Hello. I’m seeking info on seat belt cleaning/refurbishing/restoration. Any tips from your experiences with this are greatly appreciated. My Cougar is a 1967 XR7 GT 4 spd. The car has been stored inside the last 9 years, but prior to that it sat outside for approx 26 years in a city near the ocean. The original owner had lived in another beach community, so car has typical rust issues from that. Cowl is completely destroyed. I’m getting started taking the car apart more to see the extent of repair needed and want to clean up parts during the process. What is the best cleaner to soak the seat belts in to clean/soften them up? Should I soak the entire belt with the buckles on or do the buckles need to be removed? There is also some pitting to the painted surface. Should I try to take off the old paint or just lightly spray some paint on after cleaning? What is the best paint to use for them and best place to purchase the paint? Interior of the car is parchment, but seat belt color looks to be more of a tan. From what I’ve seen on other Cougars I believe this is correct?
What I did was hot water and dawn dish soap, let soak for a bit and take a scrub brush to them, rinse and repeat until clean. Hang to dry worked quite well and I was able to reuse all my belts when originally I thought I should just replace instead
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I did similar. Mine was a smokers car. I soaked the entire belt in warm water. Scary the dirty that came out. With a wet, pliable belt I gently agitated it against itself while soaking with an Oxygen “OXY” based cleaner.
Note that you may loose the white labels stiched to the end of the belts. I did this process a few times until the bucket water wasn’t getting filthy.
I then cleaned the buckles using steel wool for any surface rust. Replaced the unlock jewels and lubed the springs a little with white lithium grease.
Lastly I sprayed on a product called “Odor Eater” and let it soak in.
Me too. I put 1 cup of Oxy Clean in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Let the seat belts soak overnight. The next day rinse them off with a garden hose.
Be very careful when using any of the powdered ‘Oxi-Clean’ type of non-liquid bleaches on metals, ESPECIALLY Aluminium. The oxygen generated ( in water ) is an oxidizing ‘agent’ and when combined with metals ( they are called ‘reducing agents’ ) it will cause a reaction to pit and dissolve the metal, converting it into a solution of the metal, in ion form. Metals affected are ( the order I’ve listed here is increasing reactivity with the Oxi-Clean solution - Copper, Lead, Tin, Nickel, Cobalt, Iron, Zinc, Chromium, Aluminium and Magnesium. ) You will note how many of these metals are used in the manufacture of cars - especially in ‘pot metal’.
Thank you for that information. That answered my question about putting the buckles in to soak. Trying not to ruin or damage parts any more than they might already be. Nice to be able to get input from the members on this site!
Have had zero problems with Oxy Clean. I will continue to use it on seat belts.
Hi Royce. Do you soak the belts with the buckles and other parts on them, or do you just soak the webbing? Also, do the tan belts sound correct for a parchment interior? I believe these are the original belts that came with this car. Thank you for your input!
The whole assembly, buckles included. I remove the attaching hardware and clean those pieces separately or replace them with AMK stuff. After the Oxy Clean bath then sometimes the chrome parts need to be polished, or the button stickers installed if they are missing.
I just got through restoring a set of deluxe 1968 belts this way. They came out really well.
Don Rush of WCCC has a video on seatbelts that shows how incredibly easy it is to disassemble the buckles and unthread the webbing. Then you don’t have to worry about the metal in the buckles. It’s much easier to clean and lube the buckles too.
The Oxy - Clean has zero effect on anything metal so it’s a non - issue.
In a small cup or bottle, mix warm water and mild dish soap in a 1:3 ratio. Make sure that the soap you use does not have bleach or vinegar in it. Otherwise, acids will ruin the belt.