Early auto retract seat belt

[70SATMan]

So, awhile back someone had a pair of Auto retracting seat belts for sale. I asked if the auto winders were original Repas because the had VW logos on em. In the thread I was informed that all the winders were Repas and they all had VW logos on them. OK then.. Gotcha...New tidbit stored in the noggin.

The other reason I asked the question during this exchange was to identify an early single auto belt I bought at a swap meet. I bought it primarily for the webbing (Euro with the orange stripe). I even dikered with the guy because as I pointed out to him the winder was an Autoflug unit that someone obviously scabbed onto a Repa belt to use in a 911. Heck, they did such a good job that they included a plastic keeper that was an Autoflug unit as well.

So, I'm thinking hey, I still got the belt for a deal, the webbing was the true score.

Then last week I'm going through my Service manual and what do I see pictured?????

[70SATMan]

An Autoflug winder!!! So, it begs the question who made these up for the factory?

The belt keeper is Autoflug. It appears the swivel harware might be Autoflug based on complete Autoflug belts I've seen pictured. The clasp hardware still Repa and dated 68. All of the stiching on my belt is consistent.

At what point did the auto belts come with Repa winders?

Some pics of my belt.

[Bullethead]

Interesting! Either answers a question or provokes several others... did Repa produce the belts using Autoflug winders, or vice versa?

Or did the factory put the components together? Regardless, a very cool setup.

[buddeman]

Can't answer your question Michael, but can confirm the find, as similar just happened to me. Was at Gary Emory's Parts Obsolete campout the other weekend, and was going thru the endless boxes of retractable seat belts to retrofit into our '69 911T. I happened upon a set of autoflug retractable belts amongst all of the Repa/VW belts... and those two were the only ones I found that had the correct latch for the '69 latching mechanism (also with the Repa latch dated 1968), as you have pictured above. All of the other (probably 100+ Repa/VW belts) had the varying later style latch mechanisms.

[beh911]

When were the auto recoil seat belts first allowed on U.S. bound cars?
My 69 (Feb 69 build) was supposedly ordered with them, but they weren't put on the car due to not passing safety standards.

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...l=1#post516129

[70SATMan]

Can't answer your question Michael, but can confirm the find, as similar just happened to me. Was at Gary Emory's Parts Obsolete campout the other weekend, and was going thru the endless boxes of retractable seat belts to retrofit into our '69 911T. I happened upon a set of autoflug retractable belts amongst all of the Repa/VW belts... and those two were the only ones I found that had the correct latch for the '69 latching mechanism (also with the Repa latch dated 1968), as you have pictured above. All of the other (probably 100+ Repa/VW belts) had the varying later style latch mechanisms.

Cool! Do your belts have part number tags on them? Mine doesn't have a tag. Repa and Autoflug I believe at the time were competing companies so, this mix is really strange and interesting. Not knowing what the outsourcing environment was at the time, I couldn't tell you if Autoflug had the winders built for them but, my gut reaction would be "no".

So, maybe REPA realized where belt tech was going and came up with their own winders or maybe they had their winders built by Autoflug and were branded REPA.

I might have to take mine apart and compare it to the pics in the other AutoWinder thread of the REPA units.

Anyone out there with cars originally delivered 68-71 with Auto Retract belts? What are your winders??? I'd love to know the break point and maybe we can find the answer to BEH911's question..

[buddeman]

So I actually have two sets of these Autoflug retractable belts... one set is exactly like yours with the orange striped webbing, and no tags. the other set has the standard black webbing, with the tag attached. P/N was 901.803.013.0x

[70SATMan]

Now that is cool Patrick! First Porsche Autoflug tag I've seen and with a 70 date code. So, it looks like the 69 belts might not have been certified yet. That 70 belt you show does have the Fed standard note. So, it might be safe to assume that 70 might have been the first year "legally" available in the US.

Of course the dealerships could add anything once they were imported and could have put in auto belts prior.

[haycait911]

that belt was definitely made by autoflug. repa stitched a niced 'x' inside a box , autoflug just did a rough zig-zag, like yours. does the retractor have a locator pin on the bottom? that would indicate vertical mount.

[70SATMan]

that belt was definitely made by autoflug. repa stitched a niced 'x' inside a box , autoflug just did a rough zig-zag, like yours. does the retractor have a locator pin on the bottom? that would indicate vertical mount.

Afraid I'm going to have to cheerfully disagree with you. On ALL of the street REPA belts I've seen from 68-71 and including the 914 72 belts, the stitching is consistent with the belt I've shown. I can post a lot of photos to corroborate. What do you mean by a locator pin? The bolt tab?