Proper restoration?

[b5blue]

  Many of us go to incredible lengths to restore their cars to match every aspect of detail to "factory". Patina, percentage of gloss, exact crayon or paint markings, tiny nuances of hardware and clips, over spray and so on all count towards points in judging.
  My question is this, if these cars were painted with acrylic enamel and known to have a degree of orange peel would you loose "points" for not having the proper exact acrylic enamel with the correct amount of orange peel?
  I see many cars that are stunningly beautiful but technically "over-restored" as a recreation of factory originality. How does this work for show cars going for a true hard core proper restoration? I would think clear coat alone would deduct or "cost" points as I don't think any 1st trough 3rd gen Chargers ever had it? 
  When I worked restoring Jaguar and Triumph using exact same type primers under identical type top coats to the point of mapping orange peel and paint defect patterns was considered mandatory. I was told even if the car was in an accident you should not be able to tell the car was previously restored. We even spent hours gently cleaning then gauging the condition of nuts, bolts and other fasteners or clips prior to retreating or plating for things that may never be seen again. 

  That was over 20 years ago and just one shop. We had the task of restoring the 25th E Type Jaguar ever made and my first taste of hard core restoration. A few years later I was lucky enough to work with a hard core Mopar restorer. (Mike) He was so dedicated he worked part time for years at local Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth dealerships in the parts dept. just so he could scour inventory for rare or desirable muscle car parts and search data bases. He told me about over-restoring as he leaned strongly in that direction with his cars as a point of pride in his craftsmanship. He did all aspects (other than the actual machining of blocks) himself. Mike is largely why I have my Charger still, from him I saw what Mopar was all about. Some luck and determination combined my experience from him had me knowing what I was looking at 17 years ago this month, my 70 Charger.   

[resq302]

I know for the AACA (antique automobile club of america) that if you don't have orange peel somewhere or paint runs, you could lose points for an over restored car.  Key word is COULD as every judge is different and stuff is open to interpretation.

[BrianShaughnessy]

A valid topic of debate on over-restorations.

  I'm not real big on factory correct.   I'm more of a modified kinda guy.

 Some of us were lucky to gaze upon HemiGeno's 69 Daytona at Carlisle.    Vance Cummins did a super factory correct resto.   Runs, drips, errors,  overspray, orange peel and all...    But even then I believe they used modern paints.  

[b5blue]

  I'm just wondering haven't been around any shows for years! I've no hope of even doing "proper" repairs and paint on my car.  I find myself thinking about this kind of stuff now and then as I'm so far out of the loop!