65 Seat Belt Buckle Finish

[Dave B.]

The 65 JM specifies the seat belt buckles have a "textured finish". Can anyone describe or possibly post a photo of this finish appearance. The archives have some references to this question but I couldn't find anything that clearly shows a correct finish.

I found some Rustoleum paint in a rattle can that does create a very fine uniform texture but I suspect it's actually too rough. I'm thinking that another coat of standard paint over this texture might smooth it and be more accurate but I'm just guessing.

Thanks in advance for any insight from the members.

Dave Brown

[Wayne M.]

Re: 65 Seat Belt Buckle Finish

....Can anyone describe or possibly post a photo of this finish appearance. The archives have some references to this question but I couldn't find anything that clearly shows a correct finish....

Dave -- here's 2 originals; red one on the left has ink-stamp date of 10-29-64; can't read the smeared ink stamp on the dark blue buckle. I'm guesing the blue one is a '64 (and not '66), as the back (in fact on both buckles) reads "Irving Air Chute Co. Inc.; (second line) "Model IC-8000"; (3rd line) "Mfg. License U.S. Pat.2458810".

The "splatter" on the blue buckle is finer than on the red.

[Dave B.]

Re: 65 Seat Belt Buckle Finish

Wayne,

Thanks so much for the photos. The finish I have at this point looks pretty close to your blue buckle in the photo - maybe a little more rough. I'll need to continue the fine tuning on the finish.

Dave