Anyone who owns an SC with ecru interior knows how difficult it is to get it clean, especially the seatbelts. If you drive most of the time with the top down, it doesn’t take long to start to turn black. I’m guessing it’s a combination of dirt & emissions (oil based) for other vehicles.

In Club Lexus I found little about cleaning, I did read about painting the leather, but the only success I read about was buying new seatbelts. I went online and researched how to clean seatbelts and I read some stupid stuff (using bleach), but I saw a continuing consistency of using degreasers. I was finally convinced this was the way I wanted to go after reading about Meguiar’s Detailer Super Degreaser being used successfully with a power washer.

I’ve owned my SC for a little over 5 years and have never been able to get them looking acceptable. Today that ended! I’ve had my SC’s trunk to dash dismantled for the last 8 weeks doing a whole lot of upgrades, repairs and cleaning. Here’s what I did…

1. Remove the rear seat completely (it’s very easy to do. Mine of course was already gutted)

2. Unbolt the seatbelt on the end that attaches to the floor.

3. Pull seatbelt to its fully extended length from the retractable mechanism and use a small c-clamp to keep the seatbelt from retracting.

4. Place a plastic folding table next to the car. This will allow scrubbing further up the seatbelt.

5. Hanging the seatbelt over & out of the car on the table (I also placed a large towel over the interior. I had the top down).

6. Using a plastic scrub brush, scrub seatbelt on the table with the degreaser (I actually used Oil Eater Degreaser Cleaner).

7. Rinse with water from your garden hose. (I had to scrub the driver’s side seatbelts twice, they were dirtier).

8. Place towels on your trunk lid and lay seatbelts on top to dry. Make sure the seatbelts are completely dry before letting them become retracted. You don’t want deal with mold in the future.

9. Put everything back together.

The seatbelt's aren't perfect, but I don't think they've looked this good since the car was new.

Here is an after picture, sorry I didn’t get a before photo (I think everyone knows how disgustingly filthy they get).

 

Nice write up !!

 

Finally! This is the way to clean and restore the retraction. I was lazy, I pulled out as much as I can and left the belt on woolite and warm water. It was hard to clean with the belts installed. Yours is the way to go.

I have to do the back belts. They are of a shade darker with dirt.

 

Excellent. My wife asked me to do just this and summer time may just be the time to do it. Appreciate the write up.

 

Great work !

 

Today I bought two gallons & a spray bottle of Oil Eater at Costco super cheep for future seat belt cleaning. There's an * on the pricing label... That means they don't have anymore stock.

Regards, Dan