Trevor,
Perhaps you could explain what you mean by an 'almost compliant theme'?
The Moodle2 themes are constructed in a very different manner to those used in 1.9, so I'm really not sure how any 1.9 theme can be 'almost compliant' with 2.x - The file and folder structure is different, the way the layout files are generated is different, etc.
I think my advice would be to find an existing Moodle2 theme with a similar layout to your previous 1.9 theme and then adapt the css and graphics from your 1.9 to style the 2.0 theme the way you want it (Don't forget if you are using a core theme to clone/copy it first or to use it as a 'parent' for your 'child' theme.)
Richard