Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Those bows look to fasten like one end of my 47 bows which used a fat flat headed fastener -- almost looks like a stubby roofing nail with serrations down the shaft. They push or drive into the hole in the retainers on those small tab like projections.

If the ends of the retainers which grab the serrations on the fasteners were damaged when the nail like pieces were pulled out when removing the bows they will not hold again and I could find nothing to match them to replace several of my damaged ones.

If any of yours were damaged I was able to remove the factory retainer and substitute a rubber bodied well nut pushed into the hole in the tab and then use a regular 8-32 screw to hold the bows. I think the well nuts come in metric sizes too.

Thanks Howard, Would you happen to have a pic of what these fat flat headed fasteners look like so that I might look for them? Thanks PT

This was in my spare fastener collection and I believe but will not swear to it that it is one of the bow fasteners. The upholstery panels on the 47 sedan B pillars also use a similar fastener. I think they are the same size and length but again won't swear to it. If they are different this could be upholstery.

In my case some of the retainers at both locations were damaged. Since they are needed in both places I decided to move the headliner bow retainers and use the factory items on the pillars under the upholstery where the covered screws could not work. Replaced the bow retainers with the well nuts because I could access the screw heads before the headliner edge was fastened down. If the 41 has a similar arrangement that might be an option if you are in a similar situation.

This fastener is 1" long, head is 3/8 diameter and shaft diameter is just over 1/8 -- I measured about .127. An 11ga roofing nail is almost the same except the shaft is a few thousandths thinner at about .120 which makes it almost the diameter of the groove between the serrations. Big reason the nails won't work is they do not have the serrations. Without the serrations the barbs or whatever is in the end of the retainers will not grab and hold. Of course, if the retainer barbs were broken off when pulling things apart a fastener with serrations will not hold either.

Attach file:

---

  (16.94 KB)

Howard, A belated thank you for your help. I am going to talk to a trimmer I know. Hopefully he can shed some light on this mystery. And Mal is going to Hershey, I have asked him to look at any 41s he can find.

Mal did go to Hershey but only found one '41, a 110 Coupe. However it had been reupholstered including the headliner, with the work being done by or for the previous owner and the current owner couldn't shed any light on the headliner situation.

But.....at The Packard Truck Meet, towards the end of the day a guy arrived in a '41 110 Coupe missing the complete interior but still in possession of the headliner bows! Who'd of thought such a fortuitous event could occurr? I quickly became the owner's best friend, at least I was for the sake of obtaining photos of the headliner bows and fittings. I joke, of course, the owner Tom was a nice guy and after I explained the situation only too willing to help out another Packard owner.

Attached are some of the photos but Noel tells me there are still questions plus they show hardware pieces Noel is missing. Maybe someone here has '41 headliner hardware?

Noel also had me on the lookout for a '41 cowl mounted radio antenna, apparently they are as rare as hen's teeth. But, lo and behold, Tom's Coupe was equipped with one but naturally he didn't want to part with it!

Attach file:

---

  (248.72 KB)


  (285.74 KB)


  (187.26 KB)


  (195.77 KB)


  (242.36 KB)


  (165.91 KB)


  (274.81 KB)


  (236.80 KB)

Not sure what it looks like exactly, but would a pop rivet work?

Hmmm...Seems that one of your mates visiting from Australia was out at the Packard Proving Grounds this past weekend. We got to talking and he was very interested in the antenna mount for the 1942 convertible coupe we have in our collection. He took a lot of photos from several angles.

The plastic base was available from Yesterday's Radio and I hope the new owners,lavinerestorations.com/ still reproduce it.

The metal base is/was available from American Arrow:americanarrowcorp.com/ call and ask for Don or Dan.

Now all you need to do is go down to a well-stocked auto radio store and buy a new radio mast and you have a complete kit.

That or use a battery-powered, blue tooth speaker and sync it with your smartphone and play Sirius Radio tuned to the 1940's music station.