the assembly line. I feel confident in saying popular COLORS will change how fast a vat would be emptied/ordered. My guess is a BLACK color is the most popular color used, followed closely by Ivey Gold, then Dark Blue, I would say on the less popular colors (Red etc.) the dates could be further off.

NOW it gets really complicated...THERE WERE TWO known SUPPLIERS to Ford for Seatbelts in 67...Hamill & Robbins...GOOD LUCK ON THIS RESEARCH! Far too many variables here I think! It would be nice to know the root of when, where and why on the differences but until more original examples are KNOWN to be correct for any given example...about all I can assure you of is that my example was under a month from the assembly of the seatbelts as a sub-assembly to the actual build date of the vehicle they were installed onto.

[Paperback Writer]

Looking through some documents I have, I found a Nov 3 built Dearborn car with the deluxe belts called out on the Ford window sticker.  I also found an Oct 18 built SJ car with the deluxe belt option specified in the Marti report.  Next was a Sept 9 SJ car with interior decor and shoulder harness - no deluxe belt listed - but unfortunately the interior pictures I have don't show the belts.  Found an Oct 10 SJ car with deluxe belts on the Marti.

Bingo - found an Aug 22 SJ car with the trifecta - interior decor, deluxe belts, and shoulder harness.  This effectively kills the assumption.

Ahh - Good thinking John!

I searched through my own digital Marti Report collection and found 6 cars all built before November 1, 1966 with Deluxe Seat Belts.  Attached below are copies of the three earliest cars (I believe the first one is your "trifecta" car, and the second car was built at SJ just 8 days after mine).  So yeah, my theory about these being included with the Deluxe Interior option is shot...

But now the question becomes:  How were these cars ordered if there wasn't any box for the dealers to check-off on the order form?

[WT8095]

Has anyone asked Kevin Marti how the deluxe seatbelt data is coded into the database? There may be a straightforward answer that could eliminate the need to reverse engineer his reports.

[Paperback Writer]

Has anyone asked Kevin Marti how the deluxe seatbelt data is coded into the database?

Actually, I did - sort of...

Shortly after I received my Deluxe Report from him in 2002, I asked him what all of the codes in my car's VOI corresponded to.  He said they were proprietary to Ford, and he couldn't divulge them - hence the start of my "reverse engineering" project...

However, if you have the Mustang order sheets, it's not too difficult to figure out most of the VOI codes.  As shown in my posting yesterday, the seat belt and shoulder harness are under section 61 on the order sheets, and are called-out in column 61 of the VOI on the Marti Reports:

          4 = Deluxe Seat Belts
          D = Deluxe Seat Belts with Shoulder Harness
          H = Shoulder Harness

[Deuce]

This thread has been very helpful to better understand what seat belts were available. 

Just for the fun of it, attached are the original handwritten order and contract for my car, VIN 7R01C147xxx.  Although written into the order, the Deluxe Belts aren't on the car (nor is it listed on the window sticker) and the standard flip-open black belts are installed.

Also, I am not sure what "R. Moulding" refers to in the hand-written order.  The wheel well trim (moulding?) is on the car, always has been, but it's not listed on the window sticker.  Perhaps a dealer installed part.