to start, my seat belts dont retract and i cant move them fast enough by hand to get them to lock. so i dont know if they would help in an accident. i have been looking into the 4th gen seatbelt swap but i am a little worried about pulling out my headliner. i understand that you have to pull out all plastic, and should pull out the headliner. i am worried about breaking the clips that hold the headliner in place. my headliner is in great shape so i dont want to destroy it. any hints on how to remove the headliner with out breaking it or how to replace the front seatbelts without removing the headliner.

 

it's impossible to replace the upper retractors without removing the headliner. The clips that are most likely to break are in the front of the headliner just above the rearview mirror. Replacement plastic clips are available from GM, so you aren't totally out of luck if they break. In fact, if they don't want to pull out easily, you're better off cutting them than to allow the metal clip holder to tear out of the headliner board itself. That happened to me and it was a pain. It's much easier to replace plastic clips. You'll also be fighting plastic clips in your a-pillar trim. My best advice is to take it slow and methodically.

I'm sure there's a good write-up somewhere on the site for the procedure and order of removal, but if you can't find one let me know and I'll write up a step-by-step.

 

thanks alot jeremy. i was thinking that the plastic clips that could break were in the headline it self and could rip out.