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The hotter the better. We turned up the dial and got the water straight from the heater, then added regular dish detergent to cut grease and grime.
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Soak the belts for a few minutes, agitating them without burning yourself with the hot water. If the water turns dark, dump it and repeat.
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Secure one end of the belt and vigorously brush the webbing. If the buckle is difficult to remove, jockey it up and down while scrubbing the nylon around it until the belt is uniformly clean.
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Rinse the belts. We blasted them with a pressure washer (and unwittingly decimated the original code tags in the process).
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Once the webbing is dry, the vinyl boots and hard-plastic buckles can be cleaned with a household degreaser.
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Unfortunately, this boot is beyond repair. Replacements can sometimes be found at vintage-vehicle junkyards or from Ssnake-Oyl.
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Buckles can be repainted by masking off all nylon and chromed areas. Cover the hinge pivots with Vaseline or tape, then gently dust color-matched spray over them.
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Here's the before-and-after comparison.
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