If your chrome is good don't buff it too hard, the war chrome is only one thin layer and you'll see copper plating show through. Any chrome I had with yellowed old clear coating was resealed with rattle can clear after I cleaned it. Mostly my interior dashboard and steering wheel parts, the outside chrome was pretty bad and down to copper in many places.

The trunk emblem looks pretty good, though I think it was in better shape to start with too. What red did you end up using?

The grille emblem is pretty yellowed, tough to make it clear again. At least you have one! :o)

have you tried to put air into the tires, just to see if any of them hold air for at least a bit? we were lucky that 3 of the tires on my car held air and the 4th needed to be refilled every few minutes, we had a gas powered compressor that we used while we pulled the car out of the shed (sat for about 40 years) with a tractor and chain. Check the filler valves for leaks (dab of spit on the end, bubbles = leak), the guts of those can be replaced cheaply. Your mileage may vary of course but worth a try.

Thanks Craig. I know others have worked this stuff out too but I thought it might be good to just detail my thought process and some ideas for those who might be on the fence about how or whether to install their own belts.

The safety factor is a no-brainer to my mind, I can speak from personal experience having been in accidents both wearing, and not wearing belts. And as evidenced by my minimal craftsmanship, anybody can get it done so no reason to put it off.

wish they'd have included a picture of that engine, I'm sure it's quite a beast

I had originally decided to install lap belts in the rear seat, but after sitting back there and pondering where my head would go during an impact (right down to the top of the front seat frame) I changed my mind and started to figure out how best to install shoulder harnesses in back too. Below see a picture of my assistant demonstrating the problem.

After looking at catalogs and many versions of installation instructions, I decided on some roadster-type shoulder belts with the retractor mounting to the rear hatshelf area. These are available from the same vendor listed above.

When I got my new box of toys, I started mocking up the belt mounts and I didn't think that the hatshelf is really strong enough to take the full load. I experimented with a piece of steel angle as a backup under the shelf, that would cross the entire shelf and pick up both retractor mounts, but I eventually decided that I'd rather mount the retractors to the floor of the trunk and feed the belt up through the hatshelf to a pivot point much like the front belts. So I switched to using the same style belts that I used for the front seats. I built some doublers for under the shelf to mount the pivots and the geometry worked out well. My doublers are 1/8" aluminum from a scrap piece I had laying around (2024-T3 aircraft alloy) and are each attached with seven aircraft structural screws and nuts. The pivot point is mainly loaded in shear so I am not worried about the strength of the shelf with this doubler taking the load of the nutplate piece. The steel will tear before the aluminum plate will, but there are enough screws to spread that load quite adequately.

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I planned to install lap belts only for the rear seat, but after sitting in the seat and thinking about where somebody's head would go during an impact decided to figure out a way to install shoulder belts instead. That front seatback structure is just a sharp piece of steel, and a little windlace trim isn't going to soften that blow. I took a picture with my assistant demonstrating this.

After looking at catalogs and many versions of installation instructions, I decided on some roadster-type shoulder belts with the retractor mounting to the rear hatshelf area. I also ordered new red belts to replace my original grey front ones.

When I got my new box of toys, I started mocking up the belt mounts and I didn't think that the hatshelf is really strong enough to take the full load. I experimented with a piece of steel angle as a backup under the shelf, that would cross the entire shelf and pick up both retractor mounts, but I eventually decided that I'd rather mount the retractors to the floor of the trunk and feed the belt up through the hatshelf to a pivot point much like the front belts. I built some doublers for under the shelf to mount the pivots and the geometry worked out well. My doublers are 1/8" aluminum (2024-T3 aircraft alloy) and are each attached with seven aircraft structural screws and nuts. The pivot point is mainly loaded in shear so I am not worried about the strength of the shelf with this doubler taking the load of the nutplate piece. The steel will tear before the aluminum plate will, but there are enough screws to spread that load quite adequately.

I'm real happy with how they turned out, so the front and rear belt assemblies are the same now. I have to return the roadster belts and get another set of the other style in red for the fronts now.

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We got the front seat covers sewn up, and I repeated the process to build up the seats with all new materials. The lower front spring unit had some creative spring spacing that looked to be original, which I decided to straighten out. After uncrimping, moving and then recrimping spring clamps it is all symmetrical now.

The seats look pretty good, a couple wrinkles along the sides that I just could not make better but hey we're noobs at this. On to the door panels next!

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RIGHT front tire removed to get easier access to the valve covers but you knew that.

I just used one of those headlight restoration kits on my daughter's car, worked great. Starts with 1000 grit, then 3000, then some polishing compound. Noticably hazy after the first step, better and then the polish made them nicely clear. I don't think you want to try to totally remove scratches as you'll just create hours of work and then have noticable distortion in the former scratch areas.