i have an 88 stang with 2004 seats. i am replacing the carpet and i cant get the bolt out of the passenger side seat belt buckle. i am considering getting 2004 belts so that i can use the buckles that came on the seats. anyone have any idea if they will bolt in?
I have 2002 seats, and I'll probably bolt the buckle onto the seat.
I don't yet know if it will fit, though.
I'm currently using one I ordered from www.AutoPartsWarehouse.com, which looks a lot like the GotBelts one. The AutoPartsWarehouse one fit, but the buckle fit only on the tranny tunnel, not on the seat, because the eyelet was too small for the seat bolt. However, the buckle is too long (14 inches), and it's upside down when installed on the tranny tunnel (the buckle cable has a weird bend near the eyelet, so it can only be installed one way), so I ordered the one from www.GotBelts.com.
The GotBelts one has a buckle that looks like it'll probably fit on the seat, because the eyelet looks bigger on the 9-inch buckle, and it looks like it probably doesn't have the weird bend that my current one has (my current buckle resembles the 12-inch buckle at GotBelts). However, I have no idea whether the other parts will fit, although I'm guessing that they probably will.
I have no idea whether the safety (will it fail during a crash?) is as good as a Ford belt. But at least, the one I currently have, retracts nicely. I'm guessing that the new one will also retract nicely, because it's not a Ford belt.
By the way, if anyone knows of an aftermarket lap-and-shoulder belt (3-point?) that is known to be safe, I'd be interested in hearing about it. I couldn't find much info, regarding the safety of various aftermarket 3-point belts.
You can use newer seat belts, I did when i swapped in some 03 Cobra seats.
I was able to simply bolt the passenger side in after bending some tabs to get the right angle. However, I couldn't get the driver's side to work correctly.
So... I put the 03 buckle on the 91 seat belt. I had to cut the threads on the end of the belt and then resew them with nylon thread. Don't worry, i promise it will be strong enough, I resewed some car hauler tie down straps in the same manner and they held firm.
Also, i painted the orginal belt with black vinyl spray (original grey) and it looks very good. It almost exactly matches the charcoal of the 03 belt and it has lasted for several months with no fading and nothing rubbing off.
Update: I received and installed the seat belt from www.GotBelts.com, on the driver side.
I didn't realize it, but the kit only comes with 1 seat belt. So I just ordered a 2nd kit, for the passenger side.
It fit quite well. However, the buckle loop is too small to buckle to the seat bolt. It looks like it would probably be okay to use a dremel to widen the buckle loop hole a little bit, to get it to fit. However, I decided to simply use the bolt in the tranny tunnel.
It retracts quickly, and it snaps into rigidity when I pull hard on the belt.