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Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:24 pm

I've very recently acquired a very nice unrestored 56 Horizon Blue big and it has these unrestored wheels on it, just thought I’d add them to this thread.

Wed Jan 08, 2020 6:51 am

All information I have is:

body coloured outer rims are only on cars built from March 1955 to March 1956. From April 1956, the colour of the outer rims have been other colours than the body on nearly all cars (out of two, see below). Horizon blue cars had L33 grey blue. That was to read in the original VW factory documents I had to work with (including change-history, f.e. when they actually used another colour than it was originally planned). For the original colours of the rims from March 1955 to July 1957 I privately wrote it down for my use.

So I have:

From March 1955 to March 1956, up from chassis 1 - 823 605 to 1 173 572

body L 41 black, rim center L 81 parchm. white
body L 370 nile beige, rim center L 277 silver beige
body L 277 stratos silver, rim center L 82 silver white
body L 324 polar silver, rim center L 87 perlon white
body L 313 reed green, rim center L 87 perlon white
body L 315 djungle (iceland) green, rim center L 83 white green

From April 1956 to July 1957, up from chassis 1 173 573 to 1 600 439

body L 41 black, rim L 41 black, center L 81 parchm. white
body L 324 polar silver, rim L 328 steel grey, center L 87 perlon white
body L 331 horizon blue, rim L 33 grey blue, center L 82 silver white
body L 351 coral red, rim L 74 red brown, center L 277 silver beige
body L 412 diamont green L 412, rim L 242 blue green, center L 277 silver beige
body L 378 prairie beige, rim L 77 dark beige, center L 277 silver beige
body L 240 agave, rim L 240 agave, center L 87 perlon white

Interesting that rim center colour L 87 perlon white turned to body colour L 87 pearl white in August 1960.

Thu Jun 03, 2021 4:48 pm

karmann77 wrote: I've very recently acquired a very nice unrestored 56 Horizon Blue big and it has these unrestored wheels on it, just thought I’d add them to this thread.

Beautiful and matches the card too!!

It would be great if you could have that wheel scanned and a formula made as L30 is used for a few different years on wheels and to date no code has surfaced.

Sun Oct 16, 2022 6:25 am

This paint color has now been color matched by temple paints. I had a stock wheel that I had matched. My wheels were too far gone to save so I opted to paint them.

The wheel above claiming to be an original wheel is suspect. I have never seen OG paint crack like that.

Tue Dec 27, 2022 7:25 pm

Couldn't get L31 at my local glasurit dealer for my outer rims so ended up using horizon blue, the body color of my 9/56 oval. Just putting this here as an update on what's out there. L31 wasn't in their system.

Oddly enough, L29 (gas tank color) was and I got a pint and shot the tank.

Sat Dec 31, 2022 2:22 pm

Just one more for now. Will share photos when car is complete.

Thu Oct 09, 2025 8:00 pm

Blauchen L331 wrote: I'm not here to argue, I know IN2VWS has an amazing collection of literature and it does say in black and white April 1956 to July 57 outer rim L33 (sorry I made a color start mistake sometime in 1955, I'm sorry about that, none of us has a perfect memory)

Yet, after living in Germany for over 12 years seeing countless UNRESTORED cars since the early 1980's, the 1956 cars keep turning up with body painted outer wheel rims? Yet you don't see that on 1957 cars.

Can it be that hundreds if not thousands of remaining 1956 L331 cars all have the wrong painted wheels?

I know my wheels are all original, they are that Greyish Blue L33 color, but I have a spare tire that's Body color, (not the original spare) but it has to come from somewhere?

I just can't imagine that so many 1956 wheels are the wrong color?

I don't have the date code on my spare, I'll try to get that shortly.

Tom

Hoping for your opinion. I’m picking up my Horizon 56 next week. Pan to paint the wheels, and THINK this is correct colors— body L 331 horizon blue, rim L 33 grey blue, center L 82 silver white. Wdyt?