Topic: Correct Seat Belts for an Early 65 Fastback with Standard Interior?

[blk65fstbk]

I'm restoring an early (November 5, 1964) 1965 Mustang fastback with standard interior. It was built in Dearborn, MI and delivered to the Davenport, IA sales district.

My car was partially disassembled when I got it and it didn't come with any seat belts. It however appears that it only had them in the front. I want to install what would have been correct for the car. Can anybody help?

Thanks.

[jwc66k]

Seat belts were mandatory for the front seats on all cars in 1965 and were installed by Ford on the assembly line. Rear belts were a dealer accessory in 1965. In 1966 front and rear belt were mandatory, in 1964 seat belts were optional.
Jim

[mgmradio]

Front seatbelts weren't required by law in 65. If you look at an original window sticker you will se that there are 2 standard options that could be deleated when ordered- the heater and the seatbelts. My convertible was a seatbelt delete car.
  As for the original question you could have standard or delux front belts. Delux belts were a stand alone option.

[jwc66k]

Front seatbelts weren't required by law in 65.

I've been too long in California. Seat belts in 1965 were mandatory for DSO 71 and 72, California law (always the leader or something else).
Jim

[NEFaurora]

This has been an ongoing unanswered question for the last two months....  If there were deluxe belts in early '65 cars (64 and a half), What were they?  By the date 7/64, The Standard Plastic Seatbelts that we all know and love were all introduced.  Does anyone have any Standard Plastic Buckled belts dated before 7/64???

People say that the Metal hinged (snake skin pattern) chrome belts (which were around since '63 in other model Fords) and what is later known as colored (Black Blue, Red) Painted Metal hinged '65 "Deluxe Seatbelt" is/was the only Standard seatbelt in Early '65 ('64 1/2) Mustangs. At this rate, I do not know what to believe.. But as I said, I have not found any Plastic buckled belts dated before 7/64..

We should put some pictures of all the belts up so we can figure out the chronology of '64 1/2-'65 Seat belts since the early years have much confusion where seatbelts are concerned.

What is pretty much already well known is that Early '65 (64 1/2) cars had seatbelts anchors with Hook and Loop type anchors.  The confusion really comes in with the buckles, not so much with the anchors.

)

Tony K.

[Brian Conway]

     These are the belts in my 5/65, San Jose, GT Fastback.  The left side/Deluxe are in the front.  The right side/standard are in the rear.   Brian

[steve_f]

My standard interior May '65 SJ GT fastback has the standard seat belts in the front and no belts in the back. There is also no indication that there ever were. As previously said, they were a dealer item. What I don't know is when the dealer did install them, did they cut the lower cushion to feed them through?  There are no seat belt slots in my original cushion.

[Brian Conway]

   CORRECTION                                                                                                                                                                                                                              These are the belts in my 5/65, San Jose, GT Fastback.  The left side/Deluxe are in the front.  The rear fold down seat has no seat belts installed.   The right side/standard are an example of the other style buckle.    Brian

[NEFaurora]

Brian, I agree with your statement,  Deluxe Belt on the left, Standard Belt on the right according to your picture, However,  The confusion comes in with the "supposed" fact that the Deluxe Belt on the left that you have pictured was the "only" buckle type aside from the chromed "Snakeskin" similar hinged buckle type supposedly offered in the '64 1/2 Mustang.  Because of this, People are regarding the buckle on the left as the "Standard" '64 1/2 Standard Seatbelts, not Deluxe....And they may possibly be right.  See the confusion?  What we consider the "Deluxe" '65 Seatbelt buckle (Pictured on the left) may have been the only type Seat Belt Buckle offered in '64 1/2 Mustangs causing the "Standard/Deluxe" '64 1/2-'65 seat belt confusion.  As I said before, I cannot find any "Standard" Plastic Style Seatbelt Buckles (Pictured on the right) dated before 7/64.  So it's possible that what we know as the "Standard" Plastic Style Seatbelt buckle may not have introduced until 7/64 also causing some confusion... with the Hinged "Deluxe" type buckles only being offered in the first few months of 1964.

Ok, I think that I got that all right...lol...!

)

Tony K.

[NEFaurora]

PS: I only know of two vendors of Early Mustang Seatbelts.... Robbins Jr. , and Hammill .  Hammill usually made the "Rotunda" marked belts, with both Hammill and Robbins Jr. making the "Ford" Oval marked belts.

I have seen the "Deluxe" type Buckle (pictured left) dated as early as 1963 in various months, but have never seen the "Standard" Plastic Buckle (Pictured Right) belt dated before 7/64 as I mentioned above.

)

Tony K.

[livetoride60]

...The confusion comes in with the "supposed" fact that the Deluxe Belt on the left that you have pictured was the "only" buckle type aside from the chromed "Snakeskin" similar hinged buckle type supposedly offered in the '64 1/2 Mustang.  Because of this, People are regarding the buckle on the left as the "Standard" '64 1/2 Standard Seatbelts, not Deluxe....And they may possibly be right.  See the confusion?  What we consider the "Deluxe" '65 Seatbelt buckle (Pictured on the left) may have been the only type Seat Belt Buckle offered in '64 1/2 Mustangs causing the "Standard/Deluxe" '64 1/2-'65 seat belt confusion.  As I said before, I cannot find any "Standard" Plastic Style Seatbelt Buckles (Pictured on the right) dated before 7/64.  So it's possible that what we know as the "Standard" Plastic Style Seatbelt buckle may not have introduced until 7/64 also causing some confusion... with the Hinged "Deluxe" type buckles only being offered in the first few months of 1964.

Tony, blk65fstbk - went through this about a year ago as well.  I have an Oct 64 SJ Fastback with standard interior and ran into the same confusion.  The situation quoted above seems match what I have learned so far as well. 

Our thread from a year ago is below for reference.  It contains pictures of the color-keyed vinyl split, chrome / alligator pattern split, and clamshell plastic buckles.

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=5769.msg32435#msg32435

So considering the comments in this thread & thread above, maybe this is the situation? 

1) 64 1/2 - standard belt - chrome split-type with alligator pattern
2) 64 1/2 - deluxe belt - ?  split-type with vinyl color keyed to the interior ?
3) 65 - standard belt - plastic clamshell type
4) 65 - deluxe belt - split-type with vinyl color keyed to the interior

Not sure on a 64 1/2 "deluxe" belt, as noted by someone else.  Also, the Dobbs & Farr book says the "deluxe" split belt was colored vinyl, not painted metal.  Can someone comment? 

Also, I dug out the set of standard black buckles I picked up for my car (below).  They are the plastic kind also with a date code of 7-64.  I checked my pics and didn't find any of this style dated before 7-64 either.  Now that you point it out, I'll keep an eye on the dates for ones like these.

Rich

[livetoride60]

Split type buckles from other thread.  From "Mustang Recognition Guide" by Dobbs, Farr, Heasley, Kopec.

[cobraboy]

Mine, standard interior

[NEFaurora]

Rich, I agree with your complete assessment above with one exception.. I am not so sure that the early belts were vinyl covered, They always looked like they were "painted" in colors to try and match the doors and interior vinyl.  Not all belts were matching colors, some were just black of course..  Can anyone verify if the colored metal hinged belts are "painted" or covered vinyl?  I say that they are painted....At least it always looked that way to me.

)

Tony K.

[64.5gcl]

This topic has great timing for me- I'm just about to get seat belts for my July build with 82 code interior. From the sounds of it, I guess I need to look for chrome snakeskin split buckles with medium blue webbing. Does anyone make a goor reproduction or should I be looking for good used?

Glenn