well, I decided to just use the saddle bag inner bags instead, made more sense in the long run anyway since I use the TP for stuff I use most often.
Thanks for the tip on the other bag, I will look into it, you wouldn't happen to have the part #?
as for changing out the TP for hard the TP.....my best friend has the hard TP on his 07 FLHTUC, and he has tried to get me to get a hard TP painted to match, the leather TP in my opinion is one of the most readily distinguishable things that seperate the SE from the standards, and I like the looks of it (just not the size and the fact that if you leave it open too long, it doesn't want to close and latch correctly).
Please don't get me wrong, I am not trying to sound like I think the SEUC is an elitist machine or anything like that, I was trying to find the standard UC (the blue & silver or the blues brothers paint scheme) when I found my SEUC by accident, the only point I am trying to make is, that if I spent the extra $ for the SE, it may as well look like an SE.
Again, thanks to all of you for your replys, this is always the first place I come to when I have a question like this, and you guys always come thru!!!!

Great Forum, and I am proud to be part of it.