Figured I would give a quick update: The seat belts came out great, nice craftsmanship and color matched quite well. I was able to re-install them beside the bucket seats without removing the seats. Pushed the seats completely forward and flipped them forward. There was just enough room to weasel the seat belt assemblies into the pockets in the frame. First step in a long restoration complete!
I will be getting my passenger belt back later this week. Had to send it back because the shoulder belt was routed incorrectly through the upper clip. Hopefully everything will be correct this time and I can get everything put back together. Sounds like the bucket seats are more forgiving for R/R seat belt retractors. There is really no way to get them out with the bench bolted in place. Will you be replacing carpet? I got mine from Stock Interiors, it was reasonably priced and fit perfectly. I ordered it with the optional additional sound backing and it makes a difference.
Carpet is definitely on the list, but after the 5.0l swap and a paint job. Have to pull the glass to do a headliner as well, so carpet is quite a ways down the road. Even the seats need recovered on this car, the Arizona sun has pretty much baked the life out of the interior. We make up for that of course in that there is virtually no rust on either of the cars I have.
Thats for sure, interior work is much easier than dealing with rust. Sounds like you have a nice project going on there. Mine came from Kansas so no rust there either, these cars are pretty much extinct here in Michigan, just could not hold up to all the salt. I need to pull my glass out also, front to replace windshield due to a deep scratch from the wipers and the rear to replace the seal. I hear that the chrome trim piece can be tricky to remove. Let me know how that goes. I won't be replacing it myself as I will have the body shop that's doing the paint and vinyl top do it, so it would be nice to pass along any hints to them as I am sure they have not done one before.
