headliner bows?

[1947PLEVY]

Howdy All:

I have a question concerning the headliner bows. Are they the same for the coupe and sedan? I would think they are different. But not too sure about it. Any expert advice would be appreciated..

I thank you in advance..

God Bless US All... John 47Plevy

[Norm's Coupe]

Well.........I'm no expert, but my parts book is.

Headliner bows for a P15 sedan are different than the P15 coupe. Also, the bows are different if you have a business coupe or club coupe. So..........if you need bows, make sure they are from the exact model you have.

[1947PLEVY]

Thanks Norm.. I figured they were different..

God Bless US All... John

[1940plymouth]

Just a point of interest. I am not sure about the P15's but on my '40 business coupe, the headliner bows were numbered in sequence on how they were installed

[Plymouthy Adams]

there is a SEQUENCE on all the cars...Ed provided the proper bows and dequence for my sedan..the bows will be in different places pertaining to the model in which they are installed..the numbers are actually letters...some cars get multiple bows of the same letter code..also they were color coded at one time..this however might be hard to see after all these years.

[Young Ed]

I would suspect that at least the first few are the same for all the p15s. Its when you get back to where the roof changes that they change too.

Tim that 2dr sedan provided many a good part to a few cars on this forum. And before I got it some of the other parts went all over. It even provided a wheel and a bumper guard to some poor farmer about 8 miles inside the MN border. Dang trunk popped open

[Norm's Coupe]

Tim,

The bows have numbers on the P15's, not letters, and they are all different numbers for each bow. I found the numbers after I wire brushed them and painted them. They must have changed that for the 50's model cars to letters (maybe the change took place on second series 49's).

Looking at the parts book for the P15, it appears that the bows are only interchangeable on the 4 door sedan and 4 door town sedan. All the other model P15 use different bows. If you look closely at the roof line of the P15's you can see they are shaped a little different on each, except the 4 door models. Then on the coupes, they are also different because of the big butt of the business coupe.

I don't have a parts book for the early 50's model Plymouth, but........those roof lines all look about the same. So maybe they are interchangeable for those cars.

So.........John needs to stay with his model P15 for the bows.

Edited November 4, 2009 by Norm's Coupe

[1947PLEVY]

I was asking, because a guy is needing a set for a coupe. I don't know if it's a biz or club.. He asked me from this forum, but I don't remember his name right off.. I have extra for the sedans..

Thanks for all the input..God Bless US All...John

[Plymouthy Adams]

Norm..you peaked my curosity and made me question my own memory, so I pulled my Plymouth P15 bows down from the shelf..and yes in conjuction with letters..there are colors...and trust me the letters are also on the D24 set..

colors are purple, white, pink, red, green and what may be tan..it is a bit worn on that end..

Edited November 4, 2009 by Tim Adams

[Norm's Coupe]

Tim,

Don't know what to say about your bows. Did you take those out of the car yourself, or were they just laying in the car when you got it? All I've seen on the P15's are numbers. Don't know anything about them being color coded on the ends either. Parts book uses numbers too. Maybe someone put some aftermarket bows in your car at one time.

This subject has come up before on the forum. However, I don't know if it was on the current format forum or the old one. Was quite awhile ago. In that thread though, we were all talking about the numbers, not letters on the bows. I remember that part because I had mine out of the car then. I had tagged them number 1 - (forgot how many off hand). Then when cleaning them I also found the numbers stamped on them at about the same place I see your letters. So.........then I just tossed my little tags I had put on them.

Again, I'm only going by the above and the P15 parts book.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Ed J. sent these to me..the Dodge examples I did remove myeself and they are as these...letters..The Dodge units still are in the old headliner as I thought it would be easier to preserve the correct order this way

[Young Ed]

I removed those personally from a p15 2dr sedan. I believe it was an early model

[Norm's Coupe]

Well........like I said in my first post on this thread. "I'm no expert, but my parts book is".

My P15 parts book is an original, not a copy. It's dated "Revised April 1947" on the cover of the book. The bows are listed on page 257 if you have one. All the bows for all the cars are numbered. There is a total of 14 different bows listed for the various cars. I looked it up before that first post, and again just now. Here is how each bow is listed:

BOW, Headlining No.1 (see note)

Then the rest are listed as to which car they go to. Each one has a different part number also. After that the following note appears.

NOTE: Bows are numbered from front to rear of roof includes over and under rear window.

So.......like I said, if those bows came out of a P15 and had letters, they were either after market, or someone in the past just kept trying different bows from another car until they found some that fit. Or.......maybe they made them, then stamped with letters instead of numbers. Probably put that color code paint on them too to help identify them better. The P15 parts book doesn't say anything about them being color coded on the tips like Tim's are.

Tim,

That said. I would go ahead and pull those bows from the old headliner and tag each one as to where it goes. That way they take up less room and you get rid of the old stinky headliner. When I removed my headliner, I didn't remove the bows from the car to do it. I just tapped an Exacto knife to the end of a dowel that would reach from one side of the car to the other, while I stood outside the car. Then I cut the headliner out while standing outside the car. All the interior was out at the time. Good thing I did it that way. That old headliner was full of critter droppings, nut shells and who knows what else. Had the garbage can right next to me to dump the pieces of the headliner into right away. Then I removed the bows and tagged them as I took them out, one by one.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I guess the same guy was the one that fitted the LETTERED bows in my D24 Dodge also..imagine me getting two cars assembled by the same person with aftermarket bows...must be some sort of record..

sorry Norm..while I will give you the fact that the bows may have part numbers assigned to them in the book, I do not think you will ever see the number on the bow itself..

[Norm's Coupe]

Tim,

I'm not talking about what's on the D24 Bows. I don't have a parts book for the D24. They could very well be letters, I have no idea. But.......as mentioned, I'm not only going by the parts book for the P15. I'm also going by what I have in my coupe. They are numbered just as the parts book says they are, not letters.

Not saying you are incorrect on the D24. The original question was about P15 Bows though, not D24's. So.....that was what I was answering.

That said, body parts are different between the D24's and P15's. We have to remember when these cars were built. Back then they didn't build a Dodge in a Plymouth plant. They were two separate divisions in two different plants. Not like today where they run different models like they would D24 and P15 through the same plant and just put different badges on them. So........like I said, it's possible the Dodge division used letters instead of numbers back then.

[Young Ed]

I just pulled my p15 bows out of the rafters and they look like tims pictured above. A mixture of letters and numbers. Weird letters too because its not a b c d e as one would expect.

[Norm's Coupe]

Well guys. All I can say is what I've said in the previous post. I'm not about to remove my new headliner to show the numbers on my bows. But........if you want to verify what I said about the numbers, go to page 257 of the P15 parts book. They are listed with numbers, not letters. Outside of that, I see no point in arguing about it.