seat belt safety cable finish

[Phil D.]

Trying to understand what the finish is supposed to be on the ends of this cable. In the 72 Strange Cable Don Lowe posted a picture of an apparently restored Corvette showing what looked to be bright, perhaps zinc plated brackets on the ends of the cable while Mike Furline later posted a picture of an unrestored car that may have either been painted or some kind of plating but unable to tell much more than that they were obviously not bright.

A picture in 1966 Chassis Bolt Identification referring to a 1966 it kind of appears the end brackets may have been painted black.

I have pictures that were copied off ebay of another ostensibly top flight 72 that appears that these cable brackets may have been something like a grey phosphate finish. If its different by year, we're restoring a September 71 build date.

[Edward J.]

Re: seat belt safety cable finish

Phil, I have a pic of that cable and bracket on a 300 mile 72 ZR1 and the brackets appear to be Zinc. as do the nuts.

[Alan S.]

Re: seat belt safety cable finish

Hi Phil,
On my 71 I believe the large U shaped bracket riveted to the underbody was dull zinc plated.
The cable and it's fittings appeared to be natural. There is a piece of black tubing on on the cable that's about 5"
long.
The nuts that secure the links on the end of the cable to the bracket studs were brite zinc plated.
Regards,
Alan

[Paul O.]

Re: seat belt safety cable finish

Phil

Here is a photo of a 72 Bowtie cars seat belt safety cable.

[Phil D.]

Re: seat belt safety cable finish

Hi Phil,
On my 71 I believe the large U shaped bracket riveted to the underbody was dull zinc plated.
The cable and it's fittings appeared to be natural. There is a piece of black tubing on on the cable that's about 5"
long.
The nuts that secure the links on the end of the cable to the bracket studs were brite zinc plated.
Regards,
Alan

Thanks for the picture Alan. The fittings appear to be black or dark grey. The judging guide refers to a lot of different parts as "natural" when in fact there was some sort of finish on the parts. Mine, fresh out of the bead blast cabinet are bright and shiny so I just need to do something other than paint to make them look like the ones in the picture.

[Alan S.]

Re: seat belt safety cable finish

Hi Phil,
I believe that the JG really does mean no additional finish on a part when it's called out as natural. Some restorers use some type of clear, or a metal protector like PreLube 6, to help stop a natural part from rusting.
As you can see in Paul's photo too the fitting really wasn't black or even dark gray.
I guess it looks darker both because of being under the car and the camera's flash.
I'd describe it as a medium gray color with a bare metal appearance. The one in my picture was just cleaned with a wire brush, so the surface texture is still intact too.
My car has 46k miles but the cable was still in excellent condition and required minimal cleaning. I'm thinking the cable and fittings needed to be a material that wouldn't degrade over time since it's a safety item.
Regards,
Alan

Some how the second picture got posted again and I can't seem to remove it. My intent was to just post another view of the fitting and nut.