Combo lap belt-shoulder belt restoration conundrum

I still think this Smooth-on product would be excellent, but would take some work. You could make several bushings out of sulfur free clay. Then made a mold from that, from there you could use the product pictured to make the actual bushing. You could even dye it white if you wanted to.

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Ok..... here you go. Here’s what I did and it works just like the original. And you really have to look to see it.

I’ve got a 73 road runner that had the seat belt clips fail (turn to dust actually). Luckily, the belts in my 73 T&C were in great shape. So, I was able to see how they are supposed to work.

The first thing you need to know is that the original bushing is oversized for the peg by about a total of 1/8 inch. Second thing is that the originals were pretty soft plastic. It was meant to flex to allow engagement. Once you know that, the solution is readily at hand.

I went to ACE and got some nylon bushing spacers in the hardware section that were more or less the size of the hole that the peg slips into when fully engaged. Then I cut one down to the size I needed between the plate and bottom of the peg’s underside. I then took an exacto and split it at 45 degrees off the radius to allow it to slide closed as I squeezed it. Using the exacto, I started shaving the split in the rings I made until it would deform almost enough to make it through the narrowing of the slot the pin must engage (about 1/8”) with enough friction to let me know it was still squeezing and deforming the ring. Then, using the pin itself as a wedge, I pushed the ring on. The first one took a couple of tries but the second one was a snap (pun intended).

Bingo.... I got the old click back and it stopped falling out.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures but I did it about 5 years ago never thinking I would post it here.

I can see buying slightly oversized nylon bushings and machining them to get the lower and upper lip meant to limit contact of the two metal pieces.... but that’s an older and more patient me.
 
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