Re: Cosmoline

[jdouglas@mitre.org (jason douglas)]

>
>>Uhhh, don't mean to sound stoo-pid here, but just what the hell is 
>>"cosmoline" anyway?
>
>Cosmoline is the waxy green coating that is sprayed onto the engines and
the whole damn engine
                                               ^^^^^  ??
 compartment at the factory.

It's also (or used to be) sprayed all over the outside of the car too.  In
'85 my future wife worked at the
US Consulate in West Berlin.  She ordered a US spec Jetta GLI from a local
dealer.  VW took absolutely forever to deliver the car, and she was back in
the states by the time it left the factory.  The car was shipped to
Baltimore, where I picked it up.  It was entirely covered with what I was
told was cosmoline - the stuff looked like a quarter inch layer of vaseline,
but it was hard. I went to an auto paint supply house, and they sold me a
gallon of a rather noxious solvent called "nox-tar" that pretty much
disolved it. 

The other fly in the ointment was that the car arrived with a smashed dash
and no radio!  The damage was easy to fix, but it took at least 6 months for
VW (or their insurance co., I don't remember) to pay up.
------------------------------------------------------
Jason Douglas
MTS Dept G057                        
MITRE Corporation