Nick,
I have not yet met you or had a chance to discuss or show you our Broncos in detail and will try not to take offense to your unsolicited critique in a public forum. I would have been glad to address each of your points in an email or PM.%)
However, I will still address your questions and give you a bit more info on this Bronco since you seem so interested in it:
This Bronco was purchased with less than 10K original miles from the second owner who lived in Montana. He purchased it from a Ford dealer which owned it since new until they went out of business in the mid 80's. This was not a rotted out Bronco pieced together with every reproduction or NOS piece we could find. There was not a single piece of sheetmetal replaced in it (including inner fender aprons).
We did not have countless hours tracking down parts because 98% of them were there when we got it and as we showed it for a few years prior to the body-off.
Last year the son of the owner of the dealership tracked us down though Tim's website and sent us a vintage picture of it with the plow. He told us he learned to drive in this Bronco.
The Bronco is currently stored at a friends shop so I can not go out to look at each item so this will be from memory:
1) As Scoop pointed out, the 40th hood is a spare I had in my parts pile that we did just for the 40th event. We did not want to apply the graphics to the original which was repainted during the restoration and lives in a crate in the rafters of my shop. We did not intend to leave the 40th hood on and never initially intended to get all the signatures of the Baja legends and Edsel Ford II and Henry Ford III on it. The Baja legend signatures was a last minute thought on the drive out to the 40th events in Victorville ,CA. Since it is now so unique, we decided to keep it on there and have run it through all the AACA judging with it and even had a few points deducted for it by one judge, but not enough to hurt us in getting its Grand National award.
2)I thought the tailgate was an early one as I recall with the different body line than later years but I'd have to verify it. It is the one that came with the Bronco to us.
3)This mirror was also installed when we got it, so we left it as is.
4)The original clamps that came on it were tower style (and a few modern worm drive that were replaced at some point) and we bought reproduction tower style based on that. Page 6 of the 68 sales brochure appears to show some tower style clamps (66 1st or 2nd printing does not have detailed illustrations or photos and the angle of the images in the 67 brochure do not show them).
5)This Bronco had a windshield wiper delete option as I have seen on a couple others. No holes in the original hood for nozzles or in the inner fender for the bag bracket. You can chock that up as one of your occasional bits of knowledge since I guess you were unaware of this option? It also has the optional RH roadster mirror option and is marked "RH MIR" on the original buck tag that is still wired to the firewall.
6)45 year old original webbing will tend to have a little fade to it, but I have not had too much better than these that I can recall from any of the 40-50 Broncos we have had, especially early ones.
7)Yep, 45 year old rubber is like that. My Dad has had an order in with Tim for one of his repros as I recall.
8)Again, yes, old rubber is hard to keep from showing age. We found an NOS one, but for the $450 he wanted on what could easily end up being a piece of rubber that will split and crack due to age, we passed. If it were a hard part it would be worth it to us, but not on soft goods like that. For that coin, I'd rather invest in having them reproduced myself. I started looking into that, but it is only one of many irons in the fire for me and not a real priority at this point since we already have already received the highest award level AACA has to offer.
Yes, the list is longer, but I'm not telling you :-X You will have to find them on your own.;D
We have never claimed it to be perfect the magazine did. I know there are a few items that may not be correct or some flaws in the paint / body, etc. However, it is ours and we are 100% happy with it and it has allowed us to go to some great places and meet people and do things we could have never done otherwise.
BTW, for the record, the 77 Ranger is not "perfect" either. Damn nice if I do say so myself, but certainly not perfect by any means. Same with the Stroppe ambulance Ballon Chaser. Not even close to being perfect, but our most prized addition yet.
I can guarantee you that I can find imperfections and flaws in just about restoration (especially Broncos). A couple of the other notable ones out there have some much more significant flaws than what you have pointed out, but I would never post that in a public forum (and would not likely even mention them to the owners unless asked or discussing the detail level of such things).
Good luck with your project. I am very much looking forward to seeing it....VERY CLOSELY. ;D
We will likely have the U13, Ranger and Ambulance down at my place next month for the MEB Wrench & Roast. If you would like to attend to help wrench you are more than welcome to to bring your flashlight and magnifying glass. %)
i will apologize again for bringing up a specific bronco. 
