Broken seat belts in a classic car? Here’s how we fixed ours.

Fixing the seat belts was our first task. The reason: We had two weeks before we were driving the Ferrari to The Amelia weekend. Not having a passenger seat belt would be dangerous, never mind also illegal.

After studying the passenger seat belt, it was quickly obvious that the female side was broken, thus keeping the assembly from latching.

We looked around and found that Ferrari 308 GT4 seat belts were both rare and expensive. One place was asking about $400 to $500–and then you had to wait.

We had heard that these cars shared some parts with other Italian cars, especially Fiats. Sure enough, when we looked at the site for longtime friend Matt Brannon’s Midwest-Bayless Italian Auto, we saw that the seat belts for a Fiat X1/9 looked exactly the same.

We called and he told us he had used seat belts for about $40 per side. He advised us that there were small-buckle and large-buckle versions, so we had to figure out which type we had.

We had the small-buckle style.

We ordered it and thought we were pretty clever, getting Ferrari seat belts for about 10 cents on the dollar. The only difference between Ferrari and Fiat seat belts are the little stickers placed on the buckle. One says Fiat. One says Ferrari.

We were getting the budget hacks figured out.

But not so fast.

When the seat belt arrived, it still would not latch.

We soon saw the reason–and likely why the original one had broken: Someone installed the wrong type and kept smashing them together.

A bit flustered and more than a bit mortified that someone would half-ass this beautiful car this way, we went back to the drawing board. First, we called Matt and asked him if he had an entire three-point Fiat seat belt system in stock.

He did not.

Perusing online, we ran into Seat Belt Planet. There, we found that for about $200, you could order new, custom seat belt sets for both sides that looked nearly identical to the grungy, old Fiat/Ferrari stuff we were screwing around with.

While we are sticklers for originality, the thought of quickly, safely and inexpensively solving this problem, at least until we could find the correct parts, appealed to us.

We ordered the kit, choosing black 1.25-inch belts with a ’70s-style black-and-red plastic buckle and standard shoulder loops.

Installing these belts was relatively easy, although doing so involves removing the rear seats. The rear seat simply comes out, exposing the bolts for the front seat mechanism.

Before reinstalling the rear seats, we first fit some insulation. While the sound of this mid-engine car is glorious, almost beyond words, we have learned that adding lightweight, modern insulation is always a good thing.

We also used this opportunity to clean and retrim some of the rough edges of the upholstery. Whether the seat came like this from the factory or a later redo, having these extra flaps of material is not how we roll. We were pleased with the results in the back seat area and were surprised how just these few minutes of work improved the car.

Back up front, we found more butchery. The inside driver-side seat belt was installed with an incorrect bolt that was just shoved into the tunnel. Had the car gotten into an accident, it would have pulled right out. (Maybe this is why those calls to the past owner were not returned.) Our plan going forward: Go through the entire car to find and correct any other mistakes.

The seat belts now fit and operate as they should. Heck, maybe we’ll just go onto the next thing. As a concours judge, unless we see something that is out of place, we don’t take off points. Updating seat belts for safety reasons is arguably an allowable modification.

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