On Thu, 26 Dec 2019 00:15:25 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 25 Dec 2019 22:21:38 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Wed, 25 Dec 2019 20:17:23 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 25 Dec 2019 19:22:05 -0500, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:26:36 -0500,
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Dec 2019 21:37:00 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Dec 2019 20:28:34 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 23 Dec 2019 15:11:03 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:

On Monday, December 23, 2019 at 4:01:05 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 23 Dec 2019 14:13:18 -0500,
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Dec 2019 09:23:50 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:

On Monday, December 23, 2019 at 11:56:49 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Mon, 23 Dec 2019 02:02:12 -0500, micky
wrote:


Car is in a traffic accident,

Body shop won't return the car for 4 months because they ordered a new
seat belt and it's not avaibable anywhere in the US, has to come from
some other country. Takes 4 months.

Have you ever heard that a body shop can't return a car if a seat belt
is missing?

Why couldn't they get a seatbelt from a junkyard, at least temporarily.


They didn't say what kind of car.

Thank the Traders of the world for that.
It is that "keep us safe, no matter what" thinking.

You are right, go to a junk yard and get one.

Actually, if it takes 4 months to get a seat belt, maybe it's being
caused by one of Trump's trade wars. Notably lacking is any mention
of what kind of car this is, how old, etc.

I didn't hear about the trade war with Japan or Korea.

And the replacement parts would have been made the same year or soon
after the original belts were made, long before the stupid tariffs.


Build all the parts ever needed for a 1992 Ford Taurus in 1992?
I don;t think so. Maybe if a Democrat like your ran the company.
Would take a hell of a good forecast and a BF warehouse.

I doubt they built OEM parts long after the model run was over. They
move on. Machines are changed to make parts for new cars and in some
cases there just won't be any parts. I ran into that with a door
handle for my Honda.
There were still people who listed it but they were all out of stock.

I ended up fixing the old one, and it wasn't pretty.
There are "second source" suppliers for virtually all parts today if
you make the effort to find them - and replacement parts are often run
by the OEM when the backorder list gets long enough to make economic
sense to do so.
Say the minimum setup run is 1000 pieces. When they have a demand for
300 parts they run off 1000 (or 1500) and fill the backorder charging
a sizeable premium to cover the cost of the run - and then keep the
remainder in stock (at no capital cost) to fill orders for a few more
years.

Eventually they do run out and stop supplying them - and that's where
the "second source" suppliers chip in if a demand exists. Second
Source also comes into play if the OEM gets too greedy - if there is
money to be made, these companies WILL be there!!!!

All that assumes you have a part that they see a need to make. If the
usage is a few dozen a year and the cars are going to the junkyard
faster than that, nobody is going to tool up to make more parts. If
this was a metal part, I might have tried to find one in a junk yard
but plastic parts go bad just sitting there.

So if no one makes the seatbelt and the body shop won't release the car
without all its seatbelts, do you have to throw away the car?

A seatbelt is a pretty generic part and you can easily find something
in a junkyard that will satisfy the law.
Actually, no you can't. Modifications to the restraint system are NOT
allowed.
In practice it would not be hard to retrofit parts from a different
model - but under THE LAW, you can't.

You certainly could if it was the same part number or a designated
substitute. A little googling should give you a list of target
vehicles.

What I took issue to was " a pretty generic part and you can easily
find something in a junkyard that will satisfy the law. "

Sure, if you can find a "direct replacement" in the junkyard, you are
golden - and as I said, I've used non-direct replacement units where
only a wire plug needed changing.

Hasn't stopped me in the past as long as the functionality is the
same. Often the difference between 2 parts is the wiring connector -
I've been known to replace them to make a newer part fit.
The issue is the retractor/lock/and tensioner apparatus which all have
to functionproperly. It's not like a '71 Chevy pickup.


As far as the door handles on the Prelude are concerned if you REALLY
want to keep the car a good body shop can convert it to a newer more
common handle - or a custom one.

What year prelude did you say it was???

97