New to me, 31 Budd Cab A. Has artificial black vinyl headliner. Also has several ribs holding up the liner. Is this anywhere correct, is there even a headliner in this truck.
No, there was no headliner in the late 1931 Budd cab pickups. If you're referring to the channel shaped ribs then those are original. I can't imagine why anyone would have gone to all the trouble of stuffing vinyl headliner material between the ribs and the all metal roof. Maybe to reduce noise? Maybe someone added a Budd cab roof to an earlier 1930-31 closed cab pickup and is hiding some welds?
I took the metal ribs out & had them powder coated. While they were out, I applied "Road Kill" insulation, then covered that with fabric like they make speaker enclosures out of, then re-installed the ribs. Looks nice, and provides a sound barrier of sorts.
The trucks were utilitarian vehicles so it's no surprise to me that the bows were bare. It looks like is had something around the sides though. At least the photos show material fastened on the sides. It was likely for windlace or something of that nature.