72--relationship of carpet to seat belt hardware

[Mike E.]

Someone has put reproduction carpet in the 72 I'm working on, and I'm guessing that it was installed wrong.
Where does the carpet go in relationship to the plastic cover over the seat belt retractor? Above or below?
In relationship to the C-shaped bracket that guides the belt as it is pulled out? Above? Below?
What kind of cut is made in the carpet to allow the belt to extend and retract right along the edge of the seat and the edge of the sill plate?
Thanks!

[Don L.]

Re: 72--relationship of carpet to seat belt hardware

Mike, I did a bit of research on this issue when I restored my belts. The carpet gets cut and sits UNDER the black plastic retractor cover. The carpet is cut approx 5/8" - 3/4" smaller all the way around the cover. There's a raised margin around the perimeter of the cover. I cut mine so that the carpet hole was a bit smaller than this margin. This allows the bottom surface of the cover to hold the carpeting down against the floor. Then, going in the outboard direction, the cut out goes all the way to and up the sill plate, thereby enabling the guide, which the belts slides under to be exposed. The entire vertical surface (inside face of sill) gets black out, as per the original cars I've seen. I've seen both saddle and black setups and they all have been blacked out.

When you look down inside the gap between the sill and the seat, when all assembled, you'll see a blacked out sill (no carpet) and the steel guide with the belt coming up from underneath the guide. Of course you'll also see the vertical edge of the retractor cover.

Wouldn't ya know it. I had some nice photos of this, taken with the seat out and the retractor cover off, but can't seem to locate them right now. Sorry. I'll keep looking, but hopefully, someone else has some and will share here.

[Patrick H.]

Re: 72--relationship of carpet to seat belt hardware

Mike,

Hope this sort of helps,

Patrick