'32 Roadster top color

[DavidG]

Glenn,

Thanks for taking the trouble to take the "best possible" photo of your Lebaron Bonney T-14 top material. Attached are a couple of photos of the unused top boot and door side curtains from a restored roadster that I recently acquired.

Over the years, the Athertons' experience was that individual dye lots from Haartz (their supplier of the T-14 material) varied considerably in terms of their olive green appearance. (Robert's examples of my '37 cabriolet and '32 phaeton and those attached here are all made from the Haartz/LeBaron Bonney T-14 material at different times.)


Those variations evidently took place ninety years ago as well judging from the variations in the color density exhibited in the Ford archives photos of '32-'38 deluxe open cars shown in the DeAngelis/Francis book. All of those vehicles were made with the same top material which Ford simply described as "drab".

The coloration in the attached photos is the same as that of the original phaeton side curtains of Gene Hetland's highly original phaeton's examples shown in the V8 Club's 1932 book and numerous other well-preserved side curtains, top boots, and even the remnants of original tops. Yes, it is at the extreme of "greeness" dye lots, but as original nonetheless.