Headliner bow measurements and color order

[zKars]

I started this post to provide a place to put headliner bows (or bars) information for future reference. Searches here and elsewhere were disappointing, lots of info on 'how" but nothing about determining order.

I have to put a head liner back in a 2dr sedan this week, so I need this info.

I have two sets of bows in stock at the moment and one was tagged With numbers that show the order. The colors on three of the bows are still visible on one set. So I layed them out carefully and took some pictures and measurements.

The attached pictures hopefully show the details.

The sticky in the picture states the measurements, but I'll list them here in case the pictures get 'lost'

Red front, green center, blue rear. Bow 2 and 4 don't have a shread of color on them, but their measurements are very close so it may not matter. I remember a black color in the list as well, so the 2/4 order might matter, they are slighty different, if anyone has the correct location for the black one, let us know!

Front, red, 42.6875 (11/16)
#2 no color, 42.5
Center, green, 42.375
#4, nocolor, 42.625
Rear, blue, 43.0

Both sets have identical lengths to each rod.

The rods (if any one cares) are 6mm diameter. "Someone" is going to make their own at some point, I'm sure.

I lined up one edge perpendicular to the bench top (last pic) and then looked at the other end to see the relative differences (center picture).

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[Byron510]

This a great info Jim. I remember seeing the painted ends on the Greg Terry car, but I don’t remember any colour on my brothers 71. Both were headlinermart units that went in. But in both cases I still had the bows in the original headliner before starting the new headliner, so the ‘orientation’ was preserved.
However there’s a choice of holes as well where the headliner can be placed to adjust its tauntness if I recall....

Thanks for documenting this on the site.

Byron

[andrew.lori]

Darn I could have used this 2 years ago LOL. I will save this excellent information for my next build.
The stupid / smart thing I did on my first 510 build was to mark on the inside of the roof with a sharpie the color sequence ..... wasn't much help
When I was putting my second basket case 510 together because the info was all covered up.

[yenpit]

Yes, I think 4 of 5 positions have THREE holes in a triangular shape, I think one position only has one hole. My guess is that the OEM headliner production had a tolerance, like maybe the bow "loops" could be slightly different than another......?? Thus during assembly, they would potentially move the bows around to best suit the car vs headliner. The rear most bow also had flat washers on each end.......never figured why! I usually have bow sets available, if anybody needs!

TJ
Denver

[zKars]

Thanks everyone, I knew this would be useful.

And thanks Yenpit for reminding me about the washers on the rear one! I put the bows in place to test fit last night the back one was loose compared to the others, even though it is the longest. I was scratching my head about that, but not any more. The washers would tighten it. 1/4" or 6mm washers will work fine.

I've been dreaming at night of another way of doing these head liners. In Z land (sorry again to polute this wonderful place with Z info), There is a foam backed vinyl headliner on the roof skin itself, tucked into the space around the edges, and then they upholster the 3 or 4" band around the perimeter with 1/4" foam and vinyl, again tucked into the gap above the 'band' and the headliner skin. This is the strip where the 3 holes for each bow are located.

I even dreamed of using spray foam over the whole thing but couldn't come up with a way to trim it down to constant thickness and put a nice smooth finish on it....

Yes I have trouble sleeping...

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[Byron510]

The Bronze has a full cage, and a roof liner installed like the Z is my only alternative.
I’ve always wanted to do this, but have shy’d away because gluing it on would be the only solution- and I suspect one would need some pretty special glue given the heat the roof skin reaches.
It would take away some of that pop can noise effect from the interior, though. And that would be nice!

Byron

[Fred_L-P]

The Bronze has a full cage, and a roof liner installed like the Z is my only alternative.

I'm in the same situation, and the cage is very very tight against the body. Mine still has the original headliner installed, but if I take it out it'll be impossible to put one back in. It is not in a great condition, there are many tears in it. Since I'm redoing everything, I also wanted to check the roof condition from the inside. I still dont know what to do, bucause I don't want the tin can noise.

The easiest option is to patch it, but It's not going to be pretty and I can't check for hidden rust.

Maybe the Z style headliner would work.

[iceman510]

I am getting ramped-up to do the headliner in my 73. I have the original headliner shards and bows, and two additional sets of bows (at least one available for sale if you need one). I measured them all this week so I thought I could add some additional data points. Numbers were not all the same as provided earlier, but for the unknown set I tried to order in similar size location. Some of them may not have the exact arch or bow, so in addition to measuring I tried to match them up. Despite the slight differences, I feel they would work in a vehicle since they have to conform to the vehicle width anyway.

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Any questions, or interested in the spare set, let me know.

[iceman510]

Oops, sorry I got the OP user name wrong, should be zKars.