I was wondering if there is any written guidance on judging panel fit. It often seems to be an area of contention. In general, I think most judges look to see that the gaps are even, and not excessivley (what is excessive?) large. Is there better guidance that I missed somewhere?

Also, isn't the general overall standard "as delivered from the facotry"? I've seen older xks and e-types take duductions for "poor" panel fit (alibi small) when all you had to do to find a worse case was walk to the other end of the field and look at the modern XJs and XKs. Do we really beleive that current factory standards are worse than they were 40 to 50 years ago? Or have we fotten to the point where we are judging against perfect versus factory original?

Jeff Klein
1970 OTS, BRG

Submitted by dougdwyer@eart… on Sun, 07/25/2004 - 12:22

I think this is a good example of how the depth and breadth of a judge's experience comes in to play. Beyond stating that some panel mis-alignment is acceptable I'm not sure that any objective standard can be established. But...If specific mis-fits are frequently found on certain models (such as boot lids on Ser III XJ6/12 cars...notoriously poor fitting) it surely couldn't hurt to make that information widely known. Still, though, it would be up to the individual judge to decide just how much mis-alignment is "normal".

Oh, sure, an objective standard could be put in place if we really wanted it. "Up to two panel misalignments are permissbile without deduction providing neither misalignment exceeds 3/32". Then we'd have judges out there with rulers and straight-edges......or perhaps incorrectly deducting points when they find a car that has *three* factory "installed" panel mis-fits. But, at least a standard exists for all clubs and judges to be guided by on a consistant basis. I'm not so sure it would be *correct* to do this, but it would be a standard :-)

Your remark "judging against perfect versus judging against factory original" is very interesting. With the quality of some restorations I've seen I have to wonder if perhaps new-but-incorrect standards are (in a subtle but pervasive way) being set. It would be interesting to hear from the judges out there to determine how often deductions are given for "over-restored".

Easy answers are hard to find in these discussions....

Doug Dwyer
JDRC/NWA
1987 XJ6 III
1988 XJS V12 Coupe