Paul is correct about this car.
Some years ago I assisted Bil Haley in purchasing his 1935 Le Mans 4 seater and a pre-purchase evaluation meant a road trip with Paul, Bil and Gene Abbondelo to see the '35. On the way we stopped so Gene could buy a Sunbeam Talbot Alpine. We also visited David Laughton, who owned this Singer at the time. After that it went in storage for ten years when it was purchased by a collector, but nothing was done to it.
Otto did indeed restore a 4A Roadster, which he referred to as "Mr Plaid" since he painted the doors with a plaid pattern. He also cut away the wings to give it more of the look of a 4AD. I saw the car at Stowe when Otto and his wife joined us for the event and it was nicely done.
Eventually, he sold the car and it ended up in the UK, but he later regretted selling it and contacted me looking for another Roadster. He was able to buy this car and I assisted in getting a few parts for him during the restoration. During the rebuild, he sent me photos and here are a couple of them.
- Vallestro_4AD_As Purchased_Web.jpg (158.87 KiB) Viewed 2661 times
This is the car as found, which is pretty much how Bil, Gene, Paul and I saw it at David's place. You can see traces of red under the silver, so I assume Otto restored the car back to what he thought was the original colour.
- Vallestro_4AD_Block Repair_Web.jpg (138.56 KiB) Viewed 2661 times
Regarding the convertible top, they had zippered side windows at the back that had three 'segments' of celluloid with fabric in between that hid the hood bows. The split rear window is correct. The sidescreens would have been canvas and celluloid as standard and glass sliding windows were an option.
The fabric used was a kind of mottled tweed with one thread of colour matching the body colour of the car. This type of fabric dose not seem to be available any more, but I would be very happy to be proven wrong.
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Phillip