At 03:17 AM 5/9/2010, Andrew Grebneff wrote:
>to semigloss crap... and then bought-out again and the primer disappeared
>entirely.

In the USA any kind of lead-based paint was forbidden in the
'70s.  Maybe that's what happened to yours.  Incidentally, leaded gas
was forbidden some few years later.  A decade or so later children's
blood lead levels had declined by nine parts in ten to about average
just about 50 ug per liter, which is the level now considered just
above the threshold of danger.  Which means that I and all the kids
around me grew up with lead levels at minimum ten times the danger
level.  No wonder I can't think so good!

Which reminds me that in '85 I hired an '85 Corolla in Wellington --
came with a rag to wipe off the dew -- this was the same week that
the Rainbow Warrior met the SDECE in Auckland and lost.  It had a
manual choke!  I opened the bonnet and could barely find the engine
because it was totally bereft of emission-control devices (at that
time in US the Corolla was one of the last-gasp carburetted autos and
the array of vacuum hoses, bizarre carburettor linkages, thermally
controlled vacuum switches and the like was awesome to behold.  And
it had a warm-up stumble that they never completely cured even by
re-jetting the carb).

Yours,
David
ps -- I thoroughly enjoyed Wellington and Auckland and surrounding
areas.  Any time you'd care to send me a ticket to come visit I'll
take it up in a flash.  Place felt like home in a way that OZ
distinctly didn't.