depends on what judging you would want to go for. Normal Flight judging does NOT judge on originality as is often thought of, it judges on how close the car APPEARS to be in the same condition as it would be during delivery to a customer after normal dealer prep.
That means things like paint don't have to be original lacquer but only have to APPEAR to look the same as the original lacquer would look, you can have repalcement reproduction parts installed as long as they APPEAR to look the same and have the correct casting and date codes on them, etc.
If your paint for example is original that's great but you will still than be jusged on the condition of the paint compared against how it would have looked when new. They will check most everything down to correct bolt head markings.
If you have an aftermarket exhaust and radio you will get deducted points for that but if everything else judges well you can still easly flight award.
On the other hand there is also "Survivor" judging. This judges solely on the originality of the car regardless of looks or condition. Things like paint are judged on how ORIGINAL the paint is with no care on it's condition but any touch-up spots will cause deductions. ANYTHING that is not truely original including airfilters, replacement bolts and/or screws, interior parts, motor parts, tires, exhaust, belts, etc, you name it are judged if they are original or not.
A filthy, horrible looking car that is 99% original will score better than a car that that looks better but not as original.
People mess up big time in survivor judging thinking that they will remove a few parts, clean then up, maybe repaint them to look better, etc before judging and than they lose a look of points because those parts are no longer original in condition.
Things like factory markings are all looked for and judged also.
Survivor judging is one of the hardest to do and get an award in.
Last Spring I found and purchased a '78 with only 9,489 miles. One of the first things I was told was to consider sending it in for Survivor judging since 98% of the car was still all original. The problem was that the car had been stored the last few years outside under a plastic tarp and it no longer ran and was in poor condition regardless of the low milage. Just to get the car running again was going to require so much work that it was going to kill any chance of survivor judging so it wasn't an option and I simply disregarded that option and went through and did everything I needed to get the car running again and in nice "less than 10,000 mile" condition.
Because of everything I did even though the car now still only has 10,600 miles it will never be able to pass survivor judging but it would probably take a top-flight award.
