MY 1968 GT RESTORATION

[KYBlueOval]

Joe, many years ago when I lived in Dallas, I had seat belts remade by a firm that refurbished private air craft. I took them apart, had the hardware re-chromed and the aircraft refurbishing company installed new webbing. They still look great today. You might look for such a firm in your area.
John

[CobraJoe]

Thanks....or I could just eliminate them all together.

[KYBlueOval]

I did just that, with a car that had that belt.

[CobraJoe]

Drilled two small holes through the floor for the cut-outs and installed rubber grommets and ran the wires along the rocker to the dash.

[CobraJoe]

Also managed to get the radiator, shroud, electric fan and guard installed. I had to order a different thermostat housing to utilize the stock upper hose.

Should see that in a few days.

[CobraJoe]

Dissembled the gauge cluster I rebuilt because my wife had bought me a set of Dakota Digital gauges for my birthday and mounted them in the original Ford housing:



I had my doubts about the used pad that came with the car as it was disgusting, but after a lot of scrubbing and a new molding and a new illumination strip, it looks pretty good.
The kit even came with a new clock to replace the original:

[RICH MUISE]

You'll be ready for a drive pretty soon.....I'll send you my address, lol.

[CobraJoe]

LOL, not really; still plenty of work to do!

[CobraJoe]

 I need to catchup/get some work done; as I just got back from Corvettes at Carlisle.
I got to see Dave Kindig's TwelveAir in person, absolutely beautiful piece!

[CobraJoe]

Haven't been working on the car much due to some family health issues, but I did manage to get the rest of the trunk painted and the Trunk Divider Board installed.

If you look at the wheel wells and the seat backs supports, they are still red oxide:




Painted yellow with the divider installed:






The fit was decent, but did require some trimming and modifications.

[Ford Blue blood]

The fit was decent, but did require some trimming and modifications

Found the same with many "same as original" pieces in many instances due to the new sound proofing/heat barrier going places that the factory didn't even think of doing! Just part of the "excitement" of working/building old cars!  The list of surprises never ends......

[CobraJoe]

Bill, that may be true, but in this case, some of the mounting slots were not even close. For example on the bottom row of slots, two were perfect but the passenger side one was about an inch and a half off. The cutouts for the package tray tabs were also about an inch too high .
We are fortunate that some of these items are still available in the aftermarket, but unfortunate that they rarely fit without modifications.

[CobraJoe]

I know a lot of you told me to abandon the original shoulder harness that are no longer reproduced, but I still went ahead and color matched them more for originality.
Before you tell me I'm crazy and taking safety out of the equation, keep in mind that these are only here for looks and will not latch up to the "modern" belts.

Anyway, I think they matched up pretty good for 57 year old crap.

Before:




After:

[djfordmanjack]

I believe I get your thinking, Joe. Even though these early shoulder harnesses were a bit of an awkward design, they still were a major visible part on these late 60s Muscle cars, especially on HT coupes. my friend Sascha owns a 70 MachI 351C, that his father bought in Canada in the early 70s ( while working there) and brought back home.
The car has been fully restored and has flawless dark green metallic paint (as og) and he still has the og style seat belts up there and it certainly adds to the general 'brandnew in 1970' feel of his pony.

[CobraJoe]

Exactly; it's too big of a piece to omit, IMO.