Well if you were comparing an original to say a Gene Gregory or Jack McGaughey steel replicas, the nicely finished, well put together, ones would be the repros,....an original is rather "crude", generally they are very sloppy were the rubber bump strip covers the top skin roll over, and the center section, and corners are joined, the seam work is also rather hap hazzard around the top skin roll over,.....Gregorys noses are die struck, Jack McG's are hand formed/english wheeled/ hand corked very much like how the originals were formed on Kirksite forms, Jack has a "modern" version "ureathane compound" form, to "form" his repro pcs on

Gregorys/McGaugheys cones are works of art compared to originals/NOS,.......if you think your looking at an NOS, be wary,......as NOS in wingcar parts often leaves a lot to be desired, because a lot of the parts were hand formed, or farmed out to vendors in non automotive businesses to defray the parts cost to build these cars, the parts often deligated to NOS stature were rejects,.....I've seen a lot of NOS wingcar parts over the years that were basically useless, or need a little to major work to be usable,.....nosecones included