[speeder]

The air cooled cars came w the same cosmoline sprayed all over the bottoms. Some dealers, (or customers), removed it promptly when the cars were new but if it wasn't, it got baked on quickly. Same w Mercedes-Benz, BMW and probably every other car that had to ride on a ship to get here. The dealer where I worked back on the '80s had a 55 gallon drum of special cosmoline remover soap and power washed all the bottoms off when they came off the truck.

Many dealers did not, particularly in parts of the country where things rust. It could protect aluminum from salt but man, it's ugly when baked on for years and not so easy to remove later.