Richie wish you would not jump to the conclusion that I was referring directly about your car - sorry you took my comment that way. Was not meant to be
Guess that since you report that your car's deck lid was drill crooked from the factory that you have removed your letters for some reason from the car and measured the holes and its not the letters ( which would go along with the current discussion)
I would offer that you can find letters that are not perfectly laser straight and you can find crooked. Having seen both of the cars Bob referred to up close that neither of those cars IMHO are crooked. I don't think anyone would look at those cars and immediately notice that they were off though you might be able to put level on them and find them off a bit.
Sort of like (if you have kids) my kids often didn't get perfect grades but rarely did they have terrible ones.
As for excuses - believe you have judged enough were owners of restored cars often throw out the idea that "these cars were never perfect in any detail" - "workers just threw things on.." or other reasons to explain ill fitting parts or less than full effort - just saying that was the context of my message. Again your car was not the focus of discussion.
Back to the discussion of ill fitting reproduction letters, causes and solutions