[TR] TR6 Seat Belt Rebuilding

[akgraves at cox.net]

>  Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:59:32 -0700 (PDT)
>  From: William Brewer <wsb1960tr3a at att.net>
>  Subject: [TR] TR6 Seat Belt Rebuilding
>  To: Triumphs <triumphs at autox.team.net>
>  Message-ID: <920257.87176.qm at web83302.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>       Does anyone know of somewhere where they rebuild original TR6 inertial
>  seat belts back to original spec's? Have any listers just rebuilt their own?
>  Looking for things to do while the car is being repainted.
>       Bill in Tehachapi



Bill,

I rebuilt the seatbelts on my 1976 TR6 a few months ago.  I did it because the driver side belt had worn half through where the latch sits.  I guess that means I've stayed the same size (mostly) these past 33 years.

I contacted Snake-Oyl several years ago but lost interest when they told me how long they would have my belts.  4-6 weeks is too long for a daily driver.

The job was not too difficult.  I bought the belt material at a trim shop and my wife was able to sew it to the anchor & reel.  The tricky part is the spring.  No troubles with the first one, but the spring sprung on the second.  It takes a long time to wind that sucker back up.

I'm fairly happy with the results.  The belt does not retract any better than it used to - in fact the insides were not dirty at all, which surprised me.  Also the inertia mechanism doesn't catch if you're sitting still.  That is, it doesn't catch if the belt is pulled real fast and I think it should.  But if the whole assembly is jiggled, it will catch easily.

I took notes and a lot of pictures of the process which I can send if interested.

Art Graves
1976 Triumph TR6
1985 Jaguar XJ6
Tulsa, OK