# At what point is a restoration not a restoration?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-point-is-a-restoration-not-a-restoration/986905>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 11, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-point-is-a-restoration-not-a-restoration/986905 "2023-07-11T17:45:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-point-is-a-restoration-not-a-restoration/986905/21 "2023-07-23T18:40:54Z")

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> [@Common\_Tater](#):
>
> . If you look at some of the pictures, they pretty much gutted the whole thing and left the walls standing.

I’ve seen those pictures, and it’s pretty amazing. It was literally gutted.

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**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-point-is-a-restoration-not-a-restoration/986905/22 "2023-07-23T18:47:20Z")

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Hey, less grass to mow.

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**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-point-is-a-restoration-not-a-restoration/986905/23 "2023-07-26T22:27:09Z")

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To address collector cars which I understand fairly well, it even matters what brand of car you are talking about. Virtually ever car that is painted at the factory has some degree of what we call “orange peel”. This means the paint has a faint, “pebbly” look. The surface is not completely flat. Sadly, even real expensive factory cars like Mercedes have it today. However, a custom painted can can be smoothed with extremely fine sand paper and buffed to a flat surface that is like a mirror. I amuse myself by looking at car’s paint jobs that I can see when walking by. There is an easy trick to seeing how good the paint is by looking at the reflection of thin lines, like overhead wires. If the line is perfectly straight then there is no orange peel. If it is jagged (like computer jaggies) it has orange peel. (Trust me - it will).

But collector want their restored cars to look great. To resolve this the Mustang collectors down rate a car with perfect paint since no Mustang ever came with it. Even if your car has original paint it cannot be polished to full a mirror finish. HOWEVER, if you leave a small patch of orange peel, then the paint cannot be said to be perfect. So where to the Mustang owners leave a bit of orange peel? On the headlight buckets, behind the headlights. You have to show it to the judge if they ask.

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