old seat belts

[..lee..]

having been driving the panel van daily i`ve just realised how old and hard feeling the belts in the camper are.

has anyone softened or refurbed their seat belts in anyway?

cheers lee.

[pauly8888]

Might sound daft, but years ago I rubbed fabric softener into the seat belts on my first car. It seemed to work, and smelled good too.

[..lee..]

That's what I was wanting to hear. Great I'll give it a go.

Cheers lee.

[CovKid]

The materials being used in modern belts is often superior to that used when these were built. Fabric conditioner may well work but if they're becoming brittle (and they do over time), it would seem wiser to replace them, if only for peace of mind?.

I've certainly washed belts in the past but we have seen improvements in seat belt webbing over the last decade or so.

[..lee..]

i may well have to buy new but the belts on the panel van i`ve just bought sub 90k miles feel like a moddern belt. lovely and soft and spring back quickly. didn`t really realise what a big difference it would make to the feel of the van.

anathor job to the add list.

[pauly8888]

The belts I 'softened' were nothing like the ones in use today. The only reason I didn't replace them at the time was that I didn't want to lose the originality. They had a nice buckle-clasp that I wanted t keep and the webbing itself was fairly thick.
Far easier to replace a bog-standard bad inertia-reel seat belt with a good one.