'67 Seat belt dat e question

[R N.]

Hello Everyone,

My '67 teal blue interior coupe (VIN 5818) was originally equipped with shoulder belts and during removal of my belts I noted the dates on the retractor for the lap belts are date stamped 7-66 on the metal part and one of the lap belts still has a readable tag date stamp - it reads 35E66 (late Aug. '66). The one shoulder belt I have does not have readable date.

I would of assumed that the belt retractor brackets and the belt would of been dated closer to the build date (early December '66) of the car. Did colour or other options/factors play a role here?

And.... based on the achieves my lap belts should have an E code and the laps should be C code - is this correct?

As always, thanks for the help.

[William C.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

Given the limited callout for the Shoulder belt option, as well as the use of the teal blue interior, I would not be surprised if the first box of them delivered to St louis lasted the entire model year.

[Peter L.]

Re: '67 Seat belt date question

Kurt - The saddle seat belts on my 67 coupe (1476) also has the stamping of
7-66 on the inside of both retractor housing with an ink stamping on the tags of all 4 of the belts of 35E66 (busy day on the HAMILL tag stamping line). One of the red seat belts from my 66 roadster (25,305) has a legible ink stamping of 26E66 on the retractor belt tag and both retractor housing are stamped 1-66 on the inside. I also have a set of later HAMILL 1967, MODEL # C10 saddle seat belts and the inside of the retractor housing does not have a stamping in the same location.

While I haven't checked the Achieves regarding the alpha character in the seat belt tag format but all of the tags on the 67 belts I have have an "E" in the sequence, e.g. 35E66 and 14E74.

Pete

[Scott S.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

Hello Everyone,

My '67 teal blue interior coupe (VIN 5818) was originally equipped with shoulder belts and during removal of my belts I noted the dates on the retractor for the lap belts are date stamped 7-66 on the metal part and one of the lap belts still has a readable tag date stamp - it reads 35E66 (late Aug. '66). The one shoulder belt I have does not have readable date.

I would of assumed that the belt retractor brackets and the belt would of been dated closer to the build date (early December '66) of the car.

Hi Kurt,

My '67 black interior coupe has a January 11, 1967 build date, with 50 E 66 on three out of four lap belts (fourth seat belt tag is too faded to read). The metal piece securing the belt retractor is stamped 7-66 on driver and passenger side, same as yours. I thought the "7-66" was a date, but now I'm not sure. MF Dobbins' Fact Book says it's a date (p. 219, Ninth Edition), but if you look closely, the one in his book says "7-66" too - same as yours, Pete's and mine. Maybe they ALL say "7-66" for the '67 model year (or nothing, like Pete's later 1967 saddle belt example). We need more data.

Do yours also have these other markings, and does anyone know what they mean?


Picture 1: "H R5" and "7-66" markings (on both)
Picture 2: "H-139" stamped just below the retractor (on both)
Picture 3: metal end-piece on belt with buckle, stamped "H 6" (on both)
Picture 4: back of buckle, stamped "0337" (on both)

[R N.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

Hi Kurt,

My '67 black interior coupe has a January 11, 1967 build date, with 50 E 66 on three out of four lap belts (fourth seat belt tag is too faded to read). The metal piece securing the belt retractor is stamped 7-66 on driver and passenger side, same as yours. I thought the "7-66" was a date, but now I'm not sure. MF Dobbins' Fact Book says it's a date (p. 219, Ninth Edition), but if you look closely, the one in his book says "7-66" too - same as yours, Pete's and mine. Maybe they ALL say "7-66" for the '67 model year (or nothing, like Pete's later 1967 saddle belt example). We need more data.

Do yours also have these other markings, and does anyone know what they mean?


Picture 1: "H R5" and "7-66" markings (on both)
Picture 2: "H-139" stamped just below the retractor (on both)
Picture 3: metal end-piece on belt with buckle, stamped "H 6" (on both)
Picture 4: back of buckle, stamped "0337" (on both)

Thanks for the info Bill, Peter and Scott.

Scott, yes I have all the same numbers as your pictures. Picture 3 with the H and 6 I'm told stands for H- Hamill and the 6 represents the hole size for the bolt. The numbers in you picture four are different than mine, I believe I have 3333 and 3334 (from memory). An educated guess would be that the "H" in the stamps represents Hamill

[Scott S.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

Thanks for the info Bill, Peter and Scott.

Scott, yes I have all the same numbers as your pictures. Picture 3 with the H and 6 I'm told stands for H- Hamill and the 6 represents the hole size for the bolt. The numbers in you picture four are different than mine, I believe I have 3333 and 3334 (from memory). An educated guess would be that the "H" in the stamps represents Hamill

Thanks Kurt. I also noticed another number on the buckles, I'm sure those who have restored these old buckles are aware of them, but I have not seen them discussed anywhere. The number is stamped just inside the upper "lip" of the buckle. The RH buckle is stamped "363". The LH buckle is harder to read, looks like only part of the number stamp was imprinted, appears to be "88?" (third digit unreadable).

[R N.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

Hello Everyone,

My '67 teal blue interior coupe (VIN 5818) was originally equipped with shoulder belts and during removal of my belts I noted the dates on the retractor for the lap belts are date stamped 7-66 on the metal part and one of the lap belts still has a readable tag date stamp - it reads 35E66 (late Aug. '66). The one shoulder belt belt I have does not have a readable date.

I would of assumed that the belt retractor brackets and the belt would of been dated closer to the build date (early December '66) of the car. Did colour or other options/factors play a role here?

And.... based on the achieves my lap belts should have a E code and the laps should be a C code - is this correct?

As always, thanks for the help.

Awhile back I posted some questions about my '67 with shoulder belts and never got an answer about the letter code used on the shoulder belts.

From what I've read, shoulder belts were made in a different area of the plant, or at a different time than the lap belts, hence a different date, but it's the location letter stamp that has me puzzled.

Should my shoulder belts have an "E" code or a "C" code on the date tag?

All help appreciated

[R N.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

I found some references in Noland's book thins morning. He notes a couple of shoulder belts with "E" codes

[Scott S.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

I found some references in Noland's book thins morning. He notes a couple of shoulder belts with "E" codes

Hi Kurt,

I think I found the shoulder belt info in Noland's book that you are referencing, on page 402:

Vehicle
Serial No. .............. Shoulder Harness Label
101227 .................. Hamill #C20 35E66
103103 .................. 36E66

According to Mike Antonick's Black Book there were only 1,426 cars equipped with option A85 in 1967.

Considering that VIN 1227 had the "E" code on the shoulder belt, and they were still using the "E" code at VIN 3103, it certainly seems plausible that the "E" code was still in use by VIN 5818.

I checked the M.F. Dobbins Fact Book and found pictures of 1967 shoulder belts with labels (p. 293-294 in the 9th edition), but the photos don't show any details, and the captions don't mention actual dates on the tags. The 1967 NCRS Judging Guide (4th Ed.) mentions the shoulder belt tags being designated C-20, as compared to C-10 on the lap belt tags, but not much more.

I found an interesting Thread on the subject here: https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...belts&uid=7164

It seems that "E" designated a section of the Hamill plant that produced a particular type of belt, and the Carmaro Research Group found the same thing. See post #16 for info on the "C" vs. "E" designation on shoulder belts. Clete reports seeing shoulder belts stamped "C". The implication appears to be that "E" designation is more common, but both were used.

[Gerard F.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

Scott,

You and others might be interested in the attached pdf of a post on the RCF-65 belt buckle, which was used in late 66 and 67 Corvettes. You will find Hamill RCF-65 on the back of the buckle, under the belt in your picture.

The post eventually became a Restorer Article "Anatomy of the RCF-65 seat belt buckle " in 2006.

I racked my brains on all those numbers on the buckle trying to come up with a date code. No way. I think the stamped 4 digit number on the buckle back is some kind of a sequential production code, and not a date code.

The RCF-65 is a patent mark and means Robert C. Fisher patented 1965.
The RCF-65 buckle was used on other 66 and 67 cars but with a different top and insert.

I'm surprised that the links to photos in the pdf post still work.

[Scott S.]

Re: '67 Seat belt dat e question

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the article, color pictures too