Mango

My project '73 Challenger came without a headliner or headliner bows.
There are 5 bow mounting holes (actually 5 clusters of 3 holes). Does this mean that my car was originally a 5-bow car? Or did the 4-bow cars still have one unused mounting location?

I ask because the most popular reproduction part website only sells 5-bow for '70 Challengers and only sells 4-bow for '73 Challengers.

Also, can I use bows from any cars besides E-bodies? The bows have not bee extremely easy to track down.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

rcknrolfender79

Well I just wen't out and looked at mine it is also a '73. I have never had the headliner out of it... it is in near perfect condition. But I'm assuming by bows you mean places where it is seamed at and is connected to the roof. There are 4 seems all together in mine. 2 of them towards the front and they are about 6 to 8 inches apart and there is about a 1 and 1/2 to 2 foot in the middle that is all 1 piece and then there are 2 seems towards the back. The furthest one back is split by the rear window. I wish I could help you out a bit more than that but like I said I have never had the headliner out of mine and haven't had the chance to see another without a headliner. I tried getting a picture with my cell phone to put on here but it won't get a good one. I have a '68 coronet I will have to redo the headliner in. But it will probably be a little bit before i get around to messing with it. And I doubt that a B-body is the same as an E-body. But then again it may be a possibility that I would definately look into. Hope this helps. Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with. Oh and one last thing, I would just go with the 4 bow if I were you. Not much changed on the challenger between 70 and 74 mainly just grill, tailpanel and bumpers. I'm sure dodge used the same body mold it did in 70 to make the main haul of the car all the way through (seems to me that it would have been a very unnecessary expense to make a different one for every year they slightly changed accessories to it). So I'm sure there are quite a few things that are on a 73 that are not used like they would have been in 70. What I'm getting at is they wouldn't have changed something they could still use.

Mango

Thanks a ton for taking the time to look at it! Your car together with the reproduction company makes me fairly confident that I should use 4 bows. The factory probably just realized that the 5th bow mounting hole was unnecessary and stopped using it... rather than completely redesigning the mounting hole locations.

Thanks for the help!

rcknrolfender79

Not a problem at all. Just let me know if I can help you with anything else.