I agree, books are a good resource, but a maybe a small word of caution:. You can't always believe everything that books tell you. I have found that errors are not uncommon in books about Pagodas. After all they are generally written by authors who copy and repeat information that they may not have gotten from the best sources. The best teacher is experience, common sense and looking at "original" cars at car shows. If they have already been restored they may look beautiful, but not necessarily completely correct and you will find all sorts of people telling you "that's how they did it from the factory"
In my experience as a judge, a lot of emphasis is placed on items that are universal to all cars, such as paint flaws, condition of interior, chrome, etc, as well as general cleanliness. Unfortunately real originality is not weighted as heavily as I'd like to see.
I wonder what Pete Lesler's view is, on that topic?
Regards
Tom Colitt