Porsche 911 / 912 coupe headliner bow differences?

[redrobin911]

As far as I've known there are no differeneces in the headliner bows from 64 up to the last of the 993's - makes sense as the roof has never changed however sunroof models are obviously different when it comes to headliners.

So putting a new headliner in my 67S and thought I'd splash out on some new headliner bows rather than use one of the two sets of original 60's ones I had. So when stuggling with the new bows and reading threads on Pelican Parts and other forums knew these were a struggle to fit. Then this afternoon I took one original bows from a 66 911 headliner and noticed it was a different profile to one of the new Porsche ones, fast forward 30mins and I removed all the bows from the old headliners and matched them up with the new Porsche ones and what you see below is the result.

I've arranged the bows in 4 sets of 3, top set is front of the car bottom set is rear of the car. In each set the middle one is the new genuine Porsche part, above is a bow from a 66 911, below from a 65 912. Obviously the ones from the 66 911 and 65 912 are indentical. I'd be astonished if my 60's bows are anything other than original.

Question - why such a difference in orignal and new, could the original ones have distorted over the years or what's going on? I've pinged a photo to Garry Hall to see if he has any insight? Any one else got a theory as to why the new ones are nothing like the original ones????

[BILLY BEAN]

I was informed that Porsche incorrectly manufactured replacement bows at some point. Not sure how true this is or if later batches were correct. Unless your originals are in very poor order a good de rust and paint should see them serviceable again.

[tangerineT]

I'd be interested to know what the reply from Garry is too

My bows are as supplied with the car ,but weren't actually fitted to it so I'm guessing by measuring which is which ,,and assuming they've always been with my car (probably weren't knowing my luck)

Regardless neither seem to sit correctly and I'm wondering if I'll get my headliner tight

Mine all appear 1 - 2 cms too long

[redrobin911]

I Haven't spoke to Garry yet as I made the decision to use what I had, Chris at Fennlane aslo says the Porsche ones don't fit and he's making alternatives so might be worth talking to him? Even the old bows were a struggle to get right and there is not a hope in hell the new ones would ever fit. My photo clearly shows hte issue yes not only are they too long they're also the wrong shape.....

[fetuhoe]

Providing they hold the seam 'straight' you will also need to fit a pad of around 12-15mm thick to the roof using a high temperature adhesive.

The pad used by the factory is a foam backed hessian and it prevents the rods from rotating and keeps them firmly in place.

We have now made several hundred 'bows' and they do fit well.

We started making these as part of a Sun Roof Delete Kit.



We have also been making headliners in Black, White and Off-White for a few years and they have all of the 'card' reinforcements Porsche used on the early cars which make them easier to fit. Porsche deleted these parts on later cars - probably as a cost saving.

We also supply pre-cut vinyl for the A and B Posts with the headliner.



We are just about to start to make headliners for Sun Roof Cars and have just sourced the correct zip.

[tangerineT]

Just to let you know I spent all morning trying to get the headliner to fit with these silly bows bending and wobbling around as they all appeared to be just a bit too long

I decided that the fit of the headliner was nice ,but not good enough so I took it all back out , cut approx 1cm out of the bows until they were a tight but straight fit and the headliner now fits a treat

1/2 hour altering the bows has made all the difference !

I don't know if this would be the route recommended by the specialists , but it appeared that I couldn't get enough stretch in the fabric as the bows were restricting me and much as it looked ok ,there was always that bit that looked wrong and even if you stretched that out it seemed to pop up somewhere else

[redrobin911]

Just to let you know I spent all morning trying to get the headliner to fit with these silly bows bending and wobbling around as they all appeared to be just a bit too long

I decided that the fit of the headliner was nice ,but not good enough so I took it all back out , cut approx 1cm out of the bows until they were a tight but straight fit and the headliner now fits a treat

1/2 hour altering the bows has made all the difference !

I don't know if this would be the route recommended by the specialists , but it appeared that I couldn't get enough stretch in the fabric as the bows were restricting me and much as it looked ok ,there was always that bit that looked wrong and even if you stretched that out it seemed to pop up somewhere else

I was going to do the same with the Porsche bows but as I had orignal ones used them as knew they would work fine. IMO you do what you have to do to get the job right.

[tangerineT]

Just to let you know I spent all morning trying to get the headliner to fit with these silly bows bending and wobbling around as they all appeared to be just a bit too long

I decided that the fit of the headliner was nice ,but not good enough so I took it all back out , cut approx 1cm out of the bows until they were a tight but straight fit and the headliner now fits a treat

1/2 hour altering the bows has made all the difference !

I don't know if this would be the route recommended by the specialists , but it appeared that I couldn't get enough stretch in the fabric as the bows were restricting me and much as it looked ok ,there was always that bit that looked wrong and even if you stretched that out it seemed to pop up somewhere else

I was going to do the same with the Porsche bows but as I had orignal ones used them as knew they would work fine. IMO you do what you have to do to get the job right.

True ,, but what a pain when parts don't fit properly ........