Got around to cleaning up the 67 Deluxe belts (Hamill built) that Kevin was kind enough to donate to the 65 project. The two single belts pictured came with a Strato Bench I'd bought from Kevin years ago. The rest came out of the same car, a Las Vegas based 67 Caprice.
Never having cleaned belts before, I found this below worked pretty well considering how dirty, hard and stiff they were. The buckles would no way slide on the webbing and were full off fluff and dirt. The water in the bucket was black at the first round. I could do a little more work on them, but as is they are perfect for the 65.
The sequence;
Clip the retractors in such a way that the belts stay drawn out. I used small hand clamps.
Soak the belts for a day in a bucket of hot water with Dawn dish detergent. Agitate them often. Hang the retractor belts over the bucket as to keep the spring mechanism dry. Don't submerge it.
Take each belt, and on a flat surface scrub them gently with a soft brush. Soft as to not fluff the webbing. Slide the buckles along the webbing to get the hidden dirt. Wet, they will slide. Rinse.
Roll them up and spray them with 50/50 Castrol Super clean (it's a caustic). Let sit for a few hours.
Roll them back out and gently scrub them again. Work the worst stains softly with a blunt and rounded tool, this seems to force the solution into the fibers and pushes the dirt up and out. Rinse thoroughly.
Make up a bucket of warm water with Downey fabric softener in warm water. Soak the belts overnight. Agitate. Remove and rinse.
Blow out the buckles with air and warm them up with a hairdryer to prevent rust. Hang to dry.
Overall a good result. The Downey makes the belts supple again and they smell great. As expected a couple of the labels disintegrated, which in my case doesn't matter. Now I have decent front and rear belts.
I know the 65 didn't come with these retractors, but I am now looking for a pair of good retractor covers. Anyone know if 67-70 were the same? I remember the 69's as being more rubbery. The 67's are quite hard and brittle. These ones are embossed with Hamill RCF-300 which I assume were a manufacturer of belts for the USA built cars, but I could be wrong.
