Looking to update my early, non-retractable for the convenience of the retractable ones from Seat belt planet. Has anyone here purchased them? Are they basically plug and play?
Thanks

Had them put new belts in my '73 with the original mechanism. Very happy with the results and they work great.

What did they charge for the "rebuild"?

Remember that your early car doesn’t have the recess in the firewall to mount the later style retractable seatbelts. Auto Atlanta sells (sold?) these that attach on the upper seatbelt mounts and seem to retract nicely with no permenant modifications to the car.Click to view attachment

I bought the set from Seatbeltplanet to replace the set in my '74. Very easy plug-n-play, but mine had three-point belts from the factory so it was just a swap. Can't attest to converting from lap belts.

the problem is that there is no room behind the back pad for the retractors on 70-71 cars so the retractors must be hung on the side roll bar bolsters. We have successfully used the 911 912 early seat belt planet retractibles for this application

+1. I installed them two weeks ago. nicely done.
Only problem was I had to enlarge the holes on the receptacle bolt hole to accomodate the shoulder bolts, but otherwise plug n play

Does it make any difference if I have also deleted the back pad and going with the perlon back pad. A bit more space.
Thanks for your help
Neil

I was told, that even though my 72 had the non-retractable belts, all 72's had the recess and holes to mount the retractable. Does anyone know if that is true. Does someone have a picture of what that recess looks like?

Like this.
Note that on my car, part of the recess was cut out then put back in. But this is the shape. The lower hole has a threaded boss on the back side and the other hole locates a pin that locates and prevents the retractor from tipping out of position.

My '72 is an earlier model and has retractible belts that look original.

Do these look like the right holes?
Click to view attachment

Yep, those are the locations.

ALL 72 MODELS were stamped for retractible seat belts. 72 models, however through production 12/31/71 had non retractibles and in jan 1 had retractibles.
Also 72 is the unique body shell like no other!

70 71 were virtually identical
73 74 were virtually identical
75 76 were virtually identical

Does anyone know a difference between a 73 74 body? (and we are not talking about bolt ons like the rear 74 bumper guards, or buckle up or else wiring harness on the 74 models

Thanks for all of your help guys. I will try out the retractable belts and let you know how it all works out. Appreciate all of your assistance. Great community!

I've got the retractable ones on my '71 which mount on the B pillar like the photo above. I got them many years ago from a guy that advertised in Pano- don't think he's in business anymore. I actually liked the "manual" belts in the '71 because I was the only person who drove it so there wasn't any adjustment needed- I was just worried about their age and replaced them.
I also got red belts on the '73 that match close enough to the bahia red to look nice. I've done enough to that car to not worry about "originality."

Did some one mention 944 belts recently? ,cheap enough to buy.
PO fitted new Repa belts in my car when he had it ,seem to remember they are dated 1999.
Seatbelt inspection is a big thing in my country and its surprising what some inspectors fail so I'am all good for my compliance.