TheSamba.com :: View topic - paint code gripe (was:rim center L87 or L277?)

Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:50 am

So the question is looking at a couple of sources - WolfsburgWest, 49-59 beetle by Wilson & Car of the Century by Garwood there seems to be a descrepancy as to whether a two-tone rim on a Prairie Beige 56 Beetle should be pearl white (L87) or Silver beige (L227) looking on thesamba under the codes, the one representative prairie beige beetle appears to be sporting the silver beige. There appears to be a distinct/noticeable difference between the 2 colors. Anyone want to chime in to settle this (or muddy further). Just looking to finally put proper rims on my oval and pondering what I should do for the centers - definitely going two tone rather than the single dark beige (L77). TIA.

Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:02 am

L378 wrote: So the question is looking at a couple of sources - WolfsburgWest, 49-59 beetle by Wilson & Car of the Century by Garwood there seems to be a descrepancy as to whether a two-tone rim on a Prairie Beige 56 Beetle should be pearl white (L87) or Silver beige (L227) looking on thesamba under the codes, the one representative prairie beige beetle appears to be sporting the silver beige. There appears to be a distinct/noticeable difference between the 2 colors. Anyone want to chime in to settle this (or muddy further). Just looking to finally put proper rims on my oval and pondering what I should do for the centers - definitely going two tone rather than the single dark beige (L77). TIA.

My vote goes to Pearl White.

BTW, L227 is Strato Silver NOT Silver Beige. Silver Beige is L466

Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:38 am

Oops, my bad, looking it over I should have written L277 (not 227) at least in Wilson's book (at WW I think?). But then again, looking at Wilson's book there is a typo for the rim on the info for L370 Nile Beige the hub color is listed as L227 silver beige (while for L351, L378, L412 its listed as L277) so much for the confidence factor! & L466? I see nothing on that! Yikes! So much for clarity.

Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:26 pm

The Bob Wilson book is a great picture book. Unfortunetly, lots of the information listed is incorrect. But the pictures are great

Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:21 pm

I would stick with what the factory literature says for 1956:
Wheels: L277 Silver Beige
Wheel rims: L77 Dark Beige.

Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:42 am

Not to indicate my total cluelessness, :oops: :oops: but what is "factory literature" & where would I locate that?

Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:08 am

lots of VW literature here...
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/type1.php

Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:05 pm

L378 wrote: Not to indicate my total cluelessness, :oops: :oops: but what is "factory literature" & where would I locate that?
In my library :lol:

Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:44 pm

Whoa,

Thank you very much! Rims go in for a spray tomorrow!

Sat May 03, 2008 6:22 am

So after all of the above, I drop off my rims to a VW friend who works in a body shop. Telling him to paint L277 and L77. Get a call the next day, that he can't find the formulas for either. So we do some checking and in fact find L77. Later he calls me again, saying he doesnt think I really want to use L77. So I drive to his shop and sure enough the L77 - dark beige isn't very dark, in fact one of the lightest beiges I've seen with just a hint of gray/blue to it. Nice color, but not what I was expecting. On top of which still can't find L277. Looking over things, I see a samba post noting that L466 also silver beige available as a rattle can through Wolfsburg West was deemed pretty dark, decided that the contrast between L87 and L77 wouldn't be visually pleasing, the contrast between L466 (as a sub for L277) and L77 might have a reverse appearance (dark to light). I thought about using L77 inner with L378 outer - which could look nice, but just went with L87 inner and L378. At some point I'm going to pick up the can from Wolfsburg & see what a L466/L77 combo will look like. Just find the search for these formulas to be more than a little challenging as you don't really know what to expect. Can it be found? What will it look like? Will the formula even be correct? In fact the supplier gave the shop the formula for L227 (strato) rather than L277 initially (same mistake I made above!). Rims do look nice. Now to take the rims & tires to the local truck tire place to be mounted & balanced.