I need to replace all the seat belts in my '76 Maverick. Is there somewhere I can buy them or do I need to try to find someone parting some out or use some other car's belts?
You might have the best luck getting belts form another Maverick. Why do you have to replace ALL the belts?
I wouldn't trust a seatbelt 35-40 years old. They are companies out there that can restore your seatbelts and replace the webbing...but they want big buck$. I replaced mine with aftermarket 3-point belts and lap belt for the rear seat for about $120
I have no experience with of them. I am retrofitting '74 sill mounted retractables into my '71 and will have one of them restore the units I have: http://www.pythonrestoration.com/Home_Page.html http://sharonswebinc.com/id1.html http://www.ssnake-oyl.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=Ssnake-Oyl&Category_Code=RS Let us know if you use one of them.
The Maverick I bought was sitting in a nasty yard and completely filled with trash for over 10 years. All the belts are bad now. The ones in the back seat are now hard and not malleable at all. At least one of the plastic bases is cracked pretty bad in the back seat. Don't remember the condition of the others right now. One of the lesser problems caused by the mistreatment of my poor baby (of course, it wasn't mine at the time). @ 71Mavrk: Thanks for the links. I will probably try to get some usable belts from another Maverick or perhaps try another Ford from the same year... (if the Fuel Sending Unit from a Monarch works fine, perhaps the seat belts might too?)
I think seatbelt life expectedly is 10 years or less...NHRA makes racers replace their seatbelt every 2 years or so. Might as well tie a shoe string around your waist if you want to use a 35 year old seatbelt.
Personally, I'm going to scour the wrecking yards for a late model set of belts that will fit my Mav. I'm not concerned about them being original Maverick belts; in fact, the newer stuff usually works better then those old 70's systems (mine were the dreaded 2 part belts). I thought that I was going to be able to use the ones I removed from the Sunfire I got my seats out of, but they're a bit too short. I'm confidant that there are other options that will work better than the Mav belts, even when they were new. John B
For the older cars (70-some 73's) National Parts Depot has a 3 point seatbelt conversion that should work, for $225.00. I've seen the kit used in a 69 Mach 1, so they should work just fine in a Maverick.
