My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[DerekTheGreat]

That has to be one of the cleanest engine compartments I've ever seen, especially considering the car gets driven.

[87gtVIC]

Some time ago I added black seat belt sleeves that mounted up to the rocker panel to replace the cracked originals.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/te...16#post1386216

while on a junkyard trip this summer I came across a 1979 Ltd-s model that had really good condition black seat belt receivers with great condition black plastics.

The plastics around my seat belt receptacles were replaced and painted to somewhat match by myself years ago but the color was off and the paint wound up not sticking well and they were cracked too.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/te...439#post898439

This morning I went about adding the newly acquired black seat belt receptacles to my car. Came out better than I could have hoped.

before:





during:



Above...from left to right

Stock 87, stock 79 in the middle and my combination that I installed into my car on the right.



I swapped the inner press button and the chrome outer cover onto the 79 black housings/plastics and receiver.

and after:











and the black covers swapped into the stock belts with chrome backs



looks good to but the beat up plastics and crappy paint don’t do it for me.

The black plastic receptacles now match really well with the black sleeves down at the rockers. Much happy.

[Arquemann]

I wonder if the black receivers get less scalding-hot in hot weather and sunlight...

[87gtVIC]

Id imagine more, strictly because of the low albedo of the dark color.

[friskyfrankie]

Black will absorb more light (heat) than other colors so it should be hotter.

[Mainemantom]

Looking good !

[Lutrova]

How hard is it to take apart those buckles? I've looked at my own before, but couldn't find an obvious way to disassemble them.

[87gtVIC]

Remove the buckle from the vehicle. Look at the bottom of the cover and try to pry up one corner. Usually one side has a bit of room to slip a thin flat head in. Put buckle in a vice with a set of rubber soft jaws and then from inside use that same thin flat head and tap on the backside of the tang and it will pop loose the cover.



you can see the tangs in the photo above on the black cover