'99 V70 Seat Refurb - In praise of the seatbelt release tab

[E Showell]

Although I have swapped seats between vehicles, it was not until very recently that I learned of the "seatbelt release tab". I do not believe it has been mentioned previously in any of the seat-related posts I have read on this forum. I discovered it courtesy of Bob Elwood's seat recovering directions. It is present on the V70, but alas, I do not believe on the 850. Instead of removing the seatbelt anchoring torx bolt, one simply has to depress a small nub with a screwdriver to slide the seatbelt strap out of its connection point on the seat. This miraculous device saves lots of time and frustration since there is precious little room to swing a wrench to get the seatbelt off otherwise.

If you are removing seats in a V70, this little latch can save you quite a bit of time and frustration.

[abscate]

Not to mention not having to go out and buy a Torx-NNN bit, NNN large.

I wish I had known about this last year....

[E Showell]

In this case, a picture is worth 1,000 words. Thanks for the pic.

[osman]

I learned it from my friend Omar at DIY garage austin, he showed it to me a few years back when I was replacing a seatbelt tensioner. I thought about all the seat swaps I had done previous not knowing about the quick release tab.

[E Showell]

So I got the front passenger seat in the '99 V70 recovered over the weekend. The seat back was a reclaimed skin from a power seat that I could never get to work in the car that I removed and installed on the existing manual seat. The seat bottom was supplied by Elwood Industries. The driver's seat -- new back and bottom -- awaits, probably this coming weekend. I hope to post some pics when done.

I posted, I want to say about two years ago, about seat skins I obtained from Elwood Industries that I had installed on the driver's seat of my '98 V70. This time I opted to self install. There are a few tricks one needs to keep in mind, but Bob's directions are reasonable and the quality of his product is outstanding -- I'd say superior to OEM, except that I don't have a real handle on long term durability at this point. Plus, he made himself available by cell phone over the weekend in case I had any questions about the install. I emailed him at least twice and spoke to him once on the phone during the install.

As has been noted before, his product is not cheap (in any sense of the word). He uses quality materials and fabricates each set of seat covers to order. He does a very nice job with them. If you live in a part of the country where you don't have your pick of used seats with good leather covers on them in junkyards for $50 a pop (that would describe my situation), then Bob's covers are a viable option, although I must confess, it is undoubtedly less expensive to employ the myriad of leather restoration products which others here have used to good effect and have posted about their results -- do a search of the forum before you dive in to this. My approach is clearly not the only viable option and is certainly among the priciest, but I cannot quarrel with the results thus far and self installing is not beyond your capabilities if you can do an ignition tune-up or brake job. Even if you can't do those, self installing seat covers can be done with a modicum of patience and perseverance. I'd say it is a two wrench job out of five.

[matthew1]

Whoa. A true secret.

This post scheduled for inclusion in the VRD. Thanks guys!

[abscate]

Duly named the Showell tab ...it isn't having information.....it's about sharing it.....

[E Showell]

I can't take that credit. Kudos to Bob Elwood of Elwood Industries, the replacement seat cover supplier. That little gem is tucked away in Bob's installation instructions.

[abscate]

Its the Showellwood Tab, then.....