Original Seatbelt Webbing

[Evante]

Hi All,

I tried searching this site and the web but could not find what I was looking for so I am turning y’all with my question.

Does anyone know where to purchase webbing that is or is close to original for an Elan Sprint with nonretractable seat belts. All of my hardware is in good shape so I just want to replace the webbing.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Jay Supnick

[Harvey]

Jay,

These people did a nice job rewetting my OE Kangol belts.https://www.safetyrestore.com/webbing-r ... olor-black

Lee

[ericbushby]

Hi Jay,
When making up a pair of Kangol Magnet seatbelts to replace the modern ones that had been fitted in my car, I obtained some webbing from the scrapyard.
I chose the rear seat belts from a high mileage Ford Mondeo which in the UK was the standard salesman`s car.
They may not have been used at all.
When I told the yard owner what I wanted them for, he gave them to me. They were just junk to him.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

[pharriso]

Try FTDS in the UK (http://fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/Index.html or Andover Restraints (https://www.andoauto.com/ARW-Index.htm) in the US.

Original webbing was 3" 4 or 5 panel.

[h20hamelan]

I am sure like anything else, the stitching is the important part.
Any seamstress or tailor will be sufficient.
The internal spring (s) etc will take some fiddling.

[Evante]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I was able to find some webbing on ebay that was originally intended for Kangol seatbelts for Mercedes. Their pattern was almost identical to the 4 row 4 panel belts that came with the car. I am having an excellent custom automotive apholsterer do up my old belts as he is now in the process of recovering my seats in leather.

Have a happy New Year to you all!

Jay

[Lotus 50]

I am a retired seat belt engineer/manager. Any random upholstery shop will not be able to sew your seat belts properly. The type of thread, number of stitches, and thread tension are all important for strength. A restoration shop that I worked with once re-sewed some buckles for me. I had the buckles tensile tested. Not good enough. There are specialty shops that will re-web old seat belts. Pick one that has experience with your vehicle's retractors.

Most old US retractors are simple to re-web. My experience with English retractors was different. The original seat belt webbing in my Plus 2 was faded and very stiff by the early 2000's. I removed the seat belts and thought about re-webbing them myself. The retractors were from the Irvin parachute company and were quite different from what were sold in the US in that era. I could not figure out how to re-web the retractors and had replacement modern retractors fabricated in my employer's prototype shop. Replacing the old retractors might be necessary with some designs.

https://www.seatbeltplanet.com/p-35843- ... rvice.html
https://www.safetyrestore.com/webbing-r ... olor-black
http://fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/Services.htm

It might not matter, but in the 1960's seat belt webbing was nylon. Some time in the early 80's, webbing changed to polyester. So if you do re-web your belts, the material will be different. Nylon has a lot more elongation (elasticity) than polyester. It's not as if anyone did crash testing to optimize belt performance in the 1960s so the material change did not matter to me.