Yea, from the response, I get the impression that the person at the receiving end of my e-mail just broke down the model number in order to establish whether or not company policy required them to do any work.

I agree with what you said about it probably is one of their regular models with a slight customer requested tweak. And you know they've got the manuals squirreled away somewhere! Due to it being "made before 1972", it may not be digitized, but they've got a copy somewhere.

According to Wikipedia, Asbestos reached peak production in the U.S. in '73. I think I owe them a reply e-mail... That is not a material I want to have to worry about!