I'm thinking of picking up a spare targa to restore while I drive my car. I have a '75, but the targa I'm looking at is I believe a '72. Will the early targas fit on a late car and vise versa or do I need to get a late one?? Also what's the year break between the two tops?? Thanks.

All Targas are created equal.

Everyone that I have taken off of a parts car has fit my car just fine..........

My '72 targa top never had (evidence of) a headliner.
What's up with that?
Is the headliner on all years and mine was just stripped by the P.O. or something?

no headliner in my '70 and no evidence of one ever being there.

The difference is in the rear hold down hooks, they are not all the same.

Buy it and then if it doesn't fit you can sell it to that TROJANMAN fellow, they all fit on his car. My '71 top and '74 top look the same but I have never even thought of swapping since my wife told me no.

There was a headliner in the '72 I just parted out. There is also a headliner in the '71 that I have parked somewhere, and the '72 top fit on my '74, and the 73 top that I had, fit on my 75. I haven't tried the '71 top on the '75 though, since that car is now in California. And I still need to try the '73 top on the '74 in the garage and the '74 top on the '71 that I have parked somewhere. I also need to try the '71 top on the '74, once I remember where I parked it.

If that doesn't work, then I am sending them all to Canada........

I thought there was a couple of small changes in the tops that happened the same time the 914 door window updates happened?

Rear latch, pad and something else...seals? That might have been 74'?

Early and later ones are different and can not be properly substituted. I asked this question a while back (past 9 months) and somebody came up with the thread...pictures included, that shows the changes. The mold is actually different.

That would make sense.
I think the tops are still interchangeable, but perhaps do not seal as well?
Of course I can't remember the last time I drove with the top on.

I don't know about the mold for the FG top itself being changed - since there would be no point to do so unless the tooling wore out, unless it was to fit the following changes IIRC -

1. Seals changed - primarily at the L & R front-sides/corners to reduce/eliminate leaks down the side windows when it rains. That was early in the 73 MY (say 73.25 MY?), so some early 73's which were 72 builds have the "old seal tops".

2. Rear latch mechanism as noted above, although I'm not sure about that since I'd never heard that before (just the seal changes).

Also IIRC, starting in the 73 MY they made the perlon grey felt headliner standard fitment, or it may have been 72 MY. Before that it was an extra cost option.

IMHO - the best course of action is to always first test fit the top on your own particular 914 for fit & water test for the seals, since any top could've been retrofitted with other seals &/or latches over the past 34-41 years, not to mention warp, splits/caracks/chips/etc. repaired, latch hole atttachemtn screw points stripped, etc., etc.! !