TheSamba.com :: View topic - 50 Years Ago It was available in ........

Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:40 pm

ANTELOPE BROWN

GAZELLE BEIGE

LIZARD GREEN

PELICAN RED

TOUCAN BLACK

TROUT BLUE

Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:46 pm

Dang, lowlights look good in any color!

I especially like trout blue.^^^

Wed Jul 06, 2005 3:10 pm

Is that a bad picture of the Gazzelle Biege? My 56 is originaly that color, but maybe I'll go with the Trout Blue.

Wed Jul 06, 2005 3:43 pm

Canbug, I am sorry but I don't understand your comment. How can it be a bad picture? The picture posted of the Gazelle Beige car is an original paint car. I cannot remember to whom it belongs, but I have many pictures of the car's interior. These show the original honey color leatherette and brown cord.

The photograph is one of the most accurate pictures I have posted, some of the other cars have been restored ( Lizard Green, Trout Blue, Antelope Brown) These are all not factory paint jobs. The Toucan Black and Gazelle Beige are factory and I don't know about the Pelican red car.

The Gazelle Beige photo clearly shows the red wheel discs, which are shown in the 1955 color chip and on the cover of the 1956 Sales literature

Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:53 pm

Ha. Check it out, my car. The interior is indeed original, and while the majority of the paint is as well, the front right is the worst spot on the car and has had some touch up work done, as you can see by the slightly darker paint. The other side is a lot better, check out a more recent shot, this time with firestones.

Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:59 pm

owokie wrote: Ha. Check it out, my car. The interior is indeed original, and while the majority of the paint is as well, the front right is the worst spot on the car and has had some touch up work done, as you can see by the slightly darker paint. The other side is a lot better, check out a more recent shot, this time with firestones.

Nice car owokie!! Welcome to posting to thesamba as well.

Thu Jul 07, 2005 5:56 am

Hi Owokie,

Thanks for backing me up!! Your car is one of the most original pictures that I posted.

Best Wishes.

Thu Jul 07, 2005 6:59 am

OK, I think I may have been dazelled by the FLASH and the deep colors of the other cars posted. When it come down to the paint I have always said that I would keep my car as ogiginal as possable. It will be painted Gazzele Biege...

Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:04 am

This is an awesome post. Any interest in doing something similar year-by-year for the archives?

Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:20 am

I'll second the motion for doing a yeay-by-year "color" chart.

:( Unfortunately, I can only see a few of the photos - most of them show up as text (HTML language?) describing the photo (or the link to the photo). Any suggestions as to how I can fix this (change some setting in browser or security program?) would be appreciated.

Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:24 am

From August 1956 the colors for coupes changed to the following,

Black remained as 1955, however six new colors took over

AREO SILVER

BAMBOO

BRILLANT RED

CARDINAL RED

COGNAC

DOLPHIN BLUE

I am not sure if this car is Dolphin Blue

These colors remained until July 1959, then this was the end of the Lowlight Ghia's. New colors started in August 1959 for the new shape Ghia.

The color charts never list a white Lowlight coupe, however I have seen many lowlights in white, also have seen lowlights in cream white with a toffee brown color top. Anyone have any idears??

Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:52 pm

top post, broadacus
nice to liven up this snoozy ghia forum
lizard green ROCKS

can you do a similar thing for the convertibles, 58/59?
fancy setting up a lowlight website similar to www.barndoor.dk ??! come on

that aero silver coupe will be coming out to play, Osnabruck july 05

Thu Jul 07, 2005 5:49 pm

Good post, Ian!

A couple of corrections from my research:
Quote: From August 1956 the colors for coupes changed to the following,

Black remained as 1955, however six new colors took over

Colors available for the Coupe from introduction (14 July 1955) to sometime in January 1956 were limited to Black and Gazelle Beige, although at the introduction in Georgsmarienhuette (and the IAA in Frankfurt a few weeks later), a Lizard Green car was also shown.

January 1956-September 16, 1957: Coupes were available in Black, Gazelle Beige, Trout Blue (all three solid body/roof combinations), Lizard Green (with Deep Green roof), Pelican Red (with Toucan Black roof), and Antelope Brown (with Deep Brown roof).

On September 16, 1957 the color palate changed again with Coupes being available in Toucan Black, Cardinal Red, Dolphin Blue (all solid color schemes), and the following two-tone schemes: Cognac (with Beige Grey roof), Bamboo Green (with Deep Green roof), Aero Silver (with Grey White roof), and Brilliant Red (with Toucan Black roof). One can see these colors, and those for the introductory (1958-1959) Cabriolets here: http://karmannghia.org/sales_lit/color_combinations/1958_colors.html. It should probably be mentioned that the Coupes offered in two-tone color schemes were not available monochromatically, e.g., with roof and body the same color. Whilst Karmann was indeed a coachbuilder, they were not in the habit of making bespoke Karmaenner via special order, as there was in the Lowlight era a long waiting list for these vehicles on every continent (OK, Australasian imports didn't start until 1960 or so)!

Also a few notes on Aero Silver: Aerosilber is a very hard color to reproduce...on RGB screen, 4-color press, and in paint chips! I have had the pleasure of riding many miles in Lutz Gaas' 1958 Aerosilver Coupe and can attest to the correctness of his example's paint (having peeked in many inaccessible places where the color would be undamaged by the sun). And Aero Silver is one of those color combos not available body and roof. The Grey White would be oversprayed on the roof after the body was dipped in a vat of Aero Silver, dried, and the A and C-pillars masked.

It also should be borne in mind that in the 1950's, European paint manufacturers were having a difficult time producing metallic paints consistently. Some manufacturers actually used real fish scales (!!!) in their paint formulae as the metallic medium! Consequently, it's reasonable to presume that not all Aero Silver looks the same, across the board.

Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:25 pm

RockStock wrote: top post, broadacus
nice to liven up this snoozy ghia forum
lizard green ROCKS

can you do a similar thing for the convertibles, 58/59?
fancy setting up a lowlight website similar to www.barndoor.dk ??! come on

that aero silver coupe will be coming out to play, Osnabruck july 05

Sorry for my English, but what means "lowlight website" ??

-Tonny
barndoor.dk

Fri Jul 08, 2005 5:15 am

hi tonny

i mean setting up a web page purely for registering pictures of pre-1960 ghias (nicknamed lowlights), with just the chassis number listed, no owners names, no forum.

you know pre 1960 ghias are nicknamed lowlights because after 1959 the headlights were raised up the wing to accommodate changes in US law?

i just think there is a gap to set up a nice web page, following a similar format to your own, for these pre 1960 ghias. hope this doesn't infringe.

best regards
RS

Fri Jul 08, 2005 10:19 am

Thanks :D

Fri Jul 08, 2005 12:44 pm

Dave,
What do you mean that Aerosilver was the only color not available in body color and roof color? I was told by Richard Troy a while back that the white top was actually an option... I painted mine all Aerosilver because mine only had the whitewall option, but if the white top was not an option I might have to be having some paint applied to the roof... Thanks!

Kyle Kimball

Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:54 pm

Hi Kyle, Dave and everyone else tuning into this post.

Would like to thank Dave for the information above, and would agree, the only true Areo Silver cars came from the factory with a grey / white roof. This is shown on the Karmann Ghia literature of the day( see my posting) This is why I always believed Kyle car to be Trout Blue.

Kyle, the car looks great and I would not go to the length of re sraying the roof, but you can always count on Dave ( retrowagen ) to set the records straight.

Like others, I just love the colors of the early lowlight ( where are you Tan, are you on holiday? I need you to stick up for Toucan Black)

Why did they drop the animal names?

Lizard green has always been one of my favorite colors, with the deep green roof.

Thanks for the information Dave, this may explain why Lizard Green and Pelican Red never seem to be mentioned in Karmann Ghia books that state the color codes for the early Lowlight cars.

Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:42 am

Hi Retrowagen (Dave),

I have just come across an article that was printed a long time ago in "Voksworld" magazine. It states the first Karmann Ghia coupe was built on 11th August 1955 with the chassis number 906 481. Also states the chassis was built in June 1955. The car pictured is from Czechoslovakia and has the chassis number 961 803, it states it was built in September 1955, also says it is owned by Jiri Hanak.
Jiri has totally stripped the car and the car was original painted red!! :?

Looking at a list I have of the Lowlight register, Jiri Hanak's car is number 3 on the list. There are 23 cars on the list built between 11th August 1955 and Dec 1955, should all these cars be Black or Gazelle Beige?

Mon Jul 11, 2005 10:45 pm

Ian,

I haven't seen that Volksworld article. I concur on the date and chassis number of the first Coupe build date (series production, of course) being 11 August 1955 at chassis 906 481. Noteworthy that this was almost one month after the Press introduction in Georgsmarienhuette (14 July 1955)!

Also quite true that the chassis was built over one month prior to the completion of the car. The chassis numbers were excerpted in series with the Beetle chassis, but shipping of the finished chassis from the Wolfsburg presses to the Osnabrueck Karosserie (and their warehousing until use) virtually always added at least one month to the build time, relative to a Beetle with a chassis number very near the Karmann Ghia's. And it must also be said that we have no hard evidence that Karmann assembled cars in perfect chassis number sequence!

As for the seeming pecularity of this particular early Karmann Ghia's color, I can only offer some educated guesses at why it might be outside of what the factory literature and records generally suggest for what was available for the early production. First: in the first calendar year of production (meaning, 11 August 1955 - 31 December 1955), Karmann tells us that they built 1,282 Karmann-Ghias. That's roughly 15 a day (6 day working week back then). The Coupe in question was built on 27 September 1955, but production got off to an exceptionally slow start in the first few months (body #280 leaving the factory on 8 October 1955, for a point of reference). At this retarded pace, it is concievable--yet unverifyable by me--that some experiments may have been occurring vis-a-vis the exterior color, a sort of "hey, how does this look?" that one might expect from a (then) limited series builder near the beginning of a model run of (then) unknown promise.

It could also be possible--and again, unverifyable by me--that the first owner of this particular example was a person of such prominence that (s)he not only made it near first in line to get a highly sought-after car, but exerted enough influence at Karmann to receive a special color. At this point in Karmann's history, they might have had the time to do a few of these as special "placements" with well known politicians and celebrities.