Little Details: Seatbelt Buckle Restore/Refurb/Replacement

[SwissArmy]

When detailing the interior of my Z4, I always hated looking at my seat belt buckles. Both are faded to pink, score lines, and the driver side buckle had some chipping to the red (now pink) plastic and was always depressed even when disengaged.

So, I went to the junkyard and looked for any BMW X5 E53's for seat belt buckles of reasonable condition. These have the same part numbers. ($40 CAD for the pair, with harnesses, which I did not need as I just used the ones in the Z4)

I then went at it with a heavy duty trim restorer. Took a few attempts at rubbing it in but it was well worth it. Tip: Be liberal and take your time. After each buff, it will dry and still look not-new, but keep going.

Installing the seatbelt buckles were easy. Basic plug and play with the under-seat harnesses and one bolt holding it into the side of the seat. Seat removal is straight forward (one screw holding the seatbelt guide, two nuts and two bolts at the base of the seat rails).

Here we go.

Product used:



Before buff, straight from junk yard:




After buff:




Passenger seat buckle compared to my refurb junk yard one:




Driver seat buckle in VERY bad shape:



Driver seat buckle next to refurb junk yard one, what a difference:




Installed Passenger buckle:




Installed Driver buckle:

[pyshin]

Great job man that's spectacular.

[SwissArmy]

Originally Posted by pyshin

Great job man that's spectacular.

Thanks bud. Small detail but huge difference. I've always hated those buckles, but when driving, since I don't see it, I kind of didn't care. But the more and more I got into detailing...I just had to.

[racerbruce]

Well done!
Such a positive visual first impression.

[SwissArmy]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

Well done!
Such a positive visual first impression.

Thank you always, racerbruce.

I'm sure most of you don't need to do this to your Zeds as they are probably in great shape. But you could try out this product on your other cars or as a routine touch up. The UV protection qualities is a plus for any plastics and rubber really.

[Alaberti]

I actually need to do a little touch up on the driver side, hugely helpful timing!

[SwissArmy]

Originally Posted by Alaberti

I actually need to do a little touch up on the driver side, hugely helpful timing!

Excellent. Post pictures in here once you're done

[Texaz3]

Another way to restore these is to wipe them clean with 90% isopropyl and then use heat gun, or hair dryer and heat those up. The white residue will disappear and heat will restore the color. Just don't over-do it with the heat gun.