1966 Seat Belt Labels

[Dave B.]

[Greg T.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Can't tie this to a VIN but the date shows Late August Early September 65.


8c_1.jpg

[Dave B.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Thanks Greg,

Since the '66's first week of production started in Sept, this belt could very well have been on a very early car.
Do you know anything about the history of this belt?

Dave

[Stephen C.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Not sure if this is what you are looking for or not. Car was produced on December 6, 1965

[Dave B.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Thanks Stephen,

Yes that is the label I was most curious about. It is listed in the JG as the early type, i.e. before approximately VIN 14,000. The question is, were there two types of early Irving labels used in '66 cars, ones like yours and ones like Greg's? There appears to be some evidence of this. The Irving type like Greg's is not mentioned in the JG. Next question is, how late did Irving use the embroidered labels like yours before switching to the printed types like Greg's?

The more verification we can get from original owners, the better.

Thanks
Dave

[Stephen C.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Is it possible that they used both??? Greg's is dated Sept 65. My car wasn't produced until Dec 65 which would mean they would have possibly used them concurrently.

Thanks Stephen,

Yes that is the label I was most curious about. It is listed in the JG as the early type, i.e. before approximately VIN 14,000. The question is, were there two types of early Irving labels used in '66 cars, ones like yours and ones like Greg's? There appears to be some evidence of this. The Irving type like Greg's is not mentioned in the JG. Next question is, how late did Irving use the embroidered labels like yours before switching to the printed types like Greg's?

The more verification we can get from original owners, the better.

Thanks
Dave

[Alan D.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

One other thing to make note of when going through your label investigation is the color of the belt. I have found that in MY64 two styles existed also with the earlier labels still being seen in March 64, but only in the less popular colors such as white while the new labels appeared in Jan 64 on Black Belts.

Next question would be - what label was seen at end of MY65?

[Jim D.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Next question would be - what label was seen at end of MY65?

April 65 car.

[Alan D.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

So you are saying that GM used the later 1964 label all the way through the 65 MY ? So no change for 1965 label.

[Rob V.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

HI--

My 1966 Coupe, VIN#194376S111229, "approximate" final assembly date of 18 Jan 1966, with black standard (vinyl) interior, black seat belts, does not have the blue Irving Model seat belt labels as depicted in the photos above. Instead, both seat belt labels are white with black printing, with the following:

Corvette
This belt meets all requirements
?? SAE Spec ?-??
IRVING 1966
MODEL 772 COR H

51-A-65

[Dave B.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Stephen,
The concurrent use of two different labels is the premise I am looking at. Like Alan says, the more popular colors like black (standard for '66 interiors) may have had the second type of Irving's put on while they still had an inventory of the lesser used colors with the earlier Irving label affixed. They both had the same SAE specifications, so could both could be used.

I suspect that the early Irving used in 1966 is a left-over later-'65-type based upon the suffix after the model number.

Alan...No, I'm suggesting that Irving used two different labels for '66 production. That could also be true for '65 cars. Be interesting to see when Irving changed over from the '64 model to the '65 model label on the 1965 cars. Right now I have my hands full with '66.

Thanks,

Dave

[Dave B.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Hi Rob,

Your car bears out the thought that when they ran out of the popular black belts with the blue embroidered early type labels, they then began using the second Irving type, white with black labels, as you have listed. I believe another popular belt color besides black is blue.

FYI, the ?? in your post should stand for "of" and "J-4a".

I find your week of production interesting. So far I have seen 46 A 65 and 52 A 65. I have been told that Irving made these belts in batches, so the same dated belt can be found in several different month-produced cars.

Thanks for the information.

Dave

[Michael H.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

The belt labels in my Nov 65 built 66 look the same as those in Stephens photo. Also tan interior.

[Alan D.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Dave,
Think what Jim has shown in his two labels of an April 65 car is that the 64 label (on the popular black belt) was still being used late into MY65. Now would suspect sometime in MY65, towards end, a new label "Chevrolet '65" came into the mix. So far these ('65) have been seen in a Nov & Dec car and then the changed occurred sometime later. And as you suspect 2 different labels were in use. (Is there yet another??)

One minor point is that the MY is not a calendar year and Irving was dating their belts relative to the calendar year. Well these are just assumptions on my part - hope we find out more.

[Dave B.]

Re: 1966 Seat Belt Labels

Thanks Michael,

I was hoping you would post. In one of your archived posts years ago, you commented that your early (either Sept or Nov) 1966 seat belts had these early style Irving labels with the '65 date after the Model number.

Regards,
Dave