I have a similar frame I'm going to use for a nice lady-cruiser, but that's a 60-s bike. 1928 sounds like there aren't too many of those around anymore.
I'd restore it to original as much as possible. And (let a nice girl) ride it ofcourse :mrgreen:
well i was looking on ebay for what these exact years and in female frames bring all original- believe it or not some sold for no more than 45 bucks . and they wrere in better shape. with the laced rear fenders on them alrerady. and others never brought a dime.
now if it were a male 1928 elgin then itd be worth a load of coins.
I would think one of you frame builders / welders could take a piece of straight tubing and run a top tube from the neck over to the seat post. So turn it into a mens custom - one with dual bottom tubes.
I've seen enough frame mods on the forum to know that pretty much anything is possible. So if you decide to rat it you might do something like that - unless you happen to need a ladies bike instead of a mens.
And of course that's always something you could mock up in Photoshop or get one of the guys to do - to see how it would look before you actually changed anything.