Seat belts and buckles

[Super28]

Ok, there's got to be a good way to make seat belts and buckles other than Detail Masters! 

 

Help?!

[High octane]

I've been using Detail Master or Model Car Garage seat belt hardware and masking tape painted for my seat belts/shoulder harnesses for a number of years and it seems to work well for me. What exactly are you looking for? Some of the older kits of the 60's had seat belts in them, however they didn't look that good.

[NOBLNG]

A good pair of scissors and a soda can?? I have never made them, but have been tempted to try this.

[kitbash1]

Depending on the scale your working in, Scale Motorsports, Tamiya and Eduard have some very nice belt sets. You can also add medical tape to the list of material you can use for belts.

Edited May 28, 2019 by kitbash1

[Bainford]

3 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

A good pair of scissors and a soda can?? I have never made them, but have been tempted to try this.

Swap the 'good pair of scissors' for jeweller's files and a pair of flat nose pliers, and that's my method. Carve, form, fabricate the chunky bits from Evergreen plastic. Taylor made for whatever project you are working on and better looking than PE.

[Tom Geiger]

Why mess around?  Here's a set of  Model Car Garage photo etched seat belts.  I added a layer of Evergreen plastic to the female ends to give them depth. Then just use a chrome pen around the edges.  I bought three packs of the belts for less than $20 postpaid.

1/16" ribbon.  Got all of this on eBay for less than $10 shipped.

So I spent about $30 and now have a lifetime supply of seat belts.   It's just not worth the effort to play around.

[Super28]

The Detail Master buckles slots are just too small for anything to fit through. The "added plastic" would resolve the "thin" of the buckles. Just a pain to work with. Would like to hear about alternates to Detail Master that would work

[89AKurt]

I've used Detail Master p-e, seemed to be big enough openings.  I got Studio 27 this year, like it but not crazy about the belts having color on one side.  I do have craft ribbon, but it's thicker.

[Scott Vinton]

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 7:05 PM, Tom Geiger said:

Why mess around?  Here's a set of  Model Car Garage photo etched seat belts.  I added a layer of Evergreen plastic to the female ends to give them depth. Then just use a chrome pen around the edges.  I bought three packs of the belts for less than $20 postpaid.

1/16" ribbon.  Got all of this on eBay for less than $10 shipped.

So I spent about $30 and now have a lifetime supply of seat belts.   It's just not worth the effort to play around.

Could you show a couple of "how to" pictures for this?

[DiscoRover007]

I use photo etch for the male ends. But i typically make my seatbelt catches from styrene plastic. I find them to be more realistic in most cases for more modern cars.  Simply sandwich your belt material between two pieces of the plastic, glue and cut to shape, then paint. Of course it all depends on the design of the real cars seatbelts.

[RichCostello]

Hobby Lobby has artist tape in a couple different colors, and widths. The narrowest size looks about right for seat belts. Couple bucks for a small roll. Make buckles with pop cans, or thin sheet plastic and silver marker.

[Tom Geiger]

18 hours ago, Scott Vinton said:

Could you show a couple of "how to" pictures for this?

Brian,  as I get a chance in the next few days, I will do a tutorial for you!  Here's a photo showing the depth I created for the buckle end using scrap Evergreen plastic.  These are in my Dodge A100 pickup.

 

 

But in the meantime, here's a few other ideas..

 

This is the interior of my Jimmy Flintstone Dodge A100 van.  I was intent on getting this one done quickly, so I used photo etched female ends, along with the ribbon I showed above.  For the male end, those were cut off plastic seat belts that were in an older kit.  So those buckles can be saved by simply cutting the seat belt away. 

Interior of my 1930 Ford pickup street rod. Another example of cutting both ends off kit seat belts.  Again using the ribbon.  Note that I purchased the 1/16" wide ribbon on eBay because I couldn't find it locally.  Seems most places have 1/8" and wider.  If indeed you wish to narrow ribbon you have, it will fray like crazy... unless... the trick is to coat the back with white glue and let it dry.  Then it will cut clean with scissors.

Here's an example of those old plastic seat belts that came in early kits.  Today we curse them because they are the source of glue marks on seats we are trying to restore.  But why not save the buckles?

An early interior... 1977 Plymouth Volare front seat  These were done with narrowed ribbon (using the white glue technique) and I made those buckles from scrap plastic.

I have also created seat belts from masking tape.  The trick is to neutralize the sticky side by spraying it with Testors Dullcote.  Then you can cut the tape to the necessary width and paint it any color you wish.

I hope this has helped someone!

 

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Tom Geiger said:

Here's an example of those old plastic seat belts that came in early kits.  Today we curse them because they are the source of glue marks on seats we are trying to restore. 

Oh my yes. Of my carefully assembled collection of original AMT '63-'67 Corvette annuals, the vast majority of them have these stupid seat belts glued in. Some of them can be removed but usually removal leaves permanent damage in the upholstery. And keep in mind that only the '65-'67 roadster kits had separate seats--the '63s and '64s and ALL the coupes (and I believe all the reissues) have the seats molded as part of the interior. 

[Tom Geiger]

 

 

 

31 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

Oh my yes. Of my carefully assembled collection of original AMT '63-'67 Corvette annuals, the vast majority of them have these stupid seat belts glued in. Some of them can be removed but usually removal leaves permanent damage in the upholstery. And keep in mind that only the '65-'67 roadster kits had separate seats--the '63s and '64s and ALL the coupes (and I believe all the reissues) have the seats molded as part of the interior. 

In this case I kept that fur interior intact and actually cleaned and restored it.    And the seat belts were period appropriate so they stayed too! It's in this old Ranchero that I restored. The body was in several pieces when a friend handed it to me in a paper lunch sack!