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Not sure when Volvo began putting retractors on 1800 seat belts. My ’72 had them, but my ’70 didn’t, instead mounting to hard points under the rear side windows. In any case, not user friendly. So I installed third-party retractors that anchored to those hard points and rollers under the seat belt buckle hangers that kept the belts from fouling at the headrests. This was a big improvement, but it was still difficult to reach back and remove/return the buckles using those hangers. As a result, my wife always just let her's flop and, of course, the belt would hang outside when the door closed.
After seeing a photo of a heavy-gauge steel rod belt guide, which installed using the headrest posts and retained the buckles within easy reach, I decided this was a much better solution than my rollers. Unfortunately it wasn’t something I could find to buy, and fabricating them would require some heavy duty, tight radius bending and some welding for the loops that the posts go through.
My solution was to use some 1” O.D. gray PVC outdoor conduit. If you’d like to see the photos of the pieces themselves and the final installation, along with a scale drawing, go to: https://bit.ly/431X2iZ Not brain surgery. I painted these to approximate the upholstery color and, after sliding the seat belt into the slot, fitted a plastic cap with a retaining pin. I made one for my wife and it worked out so well I made one for myself. Now the belts are within easy reach for both of us.
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