Interesting thread. I was recently watching the classic car auction out in Arizona (I think) on TV, and that crowd has an a similar slant on it. They have "original" cars, with all the parts from a 1957 Chevy for example, but for top dollar you need to have all the serials of all the main components match the original build records for that car. Sort of degrees of originality, I guess.
I have never, and probably will never, be able to afford any sort of Warbird, so I guess I can take a detached point of view. Any original parts, even just the nameplate, gives the machine some sense of history, and make it interesting. More original parts, more interesting. Less original parts - I still want one!
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Bill Walker
Canadian Military Aircraft Serials
www.ody.ca/~bwalker/