I have attached a picture of my seat belt trim that has come loose. Has anyone had any experience repairing this??

Is it a PITA to fix?

 

The clips on those things break pretty easily, i broke one of mine and used double sided carpeting tape on it but it eventually fell off. GM still carries those. I don't have a part number but you can find them on ebay every so often.

 

How do you replace it, it the ones in my car are solid does the replacements have a slit in them or what?

 

Hawk's carries them with the slit in them, or they did recently.

 

I just feel that mine is not even broken or anything. The problem with mine looks like the actual hole is too big and it has nothing to hold on. Miight need to make that hole smaller somehow and squash it back in.

 

There are little tangs at the front and rear of the trim piece that lock it into the seat belt assembly. If they are broken, they won't stay in place. Look at the front and rear of them and see if there are any gaps.

 

I had a look at the piece that fell out that I am holding in my hand in the picture and it from what I can see nothing on it is broken.

 

Then it probably wasn't properly attached to the upper seat belt assembly to start with. Once it is attached properly, it is almost a pain to remove it without breaking it.

 

Hmm I had a look up there insde the hole and found nothing that it would hold onto so maybe I am missing the upper piece?

All there is inside the hole is the filling that makes up the t-top liner. No plastic pieces that the trim piece can attach to.

Does anyone have a picture what that piece should look like?

 

Look at the seatbelt, see the little rectangular hole it comes out of and I am not talking about the headliner. Push up on the headliner there and you will see it, it is a black hard plastic that is part of the seatbelt assembly, that is what the trim attaches to.

 

Trickster thanks for your help with my problem I will check out that piece your are talking about and tell you how I go.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Hey Mike, I posted a pic of the piece Trickster is talking about. I'm pointing to it. (Man I really gotta get my interior back in )

 

Cool acecars that picture is good. Now if I can't find that piece there then I am sure the seat belts have been changed because of Australian Standard and maybe they stuffed something up a while back ago. Bad enough having the steering on the Right hand side but there are many other problems also.

I will go check it out if I find that piece I hope I do.

 

Argh just got back from looking at the seat belt trim and I can see what the problem is. When my seatbelt trim fell out it too that black piece you are pointing to with it. So it was attached to it. Have to find a way to attach the black piece somehow to the seat belt as it looks it has broken off.

But the picture did clear things up for me how it all connects together.

Thanks for the help!

Mike

 

Well now I am totally pi$$ed having a look at the seat belt mechanisim in the picture mine is totally different. It does not have the GOLD piece that surrounds the bracket meaning I have no way of attaching the black piece to anything.

No idea how it was holding since I have had the car for 3 years but looks like it was just hanging by the T-TOP filling in between the cloth and body. And with time it has just wiggled out.

I should take some pictures of what mine looks like but it does not look anything like the one in picture.

I bet my other side is exactly the same but am not touching it because so far it is holding. My seat belt also runs from the TOP and not from the bottom like in the picture.

Looks like it has been swapped to meet Australian requirements what a joke! More headaches for me as I just don't see how I am going to get the seat belt trim to hold.

Any ideas??? I will try and post some pictures tomorrow when I get a chance.

I think my only option is to get the seat belt mechanism from the USA and change it back to original form.


Anyone have any for sale like the one in the picture?

 

Hello IroczInoz,

It's not as bad as you think it is. Take a look at the picture mike has in his post. Look near his finger at the gold metal tab that is there. That black plastic piece just slides in there. Put the piece back up there and check the two metal tabs and tighten as needed.

 

Mine looks totally different trickster it is not the original seat belt assembly Will post some pictures.

 

Hey IroczInoz,

I must apologize for my last post, it has been a bad day today and I looked at the picture wrong. What seemed like a gold metal tab there isn't. Take a look at the black piece in the picture and the one in your picture. That should be something like a "U" shaped gap in it. Now look at the area where that black piece sits against the seatbelt assembly. There is a thick area with grooves in it front and back that slide into the assembly from the side. I have an old harness here looking at it now. I would send a picture but I don't a digital camers, maybe Santa will be good to me this year. Last year he gave me a auto x-ray model 6000 scanner.

 

Trickster I know what you are saying but my whole seat belt assembly is totally different it does not look anything like the one in the picture. The one in my car now is not the stock unit and was replaced here in Australia when complience was done.

My only solution is to buy the seat belt assembly from the USA and mount it in my car otherwise I cannot attach my seat belt trim. There is nothing on my seat belt assembly that the black piece will attach to.

 

What part is different?

 

The entire seat belt assembly. It looks totally different I'll post some pictures. The way the trim piece here in Australia was attached was onto the T-top lining! No wonder it came lose. And now I have a big hole.

 

could he have 4th gen belts?

 

Okay I just took 2 pictures and I think from the pictures you can tell the difference from my seat belt assembly and the one posted above.

Not sure why they are different, only thing I can think of is they were either replaced when the original ones stuffed themselves (but that would be uncommon don't think they break too often) or they were changed over to meet Australian rules which would be a crock!

Anyway is it hard to get the assembly out without removing the T-Top trim? I hope it can be done that way as I am not keen on removing the headliner. Maybe I could leverage it around enough to get the seat belt assembly out and another one in.

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

Okay I just took 2 pictures and I think from the pictures you can tell the difference from my seat belt assembly and the one posted above.

Not sure why they are different, only thing I can think of is they were either replaced when the original ones stuffed themselves (but that would be uncommon don't think they break too often) or they were changed over to meet Australian rules which would be a crock!

Anyway is it hard to get the assembly out without removing the T-Top trim? I hope it can be done that way as I am not keen on removing the headliner. Maybe I could leverage it around enough to get the seat belt assembly out and another one in.

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

Is yours a T-TOP or HARD-Top, if a T-Top. I can help you on how to get it out without a large hassle.

 

OOOpppppsssssssss, computer acting up again. Must be it's evil twin skippy running across the hard drive again.

 

Luckily mine is a T-TOP. So how do you suggest I tackle removing the assemblies? Another member of thirdgen replied to my Wanted add with the seat belt assemblies so I might be in business woohoo Hopefully they line up and everything is a smooth operation but they should fit in. As they seem to be lower profile then the one I have in there now.

 

Ok, here we go. Also, and this is just a suggestion here. I assume that you know that long curved piece on the seatbelt trim goes between the headliner and the sail panel. Have you tried removing the sail panel and re-installing that trim piece.

Okay here are the steps for removing the harness without a hassle. In all these steps, it is for the side for that seatbelt only so you don't have to do both sides unless you plan to change both belts.

1. remove t-top on that side.
2. remove small upper trim piece at doorway.
3. remove coathook and sail panel.
4. remove the trim panel at the back edge of the headliner.
5. remove doorsill panel
6. remove rear seat bottom
7. remove lower trim piece where rear seat bottom was..
8. there should be one screw holding that remaining long trim piece to the carframe, remove it but leave trim in place.
9. you should now have enough flexibilty in the trim panel that you can lower the edge of the headliner far enough to get your hand in there with a ratchet and socket to remove the two bolts holding the seatbelt assembly. To give yourself a little more room, I would slide the belt strap out of the headliner thru the slit in it before taking the bolts out. I don't know what size your bolts will be,my bolts were 13MM. Installation is the reverse order. Just be careful of the headliner while doing this.

 

Sounds good trickster as I was in the process of removing the GFX now so most of the parts are undone so I think I will leave it as is and wait for the new seat belt assembly to come and do it all in one shot.

Thanks for the tip looks like it should be straight forward

 

What size are the bolts?