seat belt shoulder strap thingy..

[suppjc]

Since the day I bought the car from the first owner, this strap thing was not on the passenger seat, and the strap itself was sitting in the glove box. My guess is that the strap had come out while the first owner had owned the car and he wanted to fix it.

The plastic clip doesn't seem to come off of the strap, and now I'm not sure how I'm supposed to install it onto the seat. Anyone had this experience?

Thank you.

[cnk]

Looks like someone pulled from the top instead of the bottom. That plastic piece has been pulled out of the hole in the top of the seat. The portion to the right bends 180* to form a loop and button onto the bottom button piece.

[suppjc]

You're right. I'm looking for a way to install the plastic piece back into the seat.

[McMCOO]

Looks like a rivet attaching the plastic disc to the strap. Most likely the plastic disc was placed under the hole as the cloth was put on the seat, then rivetted to attach. Seems like the closest place one *might* get in there is at the headrest hardware. Or see if the whole top upholstery can be opened at the bottom and pulled up. Either way, I would replace that plastic bit with something twice as wide. I'm sure the hole has been stretched and it would be more likely to pull through again.

[soundman98]

that's a rivet. meaning that you need to get a new rivet, remove the entire seat fabric, re-attach, and then reinstall the seat fabric.

talk to a local automotive upholstery shop(they do convertible tops, custom interiors, etc). all of them have the tools for that, and they'll likely better know where to source the proper rivet.

you could also just buy a used seat and replace the entire seat for what they might end up charging for labor...

[suppjc]

Originally Posted by soundman98

that's a rivet. meaning that you need to get a new rivet, remove the entire seat fabric, re-attach, and then reinstall the seat fabric.

talk to a local automotive upholstery shop(they do convertible tops, custom interiors, etc). all of them have the tools for that, and they'll likely better know where to source the proper rivet.

you could also just buy a used seat and replace the entire seat for what they might end up charging for labor...

I noticed the rivet part was what I had no idea how to approach.. sounds like something I can't do on my own, at least by any technique I can look up in 10 minutes

The labour cost comparable to a used seat sounds little bit steep to me. I guess I'll just leave it for now since it's a passenger seat and has been like this since I bought the car last year

[Ernest72]

This is ghetto but might work. Cut hole slightly bigger. Push plastic piece through. Add some glue inside and under seat fabric. The strap should cover it and look ok. Cost is 5 bucks for glue.

[McMCOO]

Another idea might be to open the red stitching. Fold the plastic piece at the indentations and put in back through. Make like a big washer out of thin, rigid plastic with a slot cut to slide it under the existing plastic disk. Maybe glue the old disk and new washer together. Stitch back up. Spitballing.

[Lav]

Does anyone happen to know what the buttons are called? The receptor that is attached to the seat, not the nub that is on the leather strap itself

I asked the toyota dealership and the diagrams did not have the strap, and the guy working there basically told me Id have to buy a new seat (lol).

I figure I can go to a home depot or arts and crafts store and super glue a new one in but itd help if i knew what the component was called

[soundman98]

they're generally called 'snap fasteners', though everything i'm finding at local micheals/joann/home depot/amazon are all smaller than needed.

https://www.joann.com/search?q=Snap%20Fasteners

[Lav]

Originally Posted by soundman98

they're generally called 'snap fasteners', though everything i'm finding at local micheals/joann/home depot/amazon are all smaller than needed.

https://www.joann.com/search?q=Snap%20Fasteners

Man I tried home depot and Michaels today, both were too big. I'm probably better off cleaning out my car and looking for the original one. Its not on the scion parts website either

[EndlessAzure]

Slip the plastic flange back into that hole where the yellow seat foam is showing through. You might need to do a little stretching and careful work, but once it's in it will probably stay as long as you dont yank on it hard.

@Lav

[soundman98]

once the fabrics stretched, it's coming out again. they're riveted in place and create the hole as the rivet is compressed. stretching out the fabric to fit makes the hole larger, and more likely to pull back out.

could consider drilling and tapping a screw through the 2 rivet halves, but it's still going to take disassembling most of the seat to insert the back half of the rivet to correctly compress the seat fabric.

Originally Posted by Lav

Man I tried home depot and Michaels today, both were too big. I'm probably better off cleaning out my car and looking for the original one. Its not on the scion parts website either

it's not going to be on a oem parts site. they're only going to sell the entire seat cover.

[saltywetman]

Originally Posted by EndlessAzure

Slip the plastic flange back into that hole where the yellow seat foam is showing through. You might need to do a little stretching and careful work, but once it's in it will probably stay as long as you dont yank on it hard.

@Lav

I would try this first as well... if the plastic disc was able to come out that means the hole is already big enough to stretch for the plastic disc to finesse back in. I would definitely not cut the hole any bigger