If you own a US spec corrado, you know there is a lap belt and a motorized shoulder belt which runs into place when you close the door and start the ignition. this automatic seatbelt runs along a track from its resting place near the A-pillar and moves into place behind your shoulder on the B-pillar.
Outside of the inconvenience of this moving seat belt, there are many funny as well as sad stories regarding this unique restraint system.
The most annoying vulnerability is if the sun visor is rotated to the side to shield from the sun, movement of the seat belt will rip off the sunvisor from its mount near the windshield. My wife always uses the sunvisor and will constantly move it to shield her eyes from the sun. So this was a real possibility in my household.
The second most annoying is the seat belt tracks when worn can jam somewhere mid-stream in its travel. One discovers this when they try to start the car the following morning only to discover the battery is dead. The motor located below the B-pillar next to the passenger seats will continue to operate until the seat buckle reaches the end of the track. In worst case scenarios, the motor overheats and catches on fire. I've seen more than a few Corrados in salvage yards with fire damage starting near the rear passenger seats.
Lastly, it was stated by some former owners that some passengers experienced kidney and spleen injuries when involved in an accident using this two part DOT automatic seatbelt.
It's clear, I wanted them out of my car.
The solution is a traditional 3-point seat belt that were original equipment on Canadian and European Corrados. Unfortunately, our brethren to the North and across the Atlantic knew of our predicament here in the States and the price of the parts were expensive. I could source parts from MKIII Volkswagens but I would still have to exposed tracks and big gaps in the center console.
With our cars now approaching 25 years of age, these parts are becoming more rare, but I've discovered that when I do encounter these once cherished parts, they are not so expensive anymore. That likely means the corrado owners community is diminishing worldwide so the market is shrinking. That's good for old holdouts like me as the car is more of a rarity and parts become more affordable. (Supply and demand at its best!)
So I encounter a reseller in the UK which has the English version of the 3 point seatbelts for sale. He had seven full kits from wrecked Corrados. This would include the A-pillar covers, center console, and all of the hardware associated with the 3 point seat belts. The only quirk is that it would be for a right hand drive vehicle. In my case, that means the grab handle normally situated above the passenger seat would be above the drivers seat. No big deal to me. As long as all of the cosmetic pieces and all the unique hardware is included. Otherwise, I would have to source the same parts from a MKIII Golf/Jetta which share many of the same hardware. But the center console and A-pillar trim pieces are unique to the corrado.
The parts arrived at my front door quickly. And it appears to be a complete kit. The seller warned me that these parts came from the interior of a gray corrado. So I'll have to paint it black to match my interior. Easy to achieve using plastic prep and paint. And it appears all of the mounting points for the European setup are already in my car. This will be a simple bolt-in installation. No modifications other than the color change of the plastic trim. A step by step with pictorial of the installation will soon follow.
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