1930/'31 Standard Roadster interior

[Brother Hesekiel]

I have a 1931 Roadster. It has the "intermediate" indented firewall, where they stamped over the old channels, flattened them out, as described in the Judging Standards. This would date the car to about April 1931.

My car is a bastard. It has a replacement engine from Long Beach Ford, dating to about 1934, and that number is also the VIN, which really impacts the car's value. I have not have the body off the frame, so I have no other number as a reference.

The rolling chassis is an older frame-off restoration, and the body has been on a hot rod once, visible on the cut-outs for the dropped rear axle that have been welded over from the outside. It has an earlier fuel tank, probably because they couldn't find a good late one, and thus the earlier instrument panel and gauges. Did I mention that it's a bastard?

Now, I don't have a problem with all of that, try to remedy some of it in the years to come, and that's part of the fun to me.

Initially I thought that I have a Deluxe Roadster, missing some of the Deluxe features, such as the carpeting, the cowl lamps, and the chromed windshield frame. The more I dive into the car, the more I'm convinced that I have a Standard Roadster that has received the Deluxe treatment in form of cutting the windshield frame down, installing a Deluxe frame and top (missing the chrome), and calling it a day. There is no indication that the car ever had cowl lamps, and the way they brazed and welded the body suggest that no magician was able to close the mounting holds so perfectly that no trace remains.

That's all good stuff for me, as I dislike the tan top, dislike the cheap tan interior (missing the leather surfaces), dislike carpet in a roadster. I'm not into chrome, love black, and envision a really standard, all black, rubber mat, plastic interior and top, Roadster at the end of the road, perhaps a couple of years from now.

I have never seen a Standard 1930/'31 Roadster interior. Le Baron Bonney and Snyder's sell it, using material "A-1" for seats, panels, and top. I like that stuff. It's called short/long cross grain if memory serves me. Now, finally, I should ask my questions:

1) What do YOU think of my idea of going back to standard? I would NOT get a taller windshield and standard top though. I would ask Barron Le Bonney to make me a standard top that fits the Deluxe frame which I would paint black, looking like a standard.

2) The way I understand it, standard door panels were more or like imprinted cardboard, not covered with the material. Does anybody have a photo of a standard cardboard door panel and/or a replacement one?

3) Do I have to anticipate any problems in regard to the interior when going back to standard? Will I be able to "nail" in the door panels whereas mine are screwed in? Is the area behind the seats different for the Standard and the Deluxe?

I'm just trying to do my homework before I get started. My plan for this winter was to do the interior; next winter I want to take the body off the frame and have it painted in black, incidentally the only color that was available for both Standard and Deluxe Roadsters in 1931.