The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors '49 headliner

I have a '49 Chev 1/2-ton, and I want to install a new headliner in the cab and new weatherstripping around the doors. To order parts, I need to know whether I have the early style cab or the late style cab. How do I tell the difference? Can somebody send me a picture or two? There is currently no headliner, weatherstripping, or weatherstripping retainers in the truck, so I can't really describe what I don't have!

Do the on-line vendors carry new weatherstripping retainers for a '49? I've done some looking, but have not found any.

A change in those parts took place during the 1949 model year. If you have holes on the cab on the inside edge of the door openings, you have the earlier style cab: screw-in door windlace and a floating headliner bow.

No one has reported finding reproduction retainers for the 1947 to early-1949 door windlace retainers. Jim Carter has the later style headliner bow but not the earlier style.

You might want to place a Want Ad in the Swap Meet.

Thanks for the information. I do not see any holes along the inside edge of the door openings, so I'm assuming the windlace retainers in my truck were welded in place (late '49). As for the headliner, I see a heavy metal brace that supports the top of the cab. It extends from the top of one door opening to the top of the other door opening. The metal brace is about 15-inches from the rear edge of the cab. Is this the headliner bow, or does the headliner bow screw into this roof brace? The roof brace appears to have holes in it, as if the headliner bow attachs to the roof brace.

This remains a bit of a mystery to me. I found the headliner bow, and it definitely screws into the roof brace at about 8 locations. This would suggest that I own the older style cab. On the other hand, there are no mounting holes for the windlace tracks around the door openings. The tracks were welded in place. Is it possible that I have the older style headliner and the newer style windlace? Anybody have any pictures? Thanks.

Your first-hand information is better than any documentation would most likely be. Perhaps they used the floating headliner bow yet the hole was left in the roof strut?

I just put in a headlkiner in my later 49 1 ton about an hour ago. You have the later style from the sounds of it. I have two early and two late 49's. The Earlies have the screw in headliner bow. The lates have a screw in headliner bow. I have heard of the floating but neither of my types have them. My late 49's have the box track spot welded in around the door openings with open spots just below the large curves from the vertical runs to the horizontal across the top of the door.


Yours sounds like my later 49's.

Just my $.02