A judge’s perspective
As a longtime member of several national car clubs, and having attended many car shows, I have the occasional honor of serving as a judge at some concours and national club meets. The best part of being a judge is meeting the owners and learning how their car or truck survived the decades and became a show vehicle on a prestigious field with other beautifully restored or extremely well-preserved iron. And, of course, the up-close look at the vehicles themselves is a fantastic experience.
My annual travels also take me to auctions across the country where I must assess a vehicle’s condition, and then assign it a No. 1-6 Old Cars Report Price Guide condition rating. After the vehicle has crossed the block, the selling price is recorded and reported on these pages. So, short story long, I see a lot of vehicles up close every show and auction season, and after assessing many vehicles’ conditions, I have noticed several things that keep it from that next level.
Before I share these observations, let me clarify that my purpose isn’t to further criticize the extensive amount of work that someone has done to their pride and joy, but to provide insight into what a third party assessing a vehicle looks for. Hopefully, these observations will help someone bring their restoration from a No. 3 to a No. 2, or a No. 2 to a No. 1, or save them from making a mistake in their next restoration.
When first approaching any vehicle, the first thing I look at is the quality of plating on the door handle and vent window (when so equipped). Many people will restore most of the chrome on a car, but stop short of re-plating these commonly pitted parts. Then I look at the instrument panel to determine if the trim and gauges are bright, shiny and without pits, scratches and dust. Restoring these parts to like-new not only impresses judges, they’re the main areas of the vehicle that the owner himself experiences when getting in the car and driving it, so restoring them to a high standard also increases the owner’s experience. In my experience, vehicles with re-plated, pit-free door handles, vent window frames and interior trim have high-quality re-plating throughout.
Once the plating on the driver’s door hardware checks out, I crawl under the vehicle. Floor pans that are painted black — and weren’t originally black — are a red flag on a show car. Black-painted floor pans are fine for a No. 3 driver, but No. 2 and No. 1 show vehicles are expected to show all of the original finishes applied to the chassis by the factory. Black-painted floor pans are often a sign that the floor pans weren’t media blasted during the restoration, and the black paint is covering up rust or repairs that aren’t to high show standards. It also tells me the owner didn’t fully research the vehicle by studying other No. 1 examples, or extremely well-preserved originals, they didn’t talk to experts on the vehicle and they didn’t read the judging guidelines or an authenticity manual. It also makes me wonder what else isn’t correct on the vehicle.
Finally, be prepared to detail your show car again once it’s on the field. At a highfalutin concours where I wasn’t judging, I once saw a Full Classic that checked every box for being a best-in-class contender, maybe even best in show. However, there were grass clippings from the golf course stuck to the car’s tires and the undersides of its fenders. I am sure this concours wasn’t about to have a car photographed on its winner’s stand with such unsightly debris clinging to it, and the car never made its way to its rightful place before the crowd.
These may just be a few of the things judges look for, but hopefully they inspire you to take a step back and look at your restoration from another’s perspective, and get you the recognition your hard work deserves.