Hi, James,
Yes, the short strap is sewn to the plastic sliders, but I don't believe that this piece of strap is under any real tension. Its primary purpose seems to be to hold the padding. I won't really know until I get the sliders, but one idea I had was to simply thread these short straps (sewn part and all) through the sliders first, then slide the longer straps through the sliders. I think that this would be tight enough to keep the short straps from being able to pull out. Otherwise, I could consider resewing the short straps (I don't think any heavy-duty sewing would be needed).
I'll try to test this theory this weekend and let you know.
-David Pease
'66 French 230SL
