Clay, that's cool that your decals were in the trunk. I suppose you still have them? I found some paper peel away backs to pin striping that were under the trunk mat. The installer may have tossed the paper backs in the trunk vs. dropping on the assembly line floor.
My brackets all caught some rust, and pitted. It's strange, because there is no rust anywhere else, except on these brackets. They cleaned up ok, except for the pitting.
On the auction pace car, the reason I trust the original paint and pinstripes is since the car was 'auto armored', that's a clear coat that coats everything, including the stripes and decals. If any were replaced, today it would be impossible to replicate that Ming or auto armor coating over the pin stripes. I know that because my car has the same coating. It has protected the paint and stripes well, but I wouldn't know how to repair any part of the paint or stripes should I need to. The door decals look good as well, as they are in the door jam, protected from the elements, and again, without repaints, protected from a painters bad tape masking job. Mine is similar, but without the wax cake in the rivits
Good catch on the weatherstrip and floor mats. My mats are yellowed with the oils leaching from them all these years. After looking at the Photo-Bucket pics, it looks like the engine was touched up with Pontiac Blue Metallic, and the carb shield is missing from the pass. front corner of the carb.