Seat belts in model kits

[pharoah]

I've been thinking about this for a while. How come the model companies never put seat belt buckles in kits? just the latch part. The belts are easy to make out of masking tape or ribbon. The ones in the early AMT kits would have been about 3" thick in reality.  Opinions?

[SfanGoch]

Most kits don't include photo etch parts. So, adding something as small as buckles isn't worth the effort from the kit makers' perspective. There are a bunch of AM sets which do contain seat belt hardware; so, one can always go that route. You can also use some thin aluminum sheet (soda can) and point oh small styrene strip to make your own. A bit tedious; but, it's doable. If you're building a bone-stock pre-1968 American car, don't sweat it. Seat belts weren't mandated until Jan. 1, 1968. you could play it off by explaining that the reason the seat belts aren't visible is because they are where everybody shoved them back then - between the seat cushion and seatback.

[kruleworld]

the problem with the three-point belt is you need to connect to the roof and the floor, which is hard with the way they are assembled with the chassis going into the body during final stages of construction. sure they could just do the lap belt, but that isn't really correct for anything later than 60s.

[Tom Geiger]

Revell of Germany has done a nice three point seat belt in their recent Trabant and VW series.  It mounts down low on the inner door panel and should be in the right place on the B pillar once the interior is in the body.  These are done nice enough that I'd love to get some in resin if a caster was willing.    I've also seen decent belts, like the receiver ends sticking up between bucket seats on newer issues, especially the detailed Japanese kits.

It is possible to replicate the shoulder belt with ribbon. In my Cavalier Security car,  I glued it to the inside of the roof, and once I assembled the car, I grabbed the length with tweezers and glued it down below the line of sight next to the seats.  I have similar belts in my in progress Dodge Caravans.

As you mentioned you can use ribbon for belt material. One tip is that if you are going to cut it to width, the edges will fray. Someone told me to coat the back with white glue, let it dry and then cut for a clean edge.  I use 1/16" wide ribbon. You won't find it in local stores, but it's plentiful on eBay. I bought a lifetime supply for less than $20, getting black, brown, gray and white. The white is good because you can color it to any desired color.

Now look at my fuzzy photo of the interior of my '34 Ford.  You know those huge thick seat belts you find in older American kits?   The buckles are okay on them, but too thick.  So while still attached to the belt, sand the back until you get an acceptable thickness. Paint it silver, then cut it off the belt and glue onto a short length of ribbon.  Works well and you were only gonna toss the kit seat belts anyway.

And you can give your belts some life by placing them in realistic positions. Here's a pair on the bench seat from the 1970 Impala kit, in the interior of my 1965 Chevy pickup. Those are also former kit seat belt buckles.

And here's a pair of seat belts where I whittled the buckles from scrap plastic. Not perfect up close, but they look fine once the interior is inside the model.

I couldn't find any photos where I used the photo etch buckles but I'll offer an observation.  First, the flat  photo etch buckle looks like a paper doll sitting on a seat in a model car.  You need to add some material behind it to give it the proper depth.  I've used scrap Evergreen plastic bits that way and then either BMFed or painted the edges silver.  On the male end,  there is a loop for the belt to pass through. I can't tell you how many times I see these ends just sitting on top of the belt material. You need to pass the belt through that loop! See the above photo for that reference. 

Hope this helps...

Edited September 27, 2015 by Tom Geiger

[Tom Geiger]

I just found a photo of the seat belt material when I was looking for another picture.  I think I remember these rolls being something like $3.50 each on eBay, remember that it's 1/16" wide.  I wasn't successful in finding that locally,  I tried Michaels, Walmart, JoAnne's etc.  

[Snake45]

The belts are molded into the seats on this JoHan Javelin. After I painted the gut white, it was so nice I didn't want to risk screwing it up painting the seat belts, so I cut some black vinyl tape to correct width and used that. I even put a little "kink" in one (left rear) to get a 3D look. The buckles were just painted Testor Chrome Silver.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Snake45

[pharoah]

Very nice ,guys!  I've used PE buckles with good results. Made some from styrene ,too.
Yeah,I can see how the shoulder belts would be a problem.A lot of people back then (60's -70's)  didn't use them,so they stayed above the windows on the headliner.

 

[robertw]

I agree with your concerns. Beat belts & shoulder harness are something I look for in every finished model car and since they must be scratch built I take their presence as a sign of how much extra effort the builder was prepared to go. The crossed plastic ones from the AMT/MPC era were terrible,although I used them back then, and some models today have them engraved into the seats, but they really don't look right. I think the reason that they are not part of current kits is that for belts to look right they must be in scale and made of appropriate material and that makes them easier to scratchbuild then to manufacture in the kit factory.

The last time I was in Hobby Lobby I picked up a couple of rolls of black crepe tape (they had three widths). In the past I've always just cut strips of tamiya tape and painted them but since most belts are black or dark grey I figured this crepe tape might is usefull. P.E. provides hardware and since I build a lot of sports cars, ie bucket seats, I'll make the receivers out of small blocks of plastic with the end painted red for the release button with another piece of plastic or stiff braided wire for the attachment piece to the floor. I do agree that the toughest part is doing the shoulder harness in a hardtop and getting it to attach to the B pillar or roof. Every model seems to present its own problems and solution for this task and it usually involves me having to get stubby fingers, tweezer or tiny stick through the side window and behind a seat to glue something in place. Since most modern shoulder/seat belts hang down to the floor between seat and inner door when not in use I'll often omit the P.E. where it can't be seen. Slightly off topic but I'll often add partially rolled down windows in my models. In the end these little extra things add to the final appearance of the model.

[Matt Bacon]

I tend to use a medical tape with a fine woven texture. It's white, but takes paint or marker pen colours very well. It can be stuck onto lead foil for precise positioning of posable belts, doubled over and sliced into strips to use as a pure fabric belt (handy for supercars where it disappears into an inertia real behind the seat), or stuck onto something slightly springy like thin brass or plastic card when you want to do a standard "B" pillar mount above the tub:

If you bend the spring material outwards slightly, then as the tub goes up into the car, the upper mounts will slide up the B pillar, pressed up against it by the springiness of the belt.

bestest,

M.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Matt Bacon

[Straightliner59]

I would recommend using foil from a wine bottle. Virtually anything with texture,  is going to be too "heavy", texture-wise. As I sit here in the truck, and look across the cab, the belt on the far side of the cab looks smooth. Use something smooth and very malleable,  so you can form it.

[Casey]

2 minutes ago, Straightliner59 said:

I would recommend using foil from a wine bottle. Virtually anything with texture,  is going to be too "heavy", texture-wise. 

Agreed. Better to err toward too fine than too coarse. If the seatbelts look like a braided leather belt, the weave is too coarse.

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

Seatbelt, schmeatbelt... I don't usually bother, I know, I'm getting lazy in my olde age...although, gaffers tape works pretty well for seatbelt material, it's got the weave, it's black and it sticks to the seat-RRR