Seat belt anchors early SWB

[excelpflyer]

Hi,
can someone please tell me if the seat belt anchors on this 1965 are in the correct position or should they be turned 90 degrees to be perpendicular with the floor? I looked at some high end restorations and saw both ways.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Regards.
Stefan Menn

[haul]

hi stefan,

i think it is depending on how you want the line of the belt...
both are existing...

these are for us belts anyway, as the teka belt does need the oval ones...

[718RSK]

An additional question from my side. Were these originally plated zilver or had the dipped black plastic covering?

[smedley]

Those are NOT original SWB seat belt eyelets......those are generic safety equipment pieces. I don't have a photo, but someone on this site will.

Originals were thinner, more oval, yellow zinc, and dipped in black plastic.

[JimmyT]

PET 65-69 911, Fig 8-12

[excelpflyer]

Hi smedley,
as far as I have read on various forum threads those were the original anchors for the 1964/65 SWB. The ones with the black plastic dipping I believe started in 1966. Jim Breazeale is one expert who answered a lot of seat belt questions.
Regards.
Stefan

[smedley]

I doubt that as they (the plastic dipped) were also used in late '64 and '65 356 C cars........my original unrestored '64 C coupe had them. Even the simple parts diagram from a previous post shows a unique characteristic I forgot to mention in my first response......the openings in the plastic dipped pieces are rectangular in shape...not round.

[Jim Breazeale]

Hi smedley,
as far as I have read on various forum threads those were the original anchors for the 1964/65 SWB. The ones with the black plastic dipping I believe started in 1966. Jim Breazeale is one expert who answered a lot of seat belt questions.
Regards.
Stefan

Here is my takes on seat belt anchors. The anchors in the above photo are very common and were used in many early 911s that came with seat belts. Mark is correct that they are generic parts. Very few early (before Jan 1968) 911s came with factory seat belts and virtually all US delivered cars came across the Atlantic with no seat belts installed. US cars got US made (Hicklock/ASE brand) seat belts and they were installed, most likely, by the local dealership. I would not say that the generic anchors are incorrect. The anchors in my picture are the "factory" anchors. They were coated/dipped with beige plastic in the 356 era and changed to black in the 911 era. I have seen quite a few early 911s that had beige anchors and can't give an estimate as to when they went from beige to black. My wild assed guess is that it happened in mid 66. By the way, the pretty one in the middle is made and can be purchased from our own JimmyT. Yes, my answer is a bit confusing, but there is no definitive answer. Mark,I have to respectfully disagree a bit with your description of the anchors posted previously. I have had 100s of the oval anchors and have never seen one that was "yellow zink". They all have been clear cad or zink.

Regards

Jim

[keith]

Jim, I've got a '66 912 in at the moment (original clients - they picked it up at the factory as a new car) - and they want to replace the 'seatbelts'; can you shower me with wisdom offline? (I want to stay true to the car, of course.)

I need an antenna for this thing, also.

[smedley]

Hi Jim,

Sorry for the dogmatic thing about the yellow zinc...this goes back to the fastener/plating industry when clear zinc was replaced by yellow. My C coupe had clear zinc, but I parted out a '68 targa a few years back and they were yellow....they were grungy enough to strongly suggest they were original. Your observation about dealer installed belts is spot on. Seatbelts were not mandatory in the US until '68 model year. So many 356s and earlier 911s had dealer accessory or after market belts installed. The AMRs and Hickock were the most popular due to the neat round crested medallion. Those generic anchors made their way into a lot of early cars as they were readily available. Those plastic coated anchors were not all that well designed as the webbing buckles could not move freely in that rectangular opening and would bind eventually gouging and tearing the plastic. With time they all looked ratty. The generics allowed the buckles to move more freely and were just more user friendly...they were probably used to replace a lot of the "PIA" original plastic coated things!