Rapide Driver seat belt renewal
Discussion
Hi,
Had the Rapide around 10 months now and absolutely loving it - only downside was the overpowering smell of perfume every time I was in the car - after much cleaning, air freshener, Ion blaster, replacement cabin filters and finally an aircon bomb the smell was better but still present.
Took the car up to Scotland a few weeks ago so around 1000 miles of trip - and it was during this I realised the smell was coming from the drivers seat belt - localised cleaning and airing has made no difference so following another post here I have decided to get the webbing replaced.
As a Scottish cheapskate I of course decided to do this myself - so here is the procedure and also a question please;
First step is to remove the outsid black shiny trim between the two doors - this involves two downward facing posix screws on the bottom edge of the panel and some gentle persuasion - when this is off I got distracted and polished the panel with polywatch - much better.
Under the panel there were three torx head screws - remove these.
Remove the two bright trims on the sill front and back, this reveals a torx screw at the rear of the bottom of the B pillar trim - remove this. At the front there is a trim panel now loose on the sill - remove this and then remove the torx screw - the lower B post trim can now be removed.
If you have grab handles then unscrew the large blobby bit at the top and unscrew the handle via the screw exposed once this is removed. At the base of the top half of the B pillar there are scews either side - remove these and the top trim should also come away revealing a T40 holding the top seat belt bracket.
There are now four 10mm bolts holding the seat belt mechansm to the frame - the bottom one is a bit tricky to get and I had to remove two fir tree clips at either side of the B post to allow the carpet to be held back a little (not looking forward to putting that bolt back!) there is also a T75 blt that actually holds the seat belt mechansim to the aluminium bracket you have just loosened.
All the above was done with the driver's seat still in but in hindsight I woud take that out first - as it needs to come out to get the bottom seat belt anchor which is attached to the seat frame. Seat removal is four 10mm bolts - one at each corner. Once these were out I just propped the seat up on blocks of wood so I could get at the T40 bolt.
That's where I've got so far and it was about an hour's work - unfortunately I bust my T40 drive so a 1/2 inch impact one is due in a couple of days.
So the qustion is...is there some trick to remove the seat belt anchors that are held by the T40 bolts (one on the upper B post and the other on the seat base) - I broke one 3/8 bit and the 1/4 inch one on my impact driver did nothing. I did watch a youtube video a while ago where the guy was removing a old Mercedes steering wheel and had the same issue that he solved with heat - as you will understand I am a bit reluctant to do this on an Aston Martin!
Any ideas welcome.
Many thanks.
Had the Rapide around 10 months now and absolutely loving it - only downside was the overpowering smell of perfume every time I was in the car - after much cleaning, air freshener, Ion blaster, replacement cabin filters and finally an aircon bomb the smell was better but still present.
Took the car up to Scotland a few weeks ago so around 1000 miles of trip - and it was during this I realised the smell was coming from the drivers seat belt - localised cleaning and airing has made no difference so following another post here I have decided to get the webbing replaced.
As a Scottish cheapskate I of course decided to do this myself - so here is the procedure and also a question please;
First step is to remove the outsid black shiny trim between the two doors - this involves two downward facing posix screws on the bottom edge of the panel and some gentle persuasion - when this is off I got distracted and polished the panel with polywatch - much better.
Under the panel there were three torx head screws - remove these.
Remove the two bright trims on the sill front and back, this reveals a torx screw at the rear of the bottom of the B pillar trim - remove this. At the front there is a trim panel now loose on the sill - remove this and then remove the torx screw - the lower B post trim can now be removed.
If you have grab handles then unscrew the large blobby bit at the top and unscrew the handle via the screw exposed once this is removed. At the base of the top half of the B pillar there are scews either side - remove these and the top trim should also come away revealing a T40 holding the top seat belt bracket.
There are now four 10mm bolts holding the seat belt mechansm to the frame - the bottom one is a bit tricky to get and I had to remove two fir tree clips at either side of the B post to allow the carpet to be held back a little (not looking forward to putting that bolt back!) there is also a T75 blt that actually holds the seat belt mechansim to the aluminium bracket you have just loosened.
All the above was done with the driver's seat still in but in hindsight I woud take that out first - as it needs to come out to get the bottom seat belt anchor which is attached to the seat frame. Seat removal is four 10mm bolts - one at each corner. Once these were out I just propped the seat up on blocks of wood so I could get at the T40 bolt.
That's where I've got so far and it was about an hour's work - unfortunately I bust my T40 drive so a 1/2 inch impact one is due in a couple of days.
So the qustion is...is there some trick to remove the seat belt anchors that are held by the T40 bolts (one on the upper B post and the other on the seat base) - I broke one 3/8 bit and the 1/4 inch one on my impact driver did nothing. I did watch a youtube video a while ago where the guy was removing a old Mercedes steering wheel and had the same issue that he solved with heat - as you will understand I am a bit reluctant to do this on an Aston Martin!
Any ideas welcome.
Many thanks.
Update - belt now received back from Vibe Belts and re-installed.
In the end it just took serious force to remove the seat belt anchor bolts - I did try a gas powered soldering torch with the blow-torch attachment on the bolt in the seat frame and it did come out, however the thread lock was blue so I'm not sure the heat actually helped.
The B post still wouldn't budge so it was out with the imact gun and on the most extreme setting the bolt slowly turned!
Hopefully this post will help someone in the future.
In the end it just took serious force to remove the seat belt anchor bolts - I did try a gas powered soldering torch with the blow-torch attachment on the bolt in the seat frame and it did come out, however the thread lock was blue so I'm not sure the heat actually helped.
The B post still wouldn't budge so it was out with the imact gun and on the most extreme setting the bolt slowly turned!
Hopefully this post will help someone in the future.
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