Blackwood seat belts

To get black seat belts, I'm told that the rear belts from a H-D or Blackwood will fit fine. But they lack the safety feature that pretensions the belts when the brakes are applied (Ford only puts that feature on the front seats). Rear belts will work, but I can't see cutting any corners on seat belts.

So the only possibilities are front belts from a H-D or Blackwood. But the 4-door and Super Cab trucks have the retractor assemblies near the floor, and the other end attaches to the B pillar and not the floor. The floor mounting makes the belt longer, and uses a different retractor mounting plate and floor mounting tab. So the belt needs to be shortened, and the brackets and end tab swapped.

The Blackwood front belts are part numbers 2L3Z 78611B08 AAA and 2L3Z 78611B09 AAA.

The stock belts are captive in their mounts, so the first step is to shorten the belts. Lay the two side by side. I was concerned about trying to replicate the stitching at the floor mounting tab, but after studying it, it does not appear to be anything special. First, remove the plastic nub that keeps the belt tab from falling to the floor. Then, judging from the amount of belt wrapped around the retractor hub, estimate how much belt needs to be cut off. Do not remove the yellow clip keeping the belt from going into the retractor. If you do, the belt will be ruined. Once the belt goes too far into the retractor, it will be permanently stuck (although I'm told that there is a procedure that can be performed to get it unstuck, I can't say for sure).

To change the mounting brackets, the retractor assembly must be freed from from the Blackwood belts. First, remove the yellow pretensioner connector from the white plastic retainer on both sets of belts. There are two rivets to be drilled out -- one large and one small. Before starting any cutting, I bagged the belt in a 1-gallon plastic bag and taped up the retractor assembly to keep metal shavings out. Once the rivets have been drilled out, the mounts will come free.

To complete the mounting plate swap, the large rivet hole in the Blackwood retractor must be slightly enlarged to allow the stock mounting bolt to pass through. Then transfer the stock mount, and replace the small rivet. A 5/32" diameter X 1/8" grip length pop rivet is the ONLY size that will work. Anything longer, and the back side of the rivet will be too long and have sharp edges, which could fray the seat belt over time.

To summarize, the steps are

do not let the new belts retract at any time

Old retractor:

remove the captive washer and bolt, and yellow plug
cut the belt and remove the slider and buckle
drill out small rivet, remove mounting plate, set aside

New retractor:

remove the yellow pretensioner power plug
pop off the button that holds the buckle at chest height
cut the belt and remove slider and buckle (note position for reassembly). There appears to be about 20" of extra belt. Remember to account for the 2.5" of wraparound on the mounting tab.
cover retractor and drill out large and small rivets, remove mounting plate (be sure to protect the belt from having the drill bit punch through)
transfer old mounting plate, rivet in place
thread the slider and buckle on
use a propane torch to melt the cut end (see photo below)
replace the yellow pretensioner power plug
have stock floor mounting tab loops sewed onto new belt ends

Replacement buckle slider stop buttons are available from seatbeltpros.com (part # FAJ-1036-1). If you are looking to mount the stock belts to a harness bar, their shoulder bolts (ADR12-B) and matching plates (10154) and caps (HD-1047-1) fit the belts perfectly.