New 5th bow does not fit 2011 convertible

[Slower]

Hello,
I have tried to replace 5th bow on my 2011 Camaro. I ordered part #22936377 but it does not fit the car.

The new part has the pin in a slightly different position - off by about 1/2". Do you know if I got by any chance a wrong part or whether the new part is not a direct replacement? Actually, should be the pin in the same position?

Comparison of new one and the old one on pic 1 and 2 (the original one is the shorter one with the pin extended further back)

Roof AFTER the installation of the new 5th bow on pic 3.

Thanks for help!

[sbubbaklein]

that is the correct part number and here is picture of bent one and new one. I had to adjust rubber stops at front of trunk to allow 5th bow to seat higher up

[sbubbaklein]

you are doing a great job and just need to do a little adjusting. Mine was a 2011 and I followed directions for $200 5th bow replace.

[Slower]

Thanks for the reply! I was afraid that something is wrong either with the part or the car.

[sbubbaklein]

welcome to the forum, lots of good info, people always ready to help. see you are from Prague, any more Camaros there?

[Slower]

Thanks for the help!

Here in Prague (and generally Czech) are few Camaros, here and there. But normally see other Camaro once a week. And in the winter it is even rarer. On the other side - US pony/muscle cars are so rare that we regularly greet each other on the road and we tend to stick together as we face similar challenges. And those challenges would make for an own post/topic

I still can't put the 5th bow on the car - we have tried to adjust everything and we were able to adjust it vertically, but we can't put it in the place horizontally. New 5th bow is too short. On my car, we'd need to put it somehow more towards the rear end - "C pillar" is too loose and almost all rubber from the 5th bow is sticking out. This is especially pronounced in the corners.

edit: this is with the original bow, the closer side with the old piece and the side further away with the new one.

[sbubbaklein]

you didnt say if you replaced the bow itself or just the end brackets as described in the $200 fix on the forum. The bow itself may be bent. When I purchased brackets they came on bow and I removed them to install. I later had to removed the bow since I couldnt get the screws to the bracket loose. The bow is held on to the top fabric by the fabric slid in a slot on the bow. I pulled the top assy all of the way off to get the bow and screws out. You may be able to remove bow while top is still . I believe there are a couple of posts on that.

[Slower]

We wanted to change the 5th bow during the water bag replacement, as it was disassembled anyway so we tried to change the whole bow. In the end, we kept the old one in, but I still wonder what could have gone wrong and whether it is worthy of keeping for the future.

Hmm, I did not think about bow beeing bent, but that's also possible. It got shipped over the ocean and god knows if it was stored properly. If it were bent, wouldn't we have an issue fitting it into the car frame?

Is there an easy way how to check it without removing the original frame from the car?

[sbubbaklein]

would love to hear about your experiences.

[sbubbaklein]

the top assy fits really tight in the opening even with the painted trim removed. you have to slide it in from one side and then almost force the opposite side down. If it went in easy then you bow is bent in. The side brackets for the top frame can slide fore and aft as well as side to side. I did some adjusting side to side to get mine to fit as well as the rubber stoppers at the front of the trunk.

[Slower]

Many thanks again.

I have read again the message from the guy that was doing the work for me - and the last picture shows the bow when he tried on one side original end bracket and on the other new bracket. It has been put all the way to the back. So the issue must be somewhere in the brackets (or car frame).

[Slower]

So finally I've got the core issue:

My Camaro contains pivot assembly 22856131, but with the new 5th bow it should have 22856131 (similar on the other side). Without this, it won't fit properly in the place. Some of the Camaros have a new design, some of them have the old one...

In the end, we have left the original 5th bow in the car. It is bent, it makes small fold between the window and rear trunk, but it works and it does not rain into the car.

After the consultation with the service guy, we decided to keep it this way and replace the 5th bow and the pivots once we will have to change to cover as the labour to disassembly the roof mechanism is tremendous.

I'm pretty lucky that such a mechanic with specialization and years of experiences in convertibles lives near by, I'd be doomed without him.

[N17RO]

My 5th bow brackets bent last week. I just had a blacksmith straighten them and temper them to make them stronger. Then I shimmed it up properly. The problem was the water bag was causing an issue so I cut the top of the corner either side to de-stress it. Now it all moves fine. Water tested it and it's still water proof too.