The front buckles on my 2003 XK8 convertible have not held up well. Many years of sunshine have made them very fragile. Here is my attempt to remedy the problem
Notice the superglue repair and missing piece




First I got a pair of rear buckles to harvest the plastic clamshells only.. The front buckles were unobtainum on eBay but the rear buckles will exchange. The buckle mechanisms won't exchange due to the air bag switch but the plastic clamshells will exchange back to front. Here is one with clamshell removed. I used a Dremel tool with thin blade and cut along the side seam


With the clamshells separated I painted the shells and reinforced the back of the buckle to add strength. Test fit the buckles mechanism to the clamshell to observe where the cavities are that won't interfere with the placement if the mechanism. I used JB weld plastic bonder to reinforce the back of the buckles.






Next use JB Weld along the edge of the clamshells and insert the buckle in the clamshells. Use a rubber bands to position the clamshells correctly on the mechanism. You will have a few minutes to move the clamshells. After the epoxy has dried fill in the gaps on the side of the buckles. The gaps are from the cut off tool on the Dremel. Sand smooth and touch up




Viola. The uncracked clamshells should hold up better than super glue repairs due to the epoxy reinforcements.

 

Nice- thanks for sharing!

 

another repair to the rear buckle