Disassembling The Ragtop Locking Header Bow
by Garage Weasel on Jul.18, 2020, under General
The locking header bow is the bottom portion of the ragtop header which is how the ragtop is manually opened and closed. It also has the locking handle that locks the ragtop to the body. The handle not only hooks into the body to pull the header tight against the body, but the mechanism also clamps the header onto the roof to seal the ragtop.
To disassemble the locking header bow, I first removed the 3 bolts on each side where the longitudinal guide plates are mounted.
Next, I removed the locking handle. It is retained by a pin, just like the window handles.
I then removed the screws for the tensioners, the locking hook, and the lock assembly. Once the lock assembly was removed, I removed the pins and washers that attach the tensioners to the lock assembly. There are no other parts that are easily removeable from the lock assembly.
The headliner is attached to the bow by being tucked under upholstery tabs and the tabs are bent down to retain it. The rubber padding strip is then glued on top of the tabs.
I cleaned all of the parts in a parts cleaner to remove dirt and grease.