Jack Cook wrote:
You mean the dataplate???
Jack Cook wrote:
I'd put my data plate up against anyones!!!!

Great, I hope you get a lot of pleasure from looking at your stamped 3"x5" piece of aluminum. Probably looks great on your shelf.
But Is yours attached to an airworthy Mustang?
Does yours represent the type and teach people about history, aviation and technology?
Does it appear at air shows and give students a 3-D history lesson?
More importantly, honor the people who built, serviced and flew the aircraft 80 years ago?
You see, there is more to an airplane than the age of metal.
Yes, it would be great if this aircraft (and many...or most... Pother WWII fightets) it still had the pilot's fingerprints on the cockpit and the metal riveted by a woman while she waited for her husband to return from the service.
But, there aren't many aircraft like that.
We have a choice, make arbitrary rules about what constitutes a warbird.
Fine for purists, but that means that there will be a lot fewer artifacts for people to enjoy and learn from.
You know, when the Mustang flies and the sound of the Merlin reverberates across the field, I don't think I have ever heard anyone complain and say...
"But it's not real!"