Ah!!! My bad. I misunderstood what was happening. This is something I find interesting with the CS_F/A-18 panel.cfg! Take a look:

[Window00]
Background_color=0,0,0
no_luminous=1
size_mm=1024, 170
position=7
visible=0
window_size=1.000, 0.170
ident=10901
zorder=2
gauge01=CSWeapon_panel!CSWeapon_panel, 0, 0, 1024, 170

It is NOT gauge00=CSWeapon_panel!CSWeapon_panel, 0, 0, 1024, 170, but
gauge01=CSWeapon_panel!CSWeapon_panel, 0, 0, 1024, 170.

That and it being [Window07], are the ONLY differences between the CS_F/A-18 panel.cfg and your panel.cfg.
I never noticed that until just now. So try changing it to gauge01 to see if that helps.

If it isn't that, the only other thing I can think of, is that you have TWO (2) [Window07]'s in you panel.cfg.