I'm looking to restore some life to the back seat belts of my 69 Cutlass S. I've heard that soaking the belts in Tide, rinsing thoroughly and let air dry is the way to go.

Question for the forum: Do I want to avoid soaking the buckles? Common sense tells me to keep them out of the soaking process, but I wanted to see what other people have done to clean belts up.

Thanks in advance!
Ken

 

Good question. I would like to know as well.

Chris

 

I put mine in the bathtub(never plugged the drain at any time) and sprayed the belts with Shout, the laundry stain remover, and let them soak for about 30 minutes. Then, using a plastic bristled brush and water (but keeping buckle out of water) scrubbed them good. Amazing difference. Tub water was almost black as it ran down the drain from all of the years of dirt etc.

 

Any strong detergent should do it.

As for the buckles, just move them along the belt from time to time, so as not to leave kinks or rust spots on the belts as they dry. Believe me, in forty years, they've goten wet before.

- Eric

 

I let mine soak, no problems.

 

501,
What paint did you use on the buckles? They look incredible!

 

I used tide and hot water - soaked the belts, buckles and all. Scrubbed with stiff brush, resoaked in hot rinse, blew out buckles and dried in the sun. Worked great!
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...html#post49892

Just do not soak the retractors. Use a C-clamp to hold them out.

Before


After

 

Thanks 71, I used promoter and then SEM Landau Black.

 

Thanks 501, will try the SEM landau black...I have a can at the house already. Will pick up the promoter and hopefully get the results you did.